JazzTimes magazine released the results of their 2011 Critics Poll yesterday, with OffBeat Consulting Editor John Swenson winning the Best Book award for New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans. The book focuses on the important roles musicians played in the city’s post-Katrina recovery.

JazzTimes‘ Critics Poll is decided by the magazine’s contributors, who rank their top five choices in the same categories of the magazine’s Readers’ Poll. Runners-up behind New Atlantis included Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice by Tad Hershorn, What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years by Ricky Riccardi, All the Things You Are: The Life of Tony Bennett by David Evanier, and Blue Notes in Black and White: Photography and Jazz by Benjamin Cawthra.

HBO’s Treme was voted Best Film/DVD/TV Series in the Critics’ Poll, and local runners-up in other categories included Terence Blanchard and Nicholas Payton for Trumpet and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for Festival.

Swenson is hosting a panel at South by Southwest titled “New Atlantis: New Orleans Music Rebuilds” Saturday, March 17 at the Austin Convention Center. He’ll be joined by The Times-Picayune‘s Alison Fensterstock, Dash Rip Rock’s Bill Davis, Davis Rogan, Don B., and Mark Bingham.