Reconstruction is a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee!

Mon 8 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Reconstruction coverWe are delighted to see Alaya Dawn Johnson’s collection Reconstruction: Stories is a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominee! Alaya probably does not need any introduction to readers here. She is a fabulous writer whose work we have long admired — as does Janelle Monáe who asked Alaya to be one of the co-writers in her fiction debut, The Memory Librarian.

Reconstruction has ten stories and to give you some idea of the range, here are a couple of stories, A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i and A Song to Greet the Sun, you can read online and an excerpt from the outstanding title story on Tor.com.


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.

 


Award Season: World Fantasy Award winners

Thu 18 Nov 2010 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Catching up on my ongoing simple male/female count of nominees and winners of awards. First, congratulations to the winners of the of the World Fantasy Awards—especially of course Karen Joy Fowler whose story “The Pelican Bar” received the award.

The awards went 5:4, men to women, but the Life Achievement awards went to 3 guys meaning the final count was:

8 men
4 women

  • 8 USA
  • 1 UK
  • 2 Australia
  • 1 Russia

Of note: there were no women nominees in the art category. Please consider nominating women artists next year either directly to the judges or by voting. Although I’m not suggesting voting in blocks as they are horribly obvious and no fun.

There was one woman (Kelly!) on the jury this year. In the last ten years the jury makeup has been:

15 women, 35 men

2010: 1 woman, 4 men
2009: 3 women, 2 men
2008: 5 men
2007: 5 men
2006: 2 women, 3 men
2005: 2 women, 3 men
2004: 1 woman, 4 men
2003: 2 women, 3 men
2002: 2 women, 3 men
2001: 2 women, 3 men


Award Season: British Fantasy Awards

Tue 21 Sep 2010 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Congratulations to the winners of the of the British Fantasy Awards. Continuing our rather basic count of these things here’s the breakdown:

13 men
2 women


Award Season: Hugos

Mon 6 Sep 2010 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Congratulations to all the nominees and the winners!

However, once more the mens are the big winners. As with the World Fantasy Awards they need help with finding women artists to even be nominated.

Quick count has the winners as:

  • 20 men
  • 5 women

Award Season: World Fantasy Awards

Mon 30 Aug 2010 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

A little late (but better that than never): huge congratulations to all the World Fantasy Award nominees, those we know and those we don’t. Having been a juror, I know how much a nomination is worth! And, there’s a ton of stuff I haven’t read on here so it makes a good reading list.

I’ve occasionally done gender breakdowns of nominees (i.e. Locus 2009) and winners looking at it from a very simplistic and reductive gender angle: how many men are nominated and how many women? This point of view is the same one that makes looking at the ToC of The New Yorker so depressing every week. Also, even though Kelly is on the jury and is somewhere within hailing distance she has nothing to do with these posts. I like keeping track. When the winners approach a gender balance, I don’t post about that, because that’s not (or shouldn’t be) news.

And, yes, I agree that it is totally possible that in any single year all the best books may have been written by men. 2009 was apparently a year like that, according to the National Book Award winners. However, I don’t believe that year after year all the books by women are apparently not quite good enough. So, enough chuntering. One note: next year, nominators might consider finding some women artists. Here’s this year’s breakdown (from Locus, thanks Mark) and a link to last year’s. (Apologies is anyone has been mischaracterized by gender or nationality in my somewhat quick count.)

  • 37 men
  • 19 women
  • 38 USA
  • 10 UK
  • 3 Australia
  • 3 Canada
  • 1 Japan
  • 1 Russia

Novel

  • Blood of Ambrose, James Enge (Pyr)
  • The Red Tree, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
  • The City & The City, China Miéville (Macmillan UK/ Del Rey)
  • Finch, Jeff VanderMeer (Underland)
  • In Great Waters, Kit Whitfield (Jonathan Cape UK/Del Rey)

Novella

  • The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)
  • “I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 12/09)
  • “The Lion’s Den”, Steve Duffy (Nemonymous Nine: Cern Zoo)
  • The Night Cache, Andy Duncan (PS)
  • “Sea-Hearts”, Margo Lanagan (X6 )
  • “Everland”, Paul Witcover (Everland and Other Stories)

