From the Department of Self-Promotion: the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) today announced that Washington City Paper has been nominated as a finalist for eight AltWeekly Awards. Only the Boston Phoenix and LA Weekly garnered more nominations among large-circulation papers this year.

The nominees and categories include Darrow Montgomery for photography; Young & Hungry columnist Tim Carman for food writing; former Editor Erik Wemple for media reporting/criticism; former Loose Lips columnist Mike DeBonis for short-form news story; writer Jason Cherkis for his innovative format buster “How the District’s Children Die“; The Sexist columnist Amanda Hess for her daily blog; online producer Ted Scheinman, alongside Wemple and Montgomery, for the multimedia extravaganza “D.C.’s Biggest Party in Pictures“; not to mention the whole damn staff for this here City Desk blog.

The winners will be announced during AAN’s 33rd Annual Convention on July 16 in Toronto.