The College Media Association on Oct. 31 ranked AACC’s Amaranth Literary Magazine No. 1 in the country among community colleges.

The annual magazine also placed second in the Eastern Division of the Community College Humanities Association Awards for best literary publication from a large college.

Three Amaranth contributors placed in individual categories in the CCHA competition. Their awards were for short stories, artwork and scripts.

“We’ve been applying for a few years and this is the first time we’ve come home with it,” Dr. Garrett Brown, co-adviser for Amaranth, said of their CMA Pinnacle Award.

The CMA Pinnacle Awards recognize excellence in content, design, art, writing and editing. The CCHA awards for literary magazines rewards aesthetics, correct editing, and strength of student work and ease of navigation.

Amaranth Editor-in-Chief Jonas “Tintenseher” Pallaro-Sonneborn won a second-place CCHA award for his short story “Circe’s Cirque.” Managing Editor Emily Parks was one of three winners in the scripts category for her drama “Looking Glass.”

Student Mikayla Hennessey placed third in the artworks category for her painting “Sunset Mindset.”

“I was very surprised,” Pallaro-Sonneborn said of this prize. “I submitted it because I want to be a writer as my life career.”

Amaranth co-adviser Dr. Susan Cohen, an award-winning writer, has been with the Amaranth literary publication for 20 years.

“We stopped submitting for a number of years because it was just too expensive for us, and the college at the time wasn’t funding that, but I think we just had so much faith in this journal that we did it,” Cohen said. “I want to say it’s all the students. We have this excellent staff, good leadership, a great designer; everyone on staff is really thoughtful on things they evaluate.”

The award-winning edition of the Amaranth Literary Magazine is the 41st volume of the magazine. The first Amaranth volume was published in 1975.