 Additionally, the magazine has won four UTNE Independent Press Awards from "Utne Reader", most recently in 2011 in the category "Best Writing".The magazine is named for an oration by Ralph Waldo Emerson given before the society in 1837.According to its website, "the magazine aspires to Emerson’s ideals of independent thinking, self-knowledge, and a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as to books, history, and science."