Randy Gener Wins Two Awards for Writing Excellence in North American Travel Media Competition

Randy Gener Wins Two Awards for Writing Excellence in North American Travel Media Competition

PASADENA, CA The North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) today announced that Randy Gener has won 2 awards of merit for writing excellence in the 2009 annual awards competition in both the leisure activity and personality/profile categories. This awards competition, now in its 18th year, honors travel journalists, publications and destination marketing organizations. Winners will be presented with their awards at the annual NATJA conference May 1114, 2010 at the Atlantis Hotel/Casino in Reno, Nevada.

"The North American Travel Journalists Association honors the best of the best in travel journalism," says Helen Hernandez, CEO of the membership organization. "This was a banner year for excellence. Given the creativity, writing and vision of the submissions, the judges had a difficult time selecting the winners from the more than 500 entries from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. We received so many creative and well-executed entries in all of the categories."

In the leisure activity category, Gener won an NATJA Award for "Why are the Dutch Invading Governors Island?," a travel essay about two interdisciplinary arts festivals from Holland (Terschelling Oerol Festival and de Parade) which produced the New Island Festival at Governors Island in September 2009. In the personality/profile category, Gener won a second NATJA Award for "Dreaming in Yoruba Land," about the African-American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney whose trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays premiered at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey and The Public Theater in New York. Both articles were published in the September 2009 issue of American Theatre magazine, published by Theatre Communications Group in New York City.

Randy Gener is the Nathan Awardwinning senior editor of American Theatre.

NATJA Awards recognize excellence in travel writing, photojournalism, multimedia platforms, advertising, marketing and public relations for the travel and tourism industry. NATJA is the second largest travel media association in North America. Members include travel media professionals, convention and visitors bureaus and other travel marketing agencies. Members are provided with professional development workshops, peer-to-peer evaluation, web tools and networking opportunities. NATJA also publishes Travelworld International Magazine.