ah...

Santiago is frankly astonished to find santiago's dead wasp shortlisted for Best Writing on a Blog in the Manchester Blog Awards 2009. The nomination certainly didn't originate here.

The shortlists in all categories are here. I suspect this is as far as santiago's dead wasp goes. Other than My Shitty Twenties I hadn't encountered any of the other blogs santiago is up against previously.

The others in the Best Writing on a Blog category are: My Shitty Twenties, Dave Hartley's Weblog - although it looks like activity is going to be shifted to another site shortly, I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car, and Big City, Little Girl. It's a strong lineup and pretty diverse. From primarily short fiction through primarily poetry to humour, personal blogs and more generalist (that'd be me then). I really couldn't pick a winner but I wouldn't bet against either My Shitty Twenties or I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car.

In other categories again I'm not all that familiar with the blogs. But I would like to echo Richard Barrett's championing of The Shrieking Violet.

Go have a look at the shortlist and discover some interesting new blogs. Normal service will resume shortly.