Dragon Awards Refuse Withdrawal

As reported yesterday, authors Alison Littlewood and John Scalzi attempted to withdraw their books from consideration for the Dragon Awards. Littlewood reports that Dragon Con president Pat Henry has refused her withdrawal. Henry told her,

While I appreciate your sense of fair play, I must decline your request to remove The Hidden People from the Dragon Award Nominations.

We are aware of the rabid puppies and justice warriors  efforts to effect the voting and we go through a number of steps to avoid ballot stuffing or other vote rigging behaviors.  While we didn’t start the Dragon Awards to foil these two groups, we believe that as we add voters, they will become irrelevant in the our awards.

Littlewood concludes, “I tried. I have never heard of any awards keeping writers on the nominees list against their wishes, particularly when those wishes are surely the same as the organisers’ – to ensure that the process goes forward fairly and without interference. However, it seems in this case there is little more I can do.”

Both Scalzi’s and Littlewood’s books remain on the Dragon Awards ballot.