An Afternoon in Hanover, NH

Wed 3 Oct 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

On Monday I drove up to New Hampshire to attend a panel and reception with the winners of the inaugural Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award:

In the category of debut speculative fiction, the award goes to Best Worst American, by Juan Martinez (Small Beer Press, 2017). The co-winners of the inaugural prize in the open category are Central Station, by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon Publications, 2016), and On the Edge of Gone, by Corinne Duyvis (Amulet/Abrams, 2016).

I’d never been to the town of Hanover before and it seemed lovely and absolutely full of students. The panel and reception were held in the Filene Auditorium, which, of course, was in the basement. NYT bestseller and author of the recent hit The Mere Wife, Maria Dahvana Headley, the principle award judge for the award this year, was the chair of the panel (bad pre-panel pictures below, sorry!) and she had some fine questions for Martinez (who was brought in from Chicago) and Duyvis (who came in from Amsterdam) — Lavie Tidhar was travel-delayed as he came in from London and arrived in time for the reception.

After the panel, everyone enjoyed the buffet as the winners signed books and chatted with attendees, who included students, faculty, a local science fiction book club, and more. Besides being flown in and put up in a local hotel, the winners all received a check for $5,000 and a physical award — which maybe the university or one of the winners will post a picture of. All in all, it was a lovely first celebration and fingers crossed I’ll go up again in years to come.

ETA: Read more in The Dartmouth.