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Monthly Archives: March 2012

2012 Service to SFWA Award goes to Clarence Howard ‘Bud’ Webster

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America awarded Clarence Howard ‘Bud’ Webster the 2012 Service to SFWA Award for his outstanding work on behalf of the organization.

Bud has had a long history in the science fiction and fantasy community. He is a contributing editor and columnist for the SFWA Bulletin, the poetry editor of Black Gate Magazine, and well-known for the Bubba Pritchert series, published by Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. However, it is his work with the Estate Project that SFWA particularly wishes to acknowledge with this award.

The Estate Project is designed to track and distribute information pertaining to deceased members of the community. Bud has worked extensively with agents, executors and heirs to track this valuable information. Due to his patience and perseverance, this information is now available to the industry at large.

Bill Clemente’s ICFA 33 Blog

A link to Bill Clemente’s conference blog has been added to the ICFA 33 page of the website.

Clark Award Short List Announced

Greg Bear, Drew Magary, China Miéville, Jane Rogers, Charles Stross and Sheri S. Tepper are the six authors shortlisted for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award, the UK’s premier prize for science fiction literature.

The six shortlisted books are:

  • Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three (Gollancz)
  • Drew Magary, The End Specialist (Harper Voyager)
  • China Miéville, Embassytown (Macmillan)
  • Jane Rogers, The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)
  • Charles Stross, Rule 34 (Orbit)
  • Sheri S.Tepper, The Waters Rising (Gollancz)

This year’s six shortlisted titles were selected from a long list of 60 eligible submissions put forward by twenty-five different publishing houses and imprints.

The winner will be announced on Wednesday May 2nd at an award ceremony held in partnership SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival. More information is available at the award web site.

Weird Fiction Review celebrates 12 Days of Monsters

Thanks go out to Weird Fiction for doing a special monster theme coordinated with our ICFA theme of the monsterous with contributions from Dora Goss, China Mieville, Nancy Hightower, Johanna Sinisalo, Julio Cortazar, Amos Tutuola, Jeffrey Ford.

You can download a pdf of Jeff Vandermeer’s Monstrous Creatures collection free for this week only, to help celebrate their 12 Days of Monsters. If you like the collection, think about thanking Guide Dog Press by buying a copy! Also available, is the ebook version of our The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals in either epub or mobi formats. If you enjoy the download, consider buying the gorgeous little hardcover edition and/or making a donation to Weirdfictionreview.com (via the Donate button on the main page).

Awesome guests!

China Miéville           Jeffrey J Cohen

I hope everyone at the conference has had a chance to catch up with our fabulous guests of honor! Two luncheons down and our two guest speakers rival each other for humor and excellence… and let’s face it, brilliance. Various forms of canniness and a deeper appreciation for zombies and why perhaps we should reconsider our desire to shoot them in the head were enlightening and stemming conversations throughout the halls and by the pool.

2011 Aurealis Awards finalists announced

Finalists have been announced for the 2011 Aurealis Awards, honoring SF, fantasy, and horror by Australians. Winners will be announced on May 12, 2012 at the 17th Annual Aurealis Awards ceremony at the Independent Theatre in North Sydney, Australia. Details at the Aurealis Awards website. For further information about the awards please contact the convenors at convenors@aurealisawards.com.

Best Science Fiction Novel

  • Machine Man, Max Barry (Scribe)
  • Children of Scarabaeus, Sara Creasy (Harper Voyager)
  • The Waterboys, Peter Docker (Fremantle)
  • Black Glass, Meg Mundell (Scribe)
  • The Courier’s New Bicycle, Kim Westwood (Harper Voyager)

Best Science Fiction Short Story

  • “Flowers in the Shadow of the Garden”, Joanne Anderton (Hope)
  • “Desert Madonna”, Robert Hood (Anywhere but Earth)
  • “SIBO”, Penelope Love (Anywhere but Earth)
  • “Dead Low”, Cat Sparks (Midnight Echo)
  • “Rains of la Strange”, Robert N. Stephenson (Anywhere but Earth)

Best Fantasy Novel

  • The Undivided, Jennifer Fallon (Harper Voyager)
  • Ember and Ash, Pamela Freeman (Hachette)
  • Stormlord’s Exile, Glenda Larke (Harper Voyager)
  • Debris, Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
  • The Shattered City, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Harper Voyager)

