The Walrus walked away with six gold and four silver prizes at the National Magazine Awards.

Toronto Life was not far behind with four golds and two silvers.

The 31st annual National Magazine Awards, handed out at a gala in Toronto, on Friday night, recognize the best in Canadian magazine journalism.

The Walrus had 37 nominations going in. Walrus writers who won gold for the national magazine include:

  • Arts and Entertainment: Adam Gopnik, The Mindful Museum.
  • Fiction: Steven Heighton, The Dead Are More Visible.
  • Politics and Public Interest: Don Gillmor, Once Upon a Country.

The magazine also captured the top prize for illustration, Sam Weber for God's Slow Death, as well as portrait photography — Robyn Cumming for Miss Canadiana. Gillmor shared another prize, the editorial-package title for a Report on Business edition called The Future of Food.

Meanwhile, Toronto Life captured Magazine of the Year, beating out Montreal's Maisonneuve and L'actualité. Judges praised it for delivering "good reading, entertaining packages and strong visual elements."

Toronto Life gold winners included:

  • Best Short Feature: Gerald Hannon, The Alchemy of Pork Fat.
  • One of a Kind Writing: Peter C. Newman, A Great Fall.
  • Personal Journalism: Ellen Vanstone, Home Sweet Hell-Hole.
  • Society: Marci McDonald, Promised Land.

This marks McDonald's eighth gold award, while Hannon captured his fifth gold.

Report on Business Magazine and L'actualité both came in third in terms of medal hauls with three gold and a silver each.

Gold victors for L'actualité included: Valérie Borde in the business category for Comment l'Inde protège la planète and Pierre Fortin for his column Libèrez l'agriculture!;Urgence santé;Contre la consommation gloutonne.

Over at the Report on Business, winners included a team of four writers for Corporate Survival Guide (personal finance) and another set of reporters for War Gains (words & pictures).

Tadzio Richards topped the investigative reporting category for Burning Water in Maisonneuve and snatched a silver in the science, technology and environment division for the same article.

The winner in that category was Noémi Mercier in Quebec Science for Inde, poubelle de la planète techno.

Student writer gets a gold and silver

George Jonas nabbed the essay prize for Meditations on Israel for Queen's Quarterly while Cecily Ross wrangled the how-to award with What the Woods Taught Me for On Nature and Geoff Powter celebrated a gold for Death on the Wapta (Explore) in the sports and recreation section.

Scott Feschuk won the humour gold with Weekly Newsletter from Cell Block 8, published in Maclean's, as Ray Ford grabbed the top prize in lifestyle for Are you ready for the next big storm? (Cottage Life) and Andrew Westoll was honoured for his travel piece Somewhere up a Jungle River (Explore).

A three-person unit from Fashion magazine topped the fashion and beauty contest for Cable Girl as Martin Tessler triumphed in homes and gardens with West of Eden, published in Vancouver Magazine.

Julia Belluz won the best student writer award for her article I in the Ryerson Review of Journalism, which also garnered a silver in the profiles category — won by Ken MacQueen for The Trials of Saint Suzuki in Maclean's.

The winners were selected from 2,100 submissions from across the country.