The nominees for the 2008 National Magazine Awards were announced last night. The Walrus once again leads the nomination field, with 37 nods. Toronto Life is next with 29 nominations, followed by Maclean's (18), Report on Business (16), L'actualité (15) and explore (14). The complete list of nominees is here.

Julia Belluz was named Best Student Writer for her article "I"—a profile of Globe and Mail writer Ian Brown— that appeared in the Ryerson Review of Journalism. (Honourable mentions went to Dan Yates and Meena Nallainathan.) Belluz's piece  was also nominated in the best profile category. Patrick White, meanwhile, won the Best New Writer Award, for an article entitled "Red Rush" that appeared in The Walrus. (It’s also nominated in the Science, Technology & the Environment category.)

L'actualité, Maisonneuve and Toronto Life are this year’s finalists for the Magazine of the Year award. (We've set up a poll where you can vote for who you think will win. It's here.)

Charles Oberdorf will also be honoured with an outstanding achievement award. Read our story on him here.

Here are the ceremony details:

Where: The Carlu, 444 Yonge Street, Toronto
When: June 6, 2008, 5:30pm
Attire: Cocktail
Tickets: On sale May 1, 2008 at magazine-awards.com -- Early bird ends May 15, 2008

For more on this year's nominations, The Shoestring blog has a good list of small magazines that got nominations, while D.B. Scott rounds-up some of the new faces and new magazines represented.