The East Bay Express and the Monterey County Weekly won first place awards in their circulation categories from the American Association of Alternative Weeklies, which held its annual convention in Little Rock, Ark., over the weekend. The association has a two-step procedure for presenting awards. First, the nominees in each category are announced. Then, at the group’s annual convention, the order of finish in each category is revealed. The Bay Area winners are:

• Arts Feature — First Place (circulation 50,000+), David Downs of the East Bay Express for “Roboscalper,” about a computer that screws would-be concert-goers out of tickets.

• Format Buster — First Place (circulation under 50,000), Jessica Lyons of Monterey County Weekly, “It’s Our Water — The Heroic History of Measure W.”

• Food Writing — Third Place (under 50,000), Ella Lawrence of the North Bay Bohemian.

• Music criticism — Third Place (50,000+), Rob Harvilla of the East Bay Express for columns headlined “Down in Front: The Titmaster Tommy Lee,” “Race Against Rockism,” and “Powerpop for Now People.”

• Cover Design — Third Place (50,000+), Darrick Rainey of the SF Weekly for “San Francisco Dog Court,” “My Dinner with White Supremacists,” and “Rise of the Podcasting People.”

• Format Buster —Third Place (50,000+), Tommy Craggs of the SF Weekly for “Remembering Our Camelot.”

• Investigative Reporting — Third Place (50,000+), A.C. Thompson of the Bay Guardian for “The Fall Guy.”

• Editorial Layout — Honorable Mention (under 50,000), Monterey County Weekly, “Inside Eden”

• Feature story — Honorable Mention (50,000+), Will Harper of the East Bay Express for “A Man Named Sue,” a profile of a vexatious litigant.