Best Fantasy Short Story

  • “Fruit of the Pipal Tree”, Thoraiya Dyer (After the Rain)
  • “The Proving of Smollett Standforth”, Margo Lanagan (Ghosts by Gaslight)
  • “Into the Clouds on High”, Margo Lanagan (Yellowcake)
  • “Reading Coffee”, Anthony Panegyris (Overland)
  • “The Dark Night of Anton Weiss”, D.C. White (More Scary Kisses)

Best Horror Novel

No Shortlist or Winning Novel – Two Honorable Mentions Awarded to:

  • The Broken Ones, Stephen M. Irwin (Hachette)
  • The Business of Death, Trent Jamieson (Hachette)

Best Horror Short Story

  • “And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living”, Deborah Biancotti (Ishtar)
  • “The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt”, Paul Haines (The Last Days of Kali Yuga)
  • “The Short Go: a Future in Eight Seconds”, Lisa L. Hannett (Bluegrass Symphony)
  • “Mulberry Boys”, Margo Lanagan (Blood and Other Cravings)
  • “The Coffin Maker’s Daughter”, Angela Slatter (A Book of Horrors)

Best Young Adult Novel

  • Shift, Em Bailey (Hardie Grant Egmont)
  • Secrets of Carrick: Tantony, Ananda Braxton-Smith (black dog)
  • The Shattering, Karen Healey (Allen & Unwin)
  • Black Glass, Meg Mundell (Scribe)
  • Only Ever Always, Penni Russon (Allen & Unwin)

Young Adult Short Story

  • “Nation of the Night”, Sue Isle (Nightsiders)
  • “Finishing School”, Kathleen Jennings (Steampunk)
  • “Seventy-Two Derwents”, Cate Kennedy (The Wicked Wood: Tales from the Tower Volume 2)
  • “One Window”, Martine Murray (The Wilful Eye: Tales from the Tower Volume 1)
  • “The Patrician”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Love and Romanpunk)

Best Children’s Fiction (told primarily through words)

  • The Outcasts, John Flanagan (Random House Australia)
  • The Paradise Trap, Catherine Jinks (Allen & Unwin)
  • “It Began with a Tingle”, Thalia Kalkapsakis (Headspinners, Allen & Unwin)
  • The Coming of the Whirlpool, Andrew McGahan (Allen & Unwin)
  • City of Lies, Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)

Best Children’s Fiction (told primarily through pictures)

  • The Ghost of Annabel Spoon, Aaron Blabey (author and illustrator) (Viking)
  • Sounds Spooky, Christopher Cheng (author) & Sarah Davis (illustrator (Random House Australia)
  • The Last Viking, Norman Jorgensen (author) & James Foley (illustrator) (Fremantle)
  • The Deep: Here be Dragons, Tom Taylor (author) & James Brouwer (illustrator) (Gestault)
  • Vampyre, Margaret Wild (author) & Andrew Yeo (illustrator) (Walker)

Best Collection

  • Bad Power, Deborah Biancotti (Twelfth Planet)
  • Last Days of Kali Yuga, Paul Haines (Brimstone)
  • Bluegrass Symphony, Lisa Hanett (Ticonderoga)
  • Nightsiders, Sue Isle (Twelfth Planet)
  • Love and Romanpunk, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Twelfth Planet)

Best Anthology

  • Ghosts by Gaslight, Jack Dann & Nick Gevers, eds. (HarperVoyager)
  • Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010, Liz Grzyb & Talie Helene, eds. (Ticonderoga)
  • Ishtar, Amanda Pillar & K.V. Taylor, eds. (Gilgamesh)
  • The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 5, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade)
  • Life on Mars, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Viking)

Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel

  • Hidden, Mirranda Burton (author and illustrator) (Black Pepper)
  • Torn, Andrew Constant (author) & Joh James (illustrator) additional illustrators Nicola Scott, Emily Smith (Gestalt)
  • Salsa Invertebraxa, Mozchops (author and illustrator) (Pecksniff)
  • The Eldritch Kid: Whiskey and Hate, Christian Read (author) & Michael Maier (illustrator) (Gestalt)
  • The Deep: Here be Dragons, Tom Taylor (author) & James Brouwer (illustrator) (Gestalt)

CFP: PAMLA 2012 / SF Division

The Science Fiction Division of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association invites paper proposals for the 110th annual PAMLA conference, held this year at Seattle University, in Seattle, Washington from October 19th – 21st, 2012.

All abstracts proposing original science fiction scholarship will receive full consideration.

