Award annoucements

This weekend two awards we're particularly fond of were announced.

Congratulations to Sarah Pinsker, whose Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea was awarded the Philip K. Dick Award, and to Sarah Tolmie, whose The Little Animals was awarded a special citation. Here's the official press release:

April 10, 2020
For Immediate Release

2020 Philip K. Dick Award Winner Announced

It was announced on Friday, April 10, 2020 at Norwescon 43, in (virtual) SeaTac, Washington,
that the winner for the distinguished original science fiction paperback published for the first
time during 2019 in the U.S.A. is:

SOONER OR LATER EVERYTHING FALLS INTO THE SEA: STORIES by Sarah
Pinsker (Small Beer Press)

Special citation was given to:

THE LITTLE ANIMALS by Sarah Tolmie (Aqueduct Press)

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for
distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The
award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the award ceremony is
sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. The 2019 award was given to THEORY
OF BASTARDS by Audrey Schulman (Europa Editions) with a special citation to 84K by Claire
North (Orbit).

The judges for the 2020 award were Thomas A. Easton, Karen Heuler, Mur Lafferty, Patricia
MacEwen (chair), and James Sallis. This year’s judges are F. Brett Cox, Brendan DuBois, Cynthia Felice, Tim Pratt, and Jessica Reisman.

The virtual award ceremony can be found online at:
https://www.norwescon.org/con/p-k-dick-award/

For more information, contact the award administration: Gordon Van Gelder (201) 876-2551,
John Silbersack (347) 787-7445, and Pat LoBrutto (301) 460-3164

For more information about the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, http://www.psfs.org/:

The second award announced was the Otherwise (previously known as the James Tiptree Jr.) Award. And for this award, congratulations go to to Akwaeke Emezi.
 
Here is Pat Murphy's email announcing the award:

Right now, we seem to be living in a dystopian science fiction future. Despite that, the Otherwise Award (originally the Tiptree Award) is still here —  still searching the world for speculative works that challenge us to think in new ways about gender. We are still celebrating those creators who are inventing new and better futures (which the world certainly needs right now). 

I am pleased to announce the winner of the 2019 Otherwise Award: Freshwater, by Akwaeke Emezi. 

“Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater is beautiful, complicated, magical, challenging, and sometimes vividly cruel,” writes juror Edmond Y. Chang. “Told from multiple, overlapping, and often conflicted perspectives, the novel tells the story of Ada, who is caught between worlds, trying to navigate family, education, migration and immigration, Catholicism and Igbo spirituality, and what it means to be a self, a person.  The novel does not shy away from explorations of gender nonconformity (particularly for people of color), sexuality, toxic masculinity, race, mental illness, and trauma.  There are no easy paths or answers for Ada (or the reader), and therefore the novel imagines alternative, even radical forms of identity and most importantly survival.”

The 2019 Honor List celebrates nine exceptional and thought-provoking works:  

• Kylie Ariel Bemis, "Dreamborn" (in Maiden, Mother, Crone, edited by Gwen Benaway)
• Meg Elison, The Book of Flora (Book 3 in the Road to Nowhere trilogy) 
• Akwaeke Emezi, Pet (Make Me a World, 2019)
• Kameron Hurley, Meet Me in the Future (Tachyon Publications, 2019)
• Innocent Chizaram Ilo, "Of Warps and Wefts" (Strange Horizons, March 2018; reprinted in Transcendent 4: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction)
• Mary Robinette Kowal, The Calculating Stars (Tor Books, 2018)
• Laurie J. Marks, The Elemental Logic series (Fire Logic, Earth Logic, Water Logic, and Air Logic)
• Yukiko Motoya, The Lonesome Bodybuilder (Soft Skull Press, 2018) 

For the jury's comments on all these works, please visit the Otherwise Award website. The Award winner and Honor List often become my reading list for the next year. If you need a break from the daily news barrage, from tending to the needs of family, from worrying about the state of the world we live in, from sewing face masks (my current preoccupation), consider allowing yourself some time to read and explore other worlds. 

As always, if you spot a work of fiction that you want to call to the attention of the 2020 judges, please post it on the recommendation page of the Award website. We count on the community to let us know what's out there. On the website, you can also read more about past winners and donate to help fund the award. (We count on the community for that too.)

