Press release from Garden & Gun:
CHARLESTON, SC (May 17, 2018) – Garden & Gun announced today the kickoff of its ninth annual Made in the South Awards with the official call for product entries in six categories: Food, Drink, Home, Style, Crafts, and Outdoors. The overall winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize and, along with all category winners and runners-up, will be prominently featured in the magazine’s December 2018/January 2019 issue.
Garden & Gun created the Made in the South Awards in 2010 to celebrate and encourage Southern craftsmanship, and to recognize the best available Southern-made products.
“Each year I am impressed by the remarkable talent and creativity of the artisans, craftsmen, chefs, designers, and tastemakers from across the South who enter our annual Made in the South Awards,” says David DiBenedetto, senior vice president and editor in chief of Garden & Gun. “As we begin the awards’ ninth call for entries, we are truly excited to discover new and promising talent this year. “
While the prize money is important to help small businesses grow, many past winners appreciate the exposure even more. “Winning Garden & Gun’s Made in the South Award has been the most valuable recognition and PR that our company has received to date,” says Leigh Spencer, cofounder of Birmingham-based Alabama Sawyer, which won the 2017 Made in the South Awards grand prize for its planked tables. “The prize money was fantastic, much appreciated, and well used, but the credibility and the sales leads were even better. There was also the unexpected outreach of other winners, past and concurrent, who continue to grow our maker and business network. Maybe that friendliness is just a Southern thing.”
The 2018 Made in the South Awards judges are:
- Asha Gomez (Atlanta, GA), restaurateur, award-winning chef, author of best-selling cookbook My Two Souths, and founder of lifestyle brand DYAD Tea & Spice (Food)
- Miles Macquarrie (Decatur, GA), beverage director and co-owner of Kimball House (Drink)
- Bobby McAlpine (Montgomery, AL), tastemaker, architect, furniture designer, and founder of architect and interior design firm McALPINE; McAlpine is also author or co-author of three best-selling books, The Home Within Us, Art of the House, and Poetry of Place (Home)
- Stacy Smallwood (Charleston, SC), tastemaker and owner of Hampden—a high-end women’s designer clothing and accessories boutique located in downtown Charleston (Style)
- Anna Bond (Winter Park, FL), illustrator and co-owner of Rifle Paper Co.—an international stationery and gift brand (Crafts)
- T. Edward Nickens (Raleigh, NC), award-winning author, journalist, on-camera host, scriptwriter, and outdoorsman (Outdoors)
All Southern artisans or businesses with a product in one of the six categories (Food, Drink, Home, Style, Crafts, and Outdoors) that will be available for sale through January 2019 may apply. For entry forms, category descriptions, and rules, visit madeinthesouthawards.com. The entry fee for submissions is $75, and entries will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. ET on July 2, 2018. Winners will be publicly announced in the December 2018/January 2019 issue of Garden & Gun, which will hit newsstands in November 2018.
To follow the Made in the South Awards conversation and judging process, use #madeinthesouthawards on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or visit us at gardenandgun.com.
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