Karen Lord has been named the winner of the 2011 William L. Crawford Award for her first novel Redemption in Indigo (Small Beer Press). The award, presented annually at The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, is for a new fantasy writer whose first book appeared in the previous year. This year’s conference [...]

Shaun Tan’s animated short film The Lost Thing (Passion Pictures), directed by Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann and based on Tan’s illustrated book of the same name, is one of five finalists for the Oscars in the Short Film (Animated) category. Comments Tan, who plans to attend the ceremony, “Time to finally get a tux [...]

The Con or Bust auction, to raise funds for people of color to attend Wiscon and other SFnal conventions, is currently open for offers from people interested in donating items for auction, and is also accepting direct donations. The auction will open for bidding February 21, 2011 at 12:01 a.m. EST and closes March 6, [...]

The 2010 Edgar Award nominees were announced by the Mystery Writers of America. There are two fantasies in the YA category: 7 Souls by Barnabas Miller & Jordan Orlando (Delacorte) and Dust City by Robert Paul Weston (Razorbill). Expiration Date by Duane Swiercynski (Minotaur), a fantasy, has been nominated in the Best Paperback Original category. [...]

Jack Ketchum (a pseudonym for Dallas Mayr) has been voted Grand Master by the members of the 2011 World Horror Convention, to be held April 28 – May 1, 2011 in Austin TX.

The 2010 Philip K. Dick Award nominees have been announced: Yarn, Jon Armstrong (Night Shade Books) Chill, Elizabeth Bear (Ballantine Spectra) The Reapers Are the Angels, Alden Bell (Henry Holt & Co.) Song of Scarabaeus, Sara Creasy (Eos) The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack,  Mark Hodder  (Pyr) Harmony, Project Itoh, translated by Alexander O. [...]

The British Science Fiction Association has announced the finalists for the 2010 awards. Novel: The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Orbit) Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot) The Restoration Game, Ken Macleod (Orbit) The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Gollancz) Lightborn, Tricia Sullivan (Orbit) Short Fiction ‘‘Flying in the Face of God”, Nina Allan (Interzone #227) “The [...]

Author, bookseller, and collector Jerry Weist, 61, died January 7, 2011 after a long struggle with cancer. Weist wrote the Hugo Award-nominated Ray Bradbury: An Illustrated Life (2002) and The 100 Greatest Comic Books (2004). He was an art expert with an emphasis on comic book, pulp, and science fiction art, and wrote two editions [...]

The 2011 Reading List from the Reference and User Services Association was announced January 10, 2011 at the American Library Association midwinter meeting in San Diego. Categories of genre interest include: Science Fiction The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Pyr) Short List: Ark, Stephen Baxter (Roc) The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (Subterranean) Blonde Bombshell, [...]

Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker (Little, Brown) won the 2011 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature, announced January 10, 2011 at the American Library Association midwinter conference in San Diego. Terry Pratchett received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults. Also of genre interest: the Odyssey [...]