Science Fiction Awards Watch

There are a couple of interesting things going on at the new Nebula Awards web site. Firstly they are publishing lists of all of the works that have qualified for the Preliminary Ballot (that is, everything that gets a recommendation from at least 10 SFWA members). That makes a very good start on a recommendation list for next year’s Hugos, although of course it also includes works from 2007 due to the Nebulas’ extended eligibility period.

In addition they have started an open recommendations thread. SFWA is asking you, the readers, to tell them which works you think are Nebula-worthy. Of course that doesn’t guarantee that SFWA members will vote for your recommendations, but it is a welcome piece of outreach. Go ye forth and recommend, people.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry (bless them) give out annual awards for the best manga produced outside of Japan. This is the second year of the awards, and the winners can be found at Anime News Network (thanks Petrea!).

Of particular interest to us is the excellence award to a French entry. Okhéania - written by Eric Corbeyran, drawn by Alice Picard and colored by Elsa Brants - is apparently set on a planet covered in such lush vegetation that it looks like a vast green ocean. The award was won by volume #1, which is called “Le Tsunami”. A second volume, “La Chute” (”The Fall”), has already been published.

And the really interesting news is that “Le Tsunami” is a January 2008 publication, so it is eligible for the Best Graphic Story Hugo in Montreal.

Mike Glyer has an excellent photo of Ray Bradbury’s Science Fiction Poetry Association Grand Master trophy.

The winners of the 2008 Seiun Awards were announced at DAICON 7, the 47th Nippon SF convention, earlier today. Thanks to Takeo Hosoi, we have the list of winners:

• Japanese Novel: Toshokan Sensou (Series: Library Wars) by Hiro Arikawa (Ascii MediaWorks)
• Japanese Story: “Chinmoku no Furaibai” (”Silent Fly-by”) by Housuke Nojiri (Chinmoku no Furaibai (Hayakawa Publishing))
• Foreign Novel: Brightness Falls from the Air by James Tiptree Jr. (Translated by Hisashi Asakura, Hayakawa Publishing)
• Foreign Story: “Weather” by Alastair Reynolds (Translated by Naoya Nakahara, Galactic North and Other Stories)
• Media: Denno Coil, Coil A Circle of Children (Directed by Mitsuo Iso, Produced by the producer comittee of Denno Coil, Anime)
• Comic: 20th Century Boys / 21th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (Shogakukan)
• Art: Naoyuki Katoh
• Nonfiction: Hoshi Shin-ichi 1001 Wa wo Tsukutta Hito (Shin-ichi Hoshi
  The Man Who Wrote 1001 Stories) by Haduki Saisyo (Shincho-sha)
• SF-Related Activity: Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid 2) by Crypton Future Media
• Special Award: Kouichiroh Noda (Masahiro Noda)

Editors’ note: Vocaloid is a piece of software that synthesizes singing from inputs of lyrics and a melody. Hatsune Miku is a version of the software specifically tuned to produce J-pop from a female voice. The character Hatsune Miku has since appeared in manga, anime and video games. More on Wikipedia.

Update: Spelling error in Takashi Nagasaki’s corrected.

Various people have been pointing out to us that this site is now one year old. We’d kind of forgotten. We are always very busy around Worldcon time. So no celebrations, I’m afraid, but hopefully we’ll get round to doing so serious work on it soon.

The 2009 SFWA Author Emeritus is actually an Author Emerita. The award has gone to Mary Jane Engh. The Author Emeritus program was inaugurated in 1995 as a way to recognize and appreciate senior writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy who have made significant contributions to our field but who are no longer active or whose excellent work may no longer be as widely known as it once was. In the SFWA press release Ms. Engh notes:

“The reason I haven’t been turning out SF in recent decades is that I’m up to my neck in historical projects,” Engh said. “I’ve been working on The Womb of God, a projected trilogy of historical novels on the life and times of the 5th-century Roman empress Galla Placidia, and — the biggest time-absorber — collaborating with my historian friend Kathy Meyer on a massive reference work to be called Femina Habilis: A Biographical Dictionary of Active Women in the Ancient Roman World from Earliest Times to 527 C.E.

Sounds like interesting stuff.