To propose a paper, please follow this link and use the Online Proposal Submission Form, which will help guide your paper title, abstract, and proposal (of no more than 500 words) to the Science Fiction Division by the April 22nd deadline: http://www.pamla.org/2012/proposals

A few official stipulations:

  • Members may only deliver one paper at the conference. You may submit more than one proposal, but as soon as you accept an invitation, you must inform the organizers of the other sessions that you are no longer eligible to present in their sessions.
  • Papers may not be read in absentia.
  • Participation in the conference requires payment of PAMLA 2012 membership dues by June 1st, 2012 and the separate conference registration fee by September 15th, 2012.

About the conference venue:

Seattle University, founded in 1891, is a Jesuit Catholic university located on 50 acres in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. More than 7,900 students are enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs within eight schools and colleges. U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Colleges 2011” ranks Seattle University among the top ten universities in the West that offer a full range of masters and undergraduate programs.

Learn more at Seattle University’s website.

2012 Philip K. Dick Award Judges Announced

The five Philip K. Dick Award judges for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original format in the United States in the 2012 award year are:

  • Bruce Bethke
  • Sydney Duncan
  • Daryl Gregory
  • Bridget McKenna
  • Paul Witcover

Publishers who issue eligible titles during the calendar year 2012 are encouraged to provide copies to each of the judges as the books are published during the year.  (All works of science fiction published originally in the United States as paperbacks during the year 2012 are eligible.) The nominees will be announced in January 2013.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States.  The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society.  The 2010 award was given to THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING HEELED JACK by Mark Hodder (Pyr) with a special citation to HARMONY by Project Itoh (Haikasoru).  The 2011 awards will be announced at Norwescon 35 on April 6, 2012.

For more information, contact the award administration:

Gordon Van Gelder (201) 876-2551
John Silbersack (212) 333-1513
Pat Lo Brutto (845) 516-4412

For more information about the Philip K. Dick Trust: http://www.philipkdick.com

For more information about the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, http://www.psfs.org/:

Contact Gary Feldbaum (215) 665-5752

For more information about Norwescon,  http://www.norwescon.org/:

Contact NorthWest SF Society: (425) 686-9737

SFWA Announces Honorees of the 2012 Solstice Awards

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America are pleased to announce Octavia Butler and John Clute as the recipients of the Solstice Awards for 2012. The Solstice Awards are granted to up to three persons, living or dead, who have consistently had a positive, transformative influence on the genre of science fiction and fantasy.

Octavia Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006 ) was a giant in the field of science fiction and fantasy; her work was awarded Nebula and Hugo awards, and she was the first science fiction writer to be granted the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. Butler’s fiction delved into sociological, political and religious issues, explored gender, sexuality and cultural identity. She looked for the problems in the world, and tried to find answers and solutions. Butler’s works include the Nebula Award winning novel Parable of the Talents, Fledgling, Kindred, the Patternist series, the Lilith’s Brood series and numerous short stories.

Butler passed away in 2006. SFWA is proud to posthumously award her the Solstice Award for her influence in science fiction and fantasy.

John Clute (born 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic. Clute’s most notable contribution to the field consists of his work on a trio of reference works: the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the Encyclopedia of Fantasy, and the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, all of which won Hugo Awards in the category of Best Related Work. Clute is also the author of several collections of criticism and critical essays on the genre, as well as the 2001 space opera, Appleseed, which was listed by the New York Times as a Notable Book for the year.

The Solstice Awards were created to acknowledge members who have had a significant impact on the science fiction and fantasy landscape. It is especially meant for those who have made a consistent, positive, major difference in the genre.

The award is given at the discretion of the president, with the majority approval of the SFWA Board of Directors. Up to three awards may be presented each year, awarded to any person, living or deceased, with the exception of recipients of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, or those who have been named Author Emeritus. Both members and non-members are eligible.

The Solstice Awards have previously been awarded to Alice B. Sheldon/James Tiptree Jr, Michael Whelan, Kate Wilhelm, Tom Doherty, Terri Windling and Donald A. Wolheim

The 47th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend

The awards will be presented at SFWA’s 47th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend, to be held Thursday through Sunday, May 17 to May 20, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, near Reagan National Airport. As announced earlier this year, Connie Willis will be the recipient of the 2011 Damon Knight Grand Master Award for her lifetime contributions and achievements in the field. Walter Jon Williams will preside as toastmaster, with Astronaut Michael Fincke as keynote speaker.

Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world.

Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers’ organizations in existence, boasting a membership of approximately 1,800 science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals.  Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.

Connie Willis interviewed in SFWA

SFWA did an interview of last year’s ICFA guest of honor and this year’s Nebula Award winner! Take a look at the SFWA website.