LA Weekly led the awards among major circulation weekly newspapers again this year, grabbing four first-place honors from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies at its 14th annual AltWeekly Awards in Tucson.

The four winners were Art Director Darrick Rainey for his haunting design of a cover story about the death of a beautiful young runaway on the gritty streets of Hollywood, editor Laurie Ochoa and the LA Weekly staff for the LA People 2008 issue, food columnist Jonathan Gold for his body of work and freelancer Nancy Rommelmann for her cover story about a massive literary hoax.

Among other Village Voice Media newspapers, Phoenix New Times and The Village Voice also both won multiple first-place awards.

Here's the breakdown of our winning work:

First Place: Darrick Rainey, art director, in the Editorial Layout category for his design of the cover story "Raven: Death of a Hollywood Beauty," by Christine Pelisek.

First Place: Nancy Rommelmann, freelancer writer, in the Arts Feature category, for her in-depth report, "No Exit Plan: The Life and Death of JT Leroy."

First Place: Jonathan Gold, columnist, in the Food Writing category, for his works including "Breaking Free," "Keep on Trucking" and "A Proper Brasserie."

First Place: Editor Laurie Ochoa and LA Weekly's staff in the Special Section category, for the "LA People 2008" issue featuring the photographs of Kevin Scanlon.   

Third Place: Scott Foundas, film critic, in the Arts Criticism category, for his articles "Benjamin Button," "Diary of the Dead" and "The Visitor."

Honorable Mention: Ella Taylor, film critic, in the Arts Criticism category, for her pieces, "From Reverence to  Rape," "Waugh and Remembrance" and "Was Roman Polanski a Pedophile?"

Honorable Mention: Barry Isaacson, freelance writer, in the Feature Story category, for his article, "From Silver Lake to Suicide."

Honorable Mention: Dwayne Booth, cartoonist, in the Cartoon category, for "Mr. Fish."