Now we have a full list:

• Adult Literature: The Orphan’s Tales, Catherynne M. Valente (In the Night Garden; In the Cities of Coin and Spice) (Bantam Spectra)
• Children’s Literature: The Harry Potter Series, J. K. Rowling (Bloomsbury)
• Inklings Studies: The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community, Diana Pavlac Glyer, appendix by David Bratman (Kent State University Press)
• Myth and Fantasy Studies: The Shadow-Walkers: Jacob Grimm’s Mythology of the Monstrous, T. A. Shippey, ed. (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies)

Further details are available from Locus Online.

A delighted Mike Glyer blogs that his wife, Diana, has won a Mythopoeic Award for her Hugo-nominated book, The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community (with appendix by David Bratman). Like Mike we don’t have the full results yet, but we’ll get them to you as soon as we can.

Short Title Best Graphic Story

Moved to amend the WSFS Constitution by adding the following:

3.3.X: Best Graphic Story. Any science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form appearing for the first time in the previous calendar year.

Providing that this category shall be automatically repealed unless ratified by the 2012 Business Meeting.

Short Title: Making the Web Eligible

Moved: To amend Sec 3.3 to clarify the eligibility of works published in electronic or other non-print forms by striking out and adding words as follows:

Amend 3.3.5 as follows:

3.3.5: Best Related Book Work. Any work whose subject is related to the field of science fiction, fantasy, or fandom, appearing for the first time in book form during the previous calendar year or which has been substantially modified during the previous calendar year, and which is either non-fiction or, if fictional, is noteworthy primarily for aspects other than the fictional text, and which is not eligible in any other category.

Amend 3.3.8 as follows:

3.3.8: Best Editor Short Form. The editor of at least four (4) anthologies, collections or magazine issues (or their equivalent in other media) primarily devoted to science fiction and / or fantasy, at least one of which was published in the previous calendar year.

Amend 3.3.11 as follows:

3.3.11: Best Semiprozine. Any generally available non-professional publication devoted to science fiction or fantasy which by the close of the previous calendar year has published four (4) or more issues (or the equivalent in other media), at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year and which in the previous calendar year met at least two (2) of the following criteria:
(1) had an average press run of at least one thousand (1000) copies per issue,
(2) paid its contributors and/or staff in other than copies of the publication,
(3) provided at least half the income of any one person,
(4) had at least fifteen percent (15%) of its total space occupied by advertising,
(5) announced itself to be a semiprozine.

Amend 3.3.12 as follows:

3.3.12: Best Fanzine. Any generally available non-professional publication devoted to science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects which by the close of the previous calendar year has published four (4) or more issues (or the equivalent in other media), at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year, and which does not qualify as a semiprozine.

[Note: If both this and the semiprozine motion pass, the WSFS Secretary is empowered to adjust the final language accordingly.]

Short Title: One Fewer Award

Moved, to amend the WSFS Constitution for the purpose of eliminating the Best Semiprozine category while preventing works that currently qualify as semiprozines from competing in the Best Fanzine category by striking out and adding words as follows:

1. Strike out subsection 3.3.11, Best Semiprozine:

3.3.11: Best Semiprozine. Any generally available non-professional publication devoted to science fiction or fantasy which by the close of the previous calendar year has published four (4) or more issues, at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year, and which in the previous calendar year met at least two (2) of the following criteria:
(1) had an average press run of at least one thousand (1000) copies per issue,
(2) paid its contributors and/or staff in other than copies of the publication,
(3) provided at least half the income of any one person,
(4) had at least fifteen percent (15%) of its total space occupied by advertising,
(5) announced itself to be a semiprozine.

2. Amend subsection 3.3.12 to include a definition of works formerly considered semiprozines, making them ineligible for Best Fanzine:

3.3.12: Best Fanzine. Any generally available non-professional publication devoted to science fiction, fantasy, or related subjects which by the close of the previous calendar year has published four (4) or more issues, at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year, and which does not qualify as a semiprozine meets no more than one (1) of the following criteria:
(1) had an average press run of at least one thousand (1000) copies per issue,
(2) paid its contributors and/or staff in other than copies of the publication,
(3) provided at least half the income of any one person,
(4) had at least fifteen percent (15%) of its total space occupied by advertising.
Any publication may declare itself ineligible for this category for a particular year.