Short Story

  • “The Pelican Bar”, Karen Joy Fowler (Eclipse Three)
  • “A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc, or, A Lullaby”, Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons 6/09)
  • “Singing on a Star”, Ellen Klages (Firebirds Soaring)
  • “The Persistence of Memory, or This Space for Sale”, Paul Park (Postscripts 20/21: Edison’s Frankenstein )
  • “In Hiding”, R.B. Russell (Putting the Pieces in Place)
  • “Light on the Water”, Genevieve Valentine (Fantasy 10/09)

Anthology

  • Poe,  Ellen Datlow, ed. (Solaris)
  • Songs of The Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Subterranean/Voyager)
  • Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations, Danel Olson, ed. (Ash-Tree)
  • Eclipse Three, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade)
  • American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny: From Poe to the Pulps/From the 1940s to Now, Peter Straub, ed. (Library of America)
  • The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology, Gordon Van Gelder, ed. (Tachyon)

Collection

  • We Never Talk About My Brother, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)
  • Fugue State, Brian Evenson (Coffee House)
  • There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Penguin)
  • Northwest Passages, Barbara Roden (Prime)
  • Everland and Other Stories, Paul Witcover (PS)
  • The Very Best of Gene Wolfe/The Best of Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe (PS /Tor)

Artist

  • John Jude Palencar
  • John Picacio
  • Charles Vess
  • Jason Zerrillo
  • Sam Weber

Special Award – Professional

  • Peter & Nicky Crowther for PS Publishing
  • Ellen Datlow for editing anthologies
  • Hayao Miyazaki for Ponyo
  • Barbara & Christopher Roden for Ash-Tree Press
  • Jonathan Strahan for editing anthologies
  • Jacob & Rina Weisman for Tachyon Publications

Special Award – Non-Professional

  • John Berlyne for Powers: Secret Histories
  • Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan, & Sean Wallace for Clarkesworld
  • Susan Marie Groppi for Strange Horizons
  • John Klima for Electric Velocipede
  • Bob Colby, B. Diane Martin, David Shaw, and Eric M. Van for Readercon
  • Ray Russell & Rosalie Parker for Tartarus Press

The Life Achievement Awards will be released in the coming weeks in a separate announcement.


Award Season: Locus

Wed 27 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | Posted by: Gavin

Almost forgot one of the award lists that came out recently: way back in April (where’s the telescope? Who can look back that far?) the finalists for the Locus Awards were announced. A bit of a disappointment in the collection department that John Kessel or Ben Rosenbaum didn’t get nominated, c’est la vie with awards seasons though.

Here’s the Small Beeriana-connected stuff (a bit of a reach, but Kelly still works here) and it was nice that the final Year’s Best volume received a nod:

Carrying on from the gender and country breakdown of previous lists: who are they, where do they come from?

Finalists (if a person is in a category twice they were counted twice. Numbers are hopefully accurate):

  • 50 men (32 USA, 9 UK, 6 AUS, 3 CAN)
  • 16 women (14 USA, 1 UK, 1 AUS)

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
5 men (2 UK, 3 USA)

FANTASY NOVEL
3 men (3 USA)
2 women (2 USA)

FIRST NOVEL
4 men (1 UK, 3 USA)
1 woman (1 USA)

YOUNG-ADULT NOVEL
4 men (1 CAN, 1 UK, 2 USA)
1 woman (1 AUS)

NOVELLA
4 men (2 UK, 1 USA, 1 CAN)
2 women (2 USA)

NOVELETTE
4 men (1 UK, 2 USA, 1 CAN)
1 woman (1 USA)

SHORT STORY
3 men (3 USA)
3 women (3 USA)

ANTHOLOGY
5 men (3 USA, 2 AUS)
2 women (2 USA)

COLLECTION
4 men (4 USA)
1 woman (1 USA)

EDITOR
4 men (3 USA, 1 AUS)
1 woman (1 USA)

ARTIST
5 men (4 USA, 1 AUS)

NON-FICTION/ART BOOK
4 men (2 USA, 1 UK, 1 AUS)
2 women (1 USA, 1 UK)