I'd like to commend the 2019 jury (Debbie Notkin, Mariana Calderon, Edmond Y. Chang, Trish Salah, Bogi Takács.) for completing their task during such difficult times. The Award only exists because of  the support of our community. Thank you all. 

Yours, 

Pat Murphy

For the Otherwise Award Motherboard

PS We are working on plans for a  (possibly virtual) celebration of the winner and the Honor List. The winner will receive $1000 in prize money, a specially commissioned piece of original artwork, and (of course) chocolate.

2020 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced

Congratulations to Aqueduct's Sarah Tolmie, as well as to Ada Hoffman, Megan E. O'Keefe, Susan Palwick, Sarah Pinsker, and Tade Thompson, for their nominations to the 2020 Philip K. Dick Award. The books on the final ballot are:

THE OUTSIDE by Ada Hoffmann (Angry Robot)

VELOCITY WEAPON by Megan E. O'Keefe (Orbit)

ALL WORLDS ARE REAL: SHORT FICTIONS by Susan Palwick (Fairwood Press)

SOONER OR LATER EVERYTHING FALLS INTO THE SEA: STORIES by Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer Press)

THE LITTLE ANIMALS by Sarah Tolmie (Aqueduct Press)

THE ROSEWATER REDEMPTION by Tade Thompson (Orbit)

First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, April 10, 2020 at Norwescon 43 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Seattle Airport, SeaTac, Washington.

The 2017 Philip K. Dick Award

The 2017 Philip K. Dick Award ceremony was held tonight at Norwescon 40; Gordon Van Gelder presided. Congratulations to Claudia Casper, whose novel The Mercy Journals (published by the excellent Arsenal Pulp Press) was given the award, and also to Susan diRende, whose novella Unpronounceable (published as a volume in Aqueduct's Conversation Pieces series) was given a Special Citation. (The photo shows Claudia and Susan holding the framed award and special citation respectively). The judges for this year's award were Michael Armstrong, Brenda Cough, meg Elison, Lee Konstantinou, and Ben Winters. The other nominees were Kristy Aceveo with Consider (published by Jolly Fish Press), who was present, Matt Hill with Graft (published by Angry Robot Books), who was also present, Eleanor Arnason with Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens (published by Aqueduct), and Yoss with Super Extra Grande (published by Restless Books). The authors attending each read for five minutes from their books. (Excerpts of Hwarhath Stories and Yoss were read by members of the Northwest Science Fiction Society.)

It's probably needless to say that I was quite pleased to see two of Aqueduct's books so honored.

Susan, by the way, read from Ch. 2 ("Alien Sex") in Rose's inimitable voice.

The 2017 Philip K. Dick Award nominations

The 2017 Philip K. Dick Award nominations have been announced, and I'm delighted to find two Aqueduct Press titles among them. Congratulations to all of the nominated authors, which include Eleanor Arnason and Susan diRende!

 Here's the text from the press release:

The judges of the 2017 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia SF Society, along with the Philip K. Dick Trust, are pleased to announce the six nominated works that comprise the final ballot for the award:

CONSIDER by Kristy Acevedo (Jolly Fish Press)
HWARHATH STORIES: TRANSGRESSIVE TALES BY ALIENS by Eleanor Arnason (Aqueduct Press)
THE MERCY JOURNALS by Claudia Casper (Arsenal Pulp Press)
GRAFT by Matt Hill (Angry Robot)
UNPRONOUNCEABLE by Susan diRende (Aqueduct Press)
SUPER EXTRA GRANDE by Yoss, translated by David Frye (Restless Books)

First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, April 14, 2017 at Norwescon 40 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Seattle Airport, SeaTac, Washington.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States during the previous calendar year.  The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the Northwest Science Fiction Society.  Last year’s winner was APEX by Ramez Naam (Angry Robot) with a special citation to ARCHANGEL by Marguerite Reed (Arche Press). The 2016 judges are Michael Armstrong (chair), Brenda Clough, Meg Elison, Lee Konstantinou, and Ben Winters.

For more information, contact the award administration:
                                                                        Pat Lo Brutto (301) 460-3164
                                                                        John Silbersack (212) 333-1513
                                                                        Gordon Van Gelder (201) 876-2551

For more information about the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society: http://www.psfs.org/ :
                                                                        Contact Gary Feldbaum (215) 665-5752

For more information about Norwescon:  http://www.norwescon.org/ : info@norwescon.org.