3. Strike out references to semiprozine in sections 3.3.13 and 3.3.14:

3.3.13: Best Fan Writer. Any person whose writing has appeared in semiprozines or fanzines or in generally available electronic media during the previous calendar year.

3.3.14: Best Fan Artist. An artist or cartoonist whose work has appeared through
publication in semiprozines or fanzines or through other public display during the
previous calendar year.

Short Title: Marking Peter Weston’s Contribution

Moved, to amend section 3.5 of the WSFS Constitution to reflect the contribution of Peter Weston in refining the current design of the Hugo Award trophy while continuing to recognize the efforts of the original designers, by adding words as follows:

Section 3.5: Name and Design. The Hugo Award shall continue to be standardized on the rocket ship design of Jack McKnight and Ben Jason as refined by Peter Weston. Each Worldcon Committee may select its own choice of base design. The name (Hugo Award) and the design shall not be extended to any other award.

(Additional text underlined.)

The WSFS Business Meeting papers from Denver are now available online. Here’s a quick recap of what happened, awards-wise.

• The two Hugo-related motions passed on from Yokohama were ratified
• The Peter Weston, Semiprozine, Web Eligibility and Graphic Story motions all received their first passage and go to Montreal for ratification

You can find all of the passed on business here. But to save you the trouble we’ll do posts for all four motions.

The winners of this year’s awful fiction prizes have been announced. Here are the winners in the SF and Fantasy categories.

Timothy Hanson, Commander of the 43rd Space Regiment in the 52nd Battalion on board the USAOPAC (United Space Alliance Of Planets Attack Carrier) and second in command to Admiral L. R. Morris of the USAOP Space Command, awoke early for breakfast.

Joe Schulman
Cartersville, GA

and

“Toads of glory, slugs of joy,” sang Groin the dwarf as he trotted jovially down the path before a great dragon ate him because the author knew that this story was a train wreck after he typed the first few words.

Alex Hall
Greeley, CO

The full awfulness can be found here. Thanks to Paula for the tip-off.

In all the excitement of the live-blogging of the Hugos and Campbell we entirely forgot to list the winners of the other awards given out at the ceremony. For those of you who were not there and didn’t follow the live blog, here’s what was given out.

Big Heart Award - Suford Lewis

First Fandom Hall of Fame Award - Mike Ashley and Ray Harryhausen, plus a posthumous award for Isaac Asimov.

Sam Moskowitz Award for Excellence in Collecting - Frank Robinson and Bob Peterson

Worldcon special awards - Denvention 3 chose to make special awards to NASA (on the occasion of their 50th anniversary) and to NESFA Press.

Many thanks to John Hertz for keeping us on our toes.

Update: typos fixed. -sigh-

According to Locus Online, this year’s winners of the Robert A Heinlein Award are Ben Bova and Spider Robinson.

Here it is in all of its glory. Design by Spring Schoenhuth, photo by Dave Gallaher. Thanks to Jay Lake for sending us the photo and for coming up with the idea in the first place.

Update: Photo corrected as per Spring’s comments below.

The blogosphere is doubtless already thick with accusations that “they” got it wrong again, and that the “Hugo Judges” should be ashamed of themselves. We haven’t had much of a chance to look yet, being busy at the convention. On the other hand, a lot of people here in Denver seem to be very happy with the results. To try to get a better feel for the true reaction, we are starting our now traditional reactions poll to give you the option to express your opinion of the winners. For comparison, here are the results of last year’s poll.

 Loading ...

The 2008 Golden Duck Awards were announced at Worldcon today. The winners were:

• Picture Books: Mars Needs Moms by Berkeley Breathed, Philomel Books
• Eleanor Cameron Middle Grades Award: Tie: Shanghaied to the Moon by Michael J Daley, Putnam; and Gravity Busters by Frank Asch, Kids Can Press
• Hal Clement Young Adult Award: Sky Horizon by David Brin, Subterranean Press

Two additional Special Awards were announced. Stone Arch Books received a special award for their graphic novels, and a non-fiction award was given to the 12-volume World of Science Fiction series by John Hamilton (Abdo Publishing Company).

David Brin was present to accept his award, and he gave an impassioned plea for fan groups to do more to encourage young people to read SF.

In case you were not following Cheryl’s live blogging, the full results from this evening’s ceremony are available at the official Hugo Awards web site.