美媒將評選年度最佳奧巴馬雜誌封面

In a sign Obama-mania is still going strong, the American Society of Magazine Editors' (ASME) has added a new category in its search for the year's top US magazine covers: the best one featuring Barack Obama.

The covers of US magazines which appeared between July 2008 -- when the US president was still an Illinois senator -- and June 2009 are eligible to enter the contest.

There are nine other categories ranging from the sexiest to the best news and business cover, ASME said Monday as it posted a call for entries.

A panel of judges drawn from the magazine publishing world will select six finalists in each category, and the short-listed covers will be posted on .

There, the general public will vote in each category. The eventual winners in each class will be eligible to vie for the title of cover of the year -- which means Obama will definitely be elected once, and could be elected twice.

If Obama wins the cover of the year title, he will find himself in the company of disgraced New York ex-governor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned last year after it was revealed he frequented call girls.

New York magazine won the overall title last year with its cover featuring a smiling Spitzer and the word "brain" in a red box with an arrow pointing to what ASME called "the area of Spitzer’s anatomy that seemed to have been thinking for him."

Obama won a category last year -- "best leisure interest" -- for the "summer issue" cover of New York magazine which he shared with his presidential rival, John McCain.

The montage cover shows the two then White House rivals in swimming trunks, lounging on deck chairs on the beach, giving each other a fist-jab.

美國期刊編輯學會（ASME）在年度最佳封面雜誌評選中增加了一項新分類：最佳巴拉克•奧巴馬雜誌封面，由此可見，“奧巴馬熱”依舊持續不減。

去年七月（當時現任美國總統還只是一位伊利諾斯州參議員）至今年六月間拍攝的所有美國雜誌封面都有資格參選。

ASME於本週一公開徵集參選作品，並表示除最佳奧巴馬封面外，另有九大封面評選分類，包括最性感封面、最佳新聞封面以及最佳經濟封面等。

雜誌出版界組成的評委會將挑選出每類參選封面的前六名，被遴選出的封面將登在網站上。

公衆將在該網站上對每類入圍封面進行投票，最終勝出的各類封面都將有資格參選年度最佳封面，這意味着奧巴馬無疑會有一次機會參選，也可能被重複推選。

如果奧巴馬所攝封面榮膺“年度最佳封面”，他將發現自己和聲名狼藉的前紐約州州長艾略特•斯皮策“爲伍”，斯皮策於去年被揭露經常召妓後引咎辭職。

《紐約雜誌》獲選去年最佳封面獎，在獲獎封面上，斯皮策燦爛地微笑着，有一個寫着“brain”字樣的紅方格，方格旁邊的一個箭頭指向斯皮策的下身，ASME稱之爲“替斯皮策思考的部位”。

奧巴馬去年與總統競選對手約翰•麥凱恩一同爲《紐約雜誌》夏季刊拍攝的封面獲得了“最佳閒情雅緻”獎。

這張封面照片是合成的，兩位前白宮競爭對手穿着泳褲在沙灘的摺疊躺椅上仰臥休息，並擊拳致意。

Vocabulary:

short-listed：to be put on a short list（數量已縮減的候選名單）

vie：to strive in competition or rivalry with another; contend for superiority（競爭）

montage：the technique of combining in a single composition pictorial elements from various sources（蒙太奇手法，使用不同因素混合或聯合而成）