Friday 18 April 2003

Death

French editor Jacques Chambon, 60, died April 16, 2003 in Marcillac-la-Croisille, France, following a heart attack. An active critic in the late '60s and '70s, he collaborated on Fiction, the French edition of F&SF, and later translated books by Christopher Priest and Robert Silverberg among others. Since the late '80s he served as editor of the "Presence du Futur" and other lines for Editions Denoel, and the "Imagine" line at Editions Flammarion, keeping favorite writers in print (Bradbury, Priest, Silverberg, Shepard) and introducing many new writers to French readers, including Dan Simmons, Lisa Tuttle, and Mike Resnick.

A longer obituary will appear in the May issue of Locus, while appreciations by Robert Silverberg, Mike Resnick, Gerard Klein, and others will appear in the June issue.

Museum

Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and SF writer Greg Bear announced plans for The Science Fiction Experience, a museum of science fiction scheduled to open in Seattle in June 2004, as announced at a press conference April 17 at Seattle's Sky Church at Experience Music Project. The museum will share the Frank Gehry Building, commissioned and built for the popular music museum, Experience Music Project (EMP), also known as the Rock Museum.

The Advisory Board and Guidance Committee will be chaired by Greg Bear, who has been one of the guiding lights behind the scenes. The board, which will be the panel of experts on SF matters (*also guidance committee), includes Forrest J Ackerman, *Astrid Anderson Bear, Betty Ballantine, Ray Bradbury, *David Brin, *Charles N. Brown, *Octavia Butler, Orson Scott Card, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Freeman Dyson, *James Gunn, Ray Harryhausen, *David G. Hartwell, *Tim Kirk, Syne Mitchell, Dennis Muren, Kim Stanley Robinson, Stanley Schmidt, *Donna Shirley, Neal Stephenson, Phil Tippet, Bjo Trimble, *Michael Whelan, and Jane Yolen.

Press accounts of the museum's announcement include this New York Times article.

Monday 14 April 2003

Awards

The Horror Writer's Association will present Lifetime Achievement Awards to Stephen King and Jerry Williamson (who publishes as J.N. Williamson), along with winners of its Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement (nominees listed last week), at the HWA Annual Conference and Bram Stoker Awards banquet in New York City, June 6-8.

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Finalists for this year's Prometheus Awards, given by the Libertarian Futurist Society, have been released. Winners will be announced over the Labor Day weekend in Toronto, Ontario in an awards ceremony at the World Science Fiction Convention, Torcon 3.

NOVEL

Dark Light, Ken MacLeod (Tor)

Escape from Heaven, J. Neil Schulman (Pulpless.com)

The Haunted Air, F. Paul Wilson (Forge)

Night Watch, Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)

Schild's Ladder, Greg Egan (HarperCollins/Eos)

HALL OF FAME

A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess

It Can't Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

"Requiem", Robert A. Heinlein

That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis

Background on the awards, which have been given since 1979, is at the LFS website.

Death

Willis E. McNelly, SF critic, editor, and academic, died in Fullerton CA on April 7, 2003, at the age of 82. Best known for compiling The Dune Encyclopedia (1984), a Hugo-nominated reference work about Frank Herbert’s "Dune" series, McNelly also co-edited several anthologies, wrote numerous critical articles about SF, served as juror for the Campbell Memorial Award, and created the Science Fiction Section of its Special Collections Library at California State University at Fullerton, where he was a long-time professor. Obituary:

CSU Fullerton

People and Publishing

Reproductions of paintings by fantasy artist Rowena Morrill have been discovered in a Baghdad home apparently used by Saddam Hussein, as seen in news stories from CNN, USA Today, and San Francisco Chronicle. The report at SF Site identifies the paintings as "King Dragon" and "The Guardian Serpent".

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Wildside Press has acquired publishing assets of Borgo Press, including Borgo's imprints Starmont House, FAX Collector's Editions, and Brownstone Books. Borgo Press and Starmont House published over 100 nonfiction titles on SF and fantasy authors and topics from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. Borgo's owner, Robert Reginald, is joining Wildside Press as a consultant. Wildside president and publisher John Betancourt will be contacting Borgo and Starmont authors about reprints of their works; interested authors may contact him through Wildside Press (P.O. Box 301, Holicong, PA 18928-0301) or via email at wildsidepress@yahoo.com.

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A protest in downtown Portland OR on Saturday, April 12, against the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the government's surveillance abilities, included SF author Ursula K. Le Guin, Infinite Matrix editor Eileen Gunn, and short story writers R.V. Branham and L. Timmel Duchamp. Further details at Oregon Public Broadcasting, Douglas Lain's website, and Associated Press via Katu.com.

Earlier April News