Winners of the 2011 Chesley Awards, given by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists (ASFA) were announced at Renovation, the 69th Worldcon, August 18, 2011. The winners are highlighted: Best Cover Illustration – Paperback Book Jason Chan, for Geist by Phillipa Ballantine (Ace) Volkan Baga, for The Zombies of Oz by Christian Endres [...]

British SF writer Colin Harvey, 50, died August 15, 2011 of a stroke. Harvey began publishing short fiction in 2001, with about 30 stories appearing in various anthologies, Interzone, Albedo One, and other magazines. His first novel Vengeance appeared in 2001, followed by Lightning Days (2006), The Silk Palace (2007), Blind Faith (2008), Winter Song [...]

Lynne M. Thomas will take over as editor of Apex Magazine starting with issue #30, expected to appear in November 2011. She replaces outgoing editor Catherynne M. Valente. Thomas is the curator of Rare Books and Special Collections at North Illinois University and editor of the Hugo-nominated essay anthology Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who [...]

This year’s Worldcon, Renovation, will provide live-video-streaming of the Hugo Awards ceremony. Text-based coverage will also be provided through CoverItLive and Twitter announcements. The Hugo Awards will take place on August 20, 2011 at 8 PM Pacific Daylight time. Jay Lake and Ken Scholes will host the ceremony. To read more, click here.

George R.R. Martin has reported that two autographed scripts from the first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, based on his A Song of Ice and Fire series, were apparently stolen from the US mail. The scripts were intended to be auctioned for charity. The final shooting scripts for “Baelor” and “Fire and Blood”, episodes [...]

National Public Radio has released the results of this year’s annual readers’ survey. They invited listeners to choose their favorite SF and fantasy novels (excluding YA, horror, and paranormal romances). More than 5,000 people submitted nominations to produce a list of 237 nominees, and over 60,000 votes were cast to create a list of the [...]

Nominees have been announced for the second annual Airship Awards, given by Steamcon. Categories include Written, Visual, Aural, Community Contributor, and Potpourri. The written category nominee list follows: Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Tee Morris & Pip Ballantine (Harper Voyager) The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, Mark Hodder (Pyr) Camera Obscura, [...]

After totaling the votes for the 2011 Hugo Awards, the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention announced a record-breaking voter turnout. Voters from 33 countries cast 2100 valid final ballots, a 41.6% turnout.  This breaks the 1980 record of 1788 ballots cast. Hugo Award winners will be announced August 20, 2011 at Renovation, the 69th World [...]

The US Postal Service has announced the 2012 release of a forever stamp in honor of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the early-twentieth-century author best known for his Tarzan of the Apes series and John Carter of Mars books. The stamp, which shows an image of Tarzan clinging to a tree combined with a profile of Burroughs [...]

Charion West has announced workshop instructors for 2012. They are: Mary Rosenblum, Hiromi Goto, George R.R. Martin, Connie Willis, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, and Chuck Palahniuk (2012 Susan C. Petrey Fellow). The 2012 workshop will take place June 17 through July 27. Applications will open in December 2011 and are due March 1, 2012. [...]