Nominations are open now for the 2021 Best of Southwest Mississippi contest.

This recognition program, sponsored by Brookhaven Magazine and The Daily Leader, recognizes and honors the best the community has to offer — from car dealers to insurance agents, hamburgers to breakfast biscuits, plumbers to caterers.

“Each year, we invite you — our readers — to nominate the people and business readers believe deserve recognition, and then we celebrate and reward those winners,” said Stacy Graning, general manager for The Daily Leader and Brookhaven Magazine.

“The response has been overwhelming, and this year I’m excited to say we’ve listened to your feedback and expanded the opportunity for recognition of your business by moving to a digital platform and creating both a nomination round and a voting round.”

The 2021 Best of Southwest Mississippi contest is hosted at www.dailyleader.com.

Readers can log onto the site and enter your nominations for the “best” in hundreds of categories: professional services, health and wellness, pet services, weddings, food and drink, and shopping and entertainment. The nominations remain open through midnight May 31, and you can come back each of those 31 days to share your nominations.

The top nominees in each of the categories will advance to the voting round, which opens July 1, and at that point the public will have the opportunity to cast  votes for the best in each of the categories.

“We’ll also award a $100 gift certificate to one person who nominates a business or votes for a business in each round,” Graning said. “So please log in and tell us who you think deserves the ‘Best of Southwest Mississippi’ title.”