“a nearly fatal case of Toxic Shock brought on by a visit to my dentist. Apparently this is not uncommon. In my case the dental work unloaded such a spillage of poisonous bacteria into my blood that my whole system crashed, putting me into a coma. I spent several days in Intensive Care, with a machine breathing for me. Later, my doctors said that they had not anticipated a happy ending until I started to fight, repeatedly pulling out the tubes that I was constantly gagging on. After a few days of nightmarish delusions I woke up to my life again, tired, twenty pounds lighter, but happy to be back from a very dark place. And here in the world I intend to stay. I’ve books to write, films to make and paintings to paint. I seem to have come home with my sight clearer somehow, and my sense of purpose intensified.”

Red Tentacle (Novel)

• A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness & Siobhan Dowd (Walker)

• The Enterprise of Death, Jesse Bullington (Orbit)
• Embassytown, China Miéville (Del Rey; Tor UK)
• The Testament of Jesse Lamb, Jane Rogers (Sandstone)
• Osama, Lavie Tidhar (PS)

Golden Tentacle (Debut Novel)

• God’s War, Kameron Hurley (Night Shade)

• Among Thieves, Douglas Hulick (Tor)
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday; Harvill Secker)
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs (Quirk)
• The Samaritan, Fred Venturini (Blank Slate)

Inky Tentacle (Cover Art)

• The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan, design by Peter Mendelsund (Canongate)

• Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch, illustration by Stephen Walter, design by Patrick Knowles/TAG Fine Arts (Gollancz)
• The Prague Cemetery, Umberto Eco, illustration by John Spencer, design by Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker)
• Equations of Life, Simon Morden, design by Lauren Panepinto (Orbit)
• A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness & Siobhan Dowd, illustration by Jim Kay (Walker)

The “Black Tentacle,” an award presented at the discretion of the judges, went to the publisher SelfMadeHero.

The winner of the Red Tentacle received £750, and winners of the Golden Tentacle and Inky Tentacle won £250 each. All finalists received a bottle of rum from award sponsor The Kraken Rum.

Judges were Lauren Beukes, Rebecca Levene, Anne C. Perry, and Jared Shurin. Judges for the art award were Darren Banks, Hayley Campbell, Catherine Hemelryk, Craig Kennedy, and Anne C. Perry. For more: www.thekitschies.com.

His first publication of genre interest was poem “Dreamer” in Weird Tales (1949) as C.S. Youd, with first SF story “Christmas Tree” appearing as Christopher Youd in 1949. His story “A Few Kindred Spirits” (1965), as John Christopher, was a Nebula finalist.

First novel The Winter Swan (1949), as Christopher Youd, was fantasy, and he produced a number of non-SF works in the following years under various names.

The Twenty-Second Century (1954) collected some of his SF stories, and his first true SF novel was The Year of the Comet (1955; in the US as Planet in Peril, 1959), all as John Christopher. Other adult SF work includes The Long Winter (1962; as The World in Winter), Sweeney’s Island (1964; as Cloud and Silver in the UK), The Possessors (1965), A Wrinkle in the Skin (1965; as The Ragged Edge in the US, 1966), The Little People (1966), Pendulum (1968), and Bad Dream (2003).

He turned to children’s SF and fantasy with The White Mountains (1967), beginning the Tripods series, which also includes The City of Gold and Lead (1967), The Pool of Fire (1968), and prequel When the Tripods Came (1988). He also wrote The Prince in Waiting series, the Fireball series, and numerous standalones for children.

Born April 16, 1922 in Huyton, Lancaster, Lancashire, Youd attended Peter Symonds’ School in Winchester, Hampshire before serving in the Royal Corps of Signals from 1941-46. He became a full-time writer in 1958.

For more, see his entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

A complete obituary will appear in the March issue of Locus Magazine.

Late last year fiction editor Karen Meisner stepped down as well. Senior fiction editor Jed Hartman remains on staff. 

