Renaissance Publishing won a Gold Award at the awards ceremony of the International Regional Magazine Association held in Santa Fe, N.M., this past Sunday. Louisiana Life’s Melissa Bienvenu won the gold in the column category for her column, The Rural Life. Three examples of the column are required for each entry. The columns entered for Melissa were “Between Some Rock and a Hard Place,” “Green Tightwads on Green Acres” and “The Dog Who Held Up a Liquor Store.” This is the third award won by Louisiana Life for articles by Melissa. Her stories won a Silver Award in 2006 and a Bronze Award in 2008, both in the general feature category. Melissa’s column also won first place in the column category at this past year’s Press Club of New Orleans awards. We pride ourselves on our column writing in all of our publications and on the Web. Melissa has certainly set an example of what we are capable of doing. If you have not read her column, you should take a look. Read more examples here.