The 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Short Fiction and Other Work

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For Immediate Release – Please Distribute
February 7, 2008
Contact: Rob Gates (rgates@wavelengthsonline.com)

Washington DC: -- The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Council is pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Short Fiction and Other Work – Novel winners were announced in October 2007. The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards were created in 1999 to honor works in SF/F/H that deal positively with gay characters, themes and issues. The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Council was created in 2002 to manage and further the mission of the Awards, which is to educate and raise awareness of GLBT content in SF/F/H. Nominations for the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards are open to everyone. Winners and a short list of recommended works in each category are selected by a jury.

For 2007 Awards were being presented in three categories. The Novel category recognized works originally released in 2006 in the US/North America. The Short Fiction and Other Work categories recognized works released in 2005 or 2006 due to a one year jury break.

Three stories were selected by the judges as the best science fiction, fantasy or horror short fiction with significant positive GLBT content from 2005 and 2006. “In the Quake Zone” by David Gerrold from the anthology Down These Dark Spaceways, “Instinct” by Joy Parks from the anthology The Future Is Queer, and “The Language of Moths” by Christopher Barzak from the magazine Realms of Fantasy were identified as the three winners in the Short Fiction category. In the Other Work category the jury also identified three winners. They were the anthology The Future Is Queer edited by Richard Labonte and Lawrence Schimel, the television series Torchwood created by Russell T Davies, and the film V for Vendetta directed by James McTeigue.

The jury for each category also identified a Short List of Recommended works. The complete Short List for each category is below. The short lists reflect the remarkable diversity in the speculative fiction arena, with titles from a variety of publishers and distributors, publishing technologies, authors, genres, literary styles, and GLBT content. “The judges were extremely impressed with the variety and quality of the works considered. Indeed one judge commented that the difficulty was not in finding quality works, but whittling a pool of quality works down to a Short List” reported Rob Gates, Executive Director of the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Council. The juries encourage readers to seek out not only the Short List titles, but all of the nominated works.

Nominations for the 2008 Awards are open and the 2008 Awards will be presented at Gaylaxicon 2008 in Washington DC in October 2008.

For more information about the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards, including a complete listing of all nominated works from 2007, a handout listing winners and short list recommendations with brief descriptions, or to nominate works for the 2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards, you can visit the website at http://www.spectrumawards.org/ or send email to info@spectrumawards.org.

In The Quake Zone, David Gerrold (Down These Dark Spaceways – SFBC) – WINNER
Instinct, Joy Parks (The Future Is Queer – Arsenal Pulp) – WINNER
The Language of Moths, Christopher Barzak (Realms of Fantasy) – WINNER

The Beatrix Gates, Rachel Pollack (The Future Is Queer – Arsenal Pulp)
Bones Like Black Sugar, Catherynne M Valente (Fantasy Magazine #1 – Prime)
The Captive Girl, Jennifer Pelland (Helix SF, Issue 3, Fall 2006)
Caught by Skin, Steve Berman (Sex in the System – Thunder’s Mouth)
Facing Down Your Demons, Alexander Potter (All Hell Breaking Loose – DAW)
Fairy Tale Ending, L-J Baker (From The Asylum – March 2006)
Obscure Relations, L Timmel Duchamp (The Future Is Queer – Arsenal Pulp)
Plums, Camilla Bruce (Shifting Again – Torquere)
Sleeping Bears Lie, Alex Draven (Shifting Too – Torquere)
The Specter of Sin, Kristina Wright (Call of the Dark – Bella)
There's a Hole in the City, Richard Bowes (SciFiction – SciFi.com)
Voce, Kimberly DeCina (Sleeping Beauty Indeed – Torquere)
We Recruit, Julia Watts (Stake Through the Heart – Bella)

Other Work Winners and Short List

The Future Is Queer (anthology), Richard Labonte and Lawrence Schimel et al – Arsenal Pulp – WINNER
Torchwood Season 1 (television), Russell T Davies et al – BBC – WINNER
V for Vendetta (film), James McTeigue et al – Warner Bros – WINNER

The Dance of Uzume-no-Ama (poem), Catherynne M Valente – Prime
Doctor Who The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (television), Russell T Davies et al – BBC
Drawn Together (television), Comedy Central – Comedy Central
Eerie Queerie (manga), Shuri Shiozu et al – TokyoPop
Gaylaxicon 2006 Sampler (anthology), Don Sakers et al – (Speed-of-C)
Hard Pill (film), John Baumgartner et al – (Baumgartner)
Sleeping Beauty, Indeed (anthology), Joselle Vanderhooft et al – (Torquere)
Young Avengers (comics), Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung et al – (Marvel Comics)