The results are in! Take a look at the Readers' Choice winners for favorite cover, photo essay, story, recipe, and video of 2011.
With nearly 4000 votes cast for readers’ favorites from 2011, the results are in! Thanks to all who voted. Each of these winners garnered the most votes in its respective category. Enjoy this compilation of the Best of 2011. We look forward to bringing you more of the most interesting people, places, and stories in North Carolina in 2012.
Tell us what you think about the Best of 2011 in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
2011 Cover of the Year
Our August issue was devoted to “Our Southern Summer” and it doesn’t get much more Southern than lightening bugs in a jar. With stories about Spanish moss, trains, tomato sandwiches, hammocks, and moonshine, the issue – and the cover image chosen to represent it – paid homage to the things we love most about the South in the summertime.
Photo Essay
March: Historic Cemeteries of Eastern North Carolina
More than books, more than oral history, cemeteries provide an actual place for the past. In the Coastal Plain of North Carolina, grave markers symbolize the lives of some of our earliest settlers. And the designs and sizes of those markers can offer glimpses into a person’s religious beliefs, economic status, or family history. They are logs of time, and they are pieces of art. Four cemeteries in Tarboro, Beaufort, Bath, and Wilmington have arranged them all in plots of spacious land filled with plants and trees, giving the art a canvas and the stones a setting and past a place. Photography by Geoff Wood. Written by Michael Graff.
Story
Mountain Dancer by Leigh Ann Henion
When he was a boy growing up in Sugar Grove, Robert Dotson took up flatfooting. Now 88, he still lives in the same High Country community, and he’s the master of an art form that requires his feet stay close to the ground. Read the full story. Meet Robert Dotson and see him perform in this exclusive video.
Recipe
Vidalia Onion Casserole
For Edith Lee Casey, writing down her recipes unleashed a flood of memories, which became the heart of a family cookbook. This simple recipe for Vidalia Onion Casserole comes from Casey’s book, Memories of Food, People, & Places.
Video
Tellin’ Stories with Clyde Edgerton
With the release of his 10th novel, Night Train, Wilmington writer Clyde Edgerton shows us that everything in life has rhythm. Enjoy scenes from Edgerton’s performance and reading at Southeastern Community College in Whiteville, N.C. Read more about Edgerton and his new novel here.
I could not agree more with all of the winners. It was so hard to choose from the Our State categories as they are all excellent.
The “winners” got the most votes, but, in my humble opinion, all were winners. I look forward to each new issue of Our State because I always learn something new about our great state. Thanks for all your hard work in producing a truly first class magazine.
I used to have a long time subscription to “Our State”, but it got to the point that the magazine was made up of more advertisements than actual articles, photos, and information, that I let the subscription lapse.
I missed the great recipes you had, the many photo essays that covered several pages, the informative articles, and the “down home” feel of the magazine. Of course, I started getting “Our State” when it was about the size of a comic book, and had no colour photos, so that was a “few years” back.
Thanks for some good memories.
I agree with the others – Our State consistently provides excellent content and beautiful photographs. I couldn’t choose a favorite cover because so many were stunning. Keep up the great work!
Congratulations to all the winners. I love the Our State magazine . Look forward to the next issue every month. A great job – well done – for our great state of North Carolina.
My birth place was a dairy farm about five miles south of Lexington. Leaving home after graduating from high school, my first stop was North Carolina State University. Two degrees later. it was off to Cornell University in upstate New York for the piled higher and deeper finish. My working career has largely kept away from N. C. with time being spent in Maryland and mostly in Georgia. Now retired and writing plus photography makes life very busy and interesting. Thanks to Our State magazine, my connections with N. C. stay tight. Keep it up.