Finalists for the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic have been announced: Adult: The Mystery of Grace, Charles de Lint (Tor) Indigo Springs, A.M. Dellamonica (Tor) Makers, Cory Doctorow (Tor) The Sunless Countries, Karl Schroeder (Tor) Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor) Young Adult: Give Up the Ghost, [...]

A badly burned body presumed to be that of author Fergus Gwynplaine MacIntyre was found June 25, 2010 in Brooklyn NY. He apparently committed suicide by setting fire to his apartment. Andrew Porter has details. (Update: New York police have confirmed that the body was MacIntyre’s.) His exact age (and many other biographical details) are [...]

The 2010 Locus Awards winners were announced at the annual Science Fiction Awards Weekend, held June 25-27, 2010 in Seattle, WA. The Awards were covered live, and a full report will appear in the August issue. Best SF Novel: Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor) Best Fantasy Novel: The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; [...]

Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers have announced a contest for new writers: The Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now Prize. Writers are invited to submit novels set on “some version of the past, present or future of a planet Earth” — alternate histories, parallel universes, etc., but all set on Earth and [...]

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book is the winner of the prestigious 2010 Carnegie Medal, awarded to “the most outstanding book for children” published in the UK. The Graveyard Book also won the 2009 Newbery Medal, given by the American Library Association, and is the first book ever to win both prizes. Shortlisted books included Terry [...]

The 2010 John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalists have been named: The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood (Talese) The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade) Transition, Iain M. Banks (Orbit) Makers, Cory Doctorow (Tor) Steal Across the Sky, Nancy Kress (Tor) Gardens of the Sun, Paul McAuley (Pyr) The City & The City, China [...]

The 2009 David Gemmell Legend Awards winners have been announced: Best Fantasy Novel: Empire: The Legend of Sigmar, Graham McNeill (Black Library) Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz, Orbit) The Gathering Storm, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (Tor) The Cardinal’s Blades, Pierre Pevel (Gollancz) Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) The Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer: [...]

The British Fantasy Society has announced finalists for their 2010 British Fantasy Awards. The nominees are: Best Novel (The August Derleth Fantasy Award): Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz) The Naming of the Beasts, Mike Carey (Orbit) Under the Dome, Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton) Futile Flame, Sam Stone (House of Murky Depths) One, Conrad [...]

Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author José Saramago, 87, died Friday June 18, 2010, at home on the island of Lanzarote in the Spanish Canary Islands, after a long illness. Saramago received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998; he was the first Portuguese-language author to receive this honor. Many of his works dealt with fantastic themes, [...]

Editor, bibliographer, and scholar Everett Franklin Bleiler, 90, died June 13, 2010 in Ithaca NY. He compiled The Checklist of Fantastic Literature: A Bibliography of Fantasy, Weird and Science Fiction Books Published in the English Language (1948), which formed the foundation of modern SF bibliography. With T.E. Ditky he edited the first annual Year’s Best [...]