The 2010 Philip K. Dick Awards Ceremony

It was a dark and stormy night, complete with fierce wind and wild rain and, at one point (when I happened to be out in it), hailstones. That was outside the hotel. Inside, in the "Grand Ballroom," calm congeniality prevailed, even at the dessert table (which, since it didn't operate by queue, possessed a high potential for being a chaotic free-for-all).

At my table sat, moving clockwise from me, Nisi Shawl, Vernor Vinge, Daryl Gregory, Jack Skillingstead (or so I think, but he was on the other side of a large round table, & the ambient noise kept me from catching his name when we were introduced), Leslie Howle, and Ian MacDonald. Daryl and Ian's books were nominees, Nisi was representing "Carolyn Anderson" a.k.a. Sarah Zettel, and I was representing Rebecca Ore. We had about half an hour for small talk before the ceremony began.

Various officials of Norwescon and the Northwest SF Society and Dick Award administrators spoke in turn. And then each author or their representative read for a few minutes from each of the nominated works. Darryl's reading was the funniest; Ian's the liveliest; and Carlos J. Cortes's the creepiest and most intriguing. Any of you who've read Centuries Ago and Very Fast will likely be wondering if I read one the book's many, er, explicit passages. Well, I thought about it. But I chickened out. Instead, I read a passage from the beginning of "Quarreling, We Walked to the Baltic," in which Vel meets another immortal, Yama. Unlike Vel, Yama believes he was never born and thinks that Vel has come to help him "stop time."

After the readings, David Hartwell announced first the runner-up, which received a Special Citation--Ian MacDonald's Cyberabad Days-- and the winner: C.L. Anderson's Bitter Angels. Ian's speech was brief and graceful and ending by urging readers to seek out work by writers from India. Nisi delivered Sarah Zettel's speech, which was also brief. Nevertheless, I found it interesting and thought it would interest you-all, too. So Nisi kindly sent me a copy to post here:

Sarah Zettel and I started a critique group together in Ann Arbor, Michigan, years ago. We're friends, which is why she asked me to represent her here tonight, and sent me an email I'm going to read to you now.

Here're the remarks, just in case the world turns upside down and I actually win the thing:

"Thank you all for coming tonight, and thanks to the judging committee for their kind, and favorable consideration of Bitter Angels. This book represents a return to science fiction for me, and I'm delighted to be home, and to be welcomed back so warmly. In a time when war is frequently considered inevitable, it is not always easy to write about the possibility that humans might choose to leave it behind, but I feel it is important to at least present the possibility, because if we cannot even imagine a future without major armed conflicts between human beings, it most surely will never happen.

"I'd like to thank my editor David Pomerico who helped make this a better book, and the members of the Untitled Writers Group for their patient, helpful critiques. I'd very much like to thank my friend Nisi Shawl for kindly agreeing to stand in for me at this time, and of course, I thank my husband Tim for his constant love, support, and invaluable assistance in designing star ships and star systems.

"Thank you again---"

Carolyn Anderson, aka Sarah Zettel

2009 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees

Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced
(courtesy Karen Hellekson)

The judges of the 2009 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia SF Society, along with the Philip K. Dick Trust, are pleased to announce seven nominated works that comprise the final ballot for the award:

BITTER ANGELS by C. L. Anderson (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
THE PRISONER by Carlos J. Cortes (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
THE REPOSSESSION MAMBO by Eric Garcia (Harper)
THE DEVIL’S ALPHABET by Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
CYBERABAD DAYS by Ian McDonald (Pyr)
CENTURIES AGO AND VERY FAST by Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press)
PROPHETS by S. Andrew Swann (DAW Books)

First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, April 2, 2010 at Norwescon 33 at the Doubletree Seattle Airport Hotel, SeaTac, Washington.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. Last year’s winners were EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD by Adam-Troy Castro (Eos Books) and TERMINAL MIND by David Walton (Meadowhawk Press). The 2009 judges are Daniel Abraham (chair), Eileen Gunn, Karen Hellekson, Elaine Isaak, and Marc Laidlaw.

* * *

Congratuations, Rebecca!