The Compton Crook Award Winner for the 2012 prize is T. C. McCarthy for Germline, published by Orbit.
The Compton Crook Award is presented to the best first novel of the year written by a single author: collaborations are not eligible: in the field of Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror by the members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, Inc., at their annual Baltimore-area science fiction convention, Balticon, held on Memorial Day weekend in the Baltimore, MD area each year.
This prize, named after a Towson State College Professor of Natural Science named Compton Crook, who wrote under the name Stephen Tall, and who died in 1981, was first awarded in 1983 for a work published in 1982.
The award is presented for the best book in the genre that was published in the year prior to the year of award and consists of a check for $1000.00 and Guest of Honor treatment for two years at Balticon. The first year of Guest of Honor treatment is the year the award is presented and the second year is to participate in the presentation of the following year’s award.
More information available at the Baltimore Science Fiction Society web site.