The 2013 Western Magazine Awards (WMA) submissions process closes on Friday, March 1, and nominations for the Lifetime Achievement Award must be received before March 15. The awards ceremony is slated for June 21 at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside.

This year, Written Award categories are open to both print and online. However, only print magazines are eligible for Visual Awards, Gold Awards, and Magazine of the Year.

Also, the criteria for Gold Awards have been simplified. To qualify for a Gold in a particular province, only the location of a magazine's head office matters; writers and topics are no longer required to be province-specific.

In other changes, the Best Student Writing Award has been replaced with the Best New Writer Award. It is open to both students and non-students with less than two years of experience writing for Canadian magazines. Submitted articles must have been published in Western Canadian publications, and university or college mags qualify.

Visit the WMA website for more information, including a full rundown of the awards categories.