The magazine is currently looking for two volunteers to fill the vacant positions. For more information, see the announcement on the Strange Horizons website.

Ardath Frances Hurst was born February 20, 1930 in Timpson TX, and attended high school in Nagodoches. She married Joe E. Mayhar in 1958. They lived in Oregon for a few years before returning to Texas in the 1970s. Mayhard worked as a dairyman, chicken farmer, and proofreader before becoming a full-time writer in 1982. She ran the East Texas Bookstore in the ’50s and ’60s, and with her husband operated bookshop View from Orbit beginning in 1984 until the late ’90s. She also taught writing.

Her husband predeceased her in 1999. She is survived by two sons and two stepsons.

See the March issue of Locus for a complete obituary.

In related news, Dorchester’s sole remaining editorial staff, Chris Keeslar, is no longer employed with the company as of January 31, 2012. Keeslar sent an email to colleagues which directs general questions to Hannah Wolfson (hwolfson@dorchesterpub.com), rights questions to Sam Hazell (shazell@dorchesterpub.com), accounting questions to Loretta Falk (lfalk@dorchesterpub.com), royalties questions to Brian Chinn (bchinn@dorchesterpub.com), and the ordering of any trade paperbacks to Kelley Allen (kallen@dorchesterpub.com).

The convention will be held in Brighton, Sussex, October 31 – November 3, 2013. For more information, see www.wfc2013.org.

Born May 19, 1948 in Glasgow, Scotland, Matheson spent nearly a decade as director of the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop when it was held at Michigan State University in East Lansing MI. He retired as director August 1, 2005. Matheson was also Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Michigan State University, and the author of several works of non-fiction.

A public memorial service will be held on (Saturday) April 7, at 2 pm, in the MSU Alumni Chapel.

See the March issue of Locus for a complete obituary.

The award, which includes a cash prize, is presented annually at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, and is designated for an exceptionally promising writer whose first fantasy book was published the preceding year. Prior winners include Jonathan Lethem, Charles de Lint, Greer Gilman, Judith Tarr, Kij Johnson, Joe Hill, M. Rickert, Daryl Gregory, Christopher Barzak, Jedediah Berry and, last year, Karen Lord.

The nominators for this year’s award also shortlisted Erin Morgenstern for The Night Circus, Téa Obreht for The Tiger’s Wife, Stina Leicht for Of Blood and Honey, and Ransom Riggs for Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Those participating in the selection included Stacie Hanes, Niall Harrison, Ellen Klages, Kelly Link, Cheryl Morgan, Graham Sleight, and Paul Witcover.

The 2012 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts will take place March 21-25 in Orlando FL. Further details are at www.iafa.org.

Best Novel:

• Cyber Circus, Kim Lakin-Smith (Newcon Press)
• Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan)
• The Islanders, Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
• By Light Alone, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
• Osama, Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)

Best Short Fiction

• “The Silver Wind”, Nina Allan (Interzone #233)
• “The Copenhagen Interpretation”, Paul Cornell (Asimov’s, July 2011)
• “Afterbirth”, Kameron Hurley (www.kameronhurley.com)
• “Covehithe”, China Miéville (The Guardian)
• “Of Dawn”, Al Robertson (Interzone #235)

Best Non-Fiction

• Out of This World: Science Fiction But Not as We Know It, Mike Ashley (British Library)
• The SF Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition, John Clute, Peter Nicholls, & David Langford, eds. (SF Gateway)
• Review of Arslan, M.J. Engh & Abigail Nussbaum (Asking the Wrong Questions blog)
• SF Mistressworks, Ian Sales, ed. (SF Mistressworks)
• Pornokitsch, Jared Shurin & Anne Perry, eds. (Pornokitsch)
• The Unsilent Library: Essays on the Russell T. Davies Era of the New Doctor Who, Graham Sleight, Tony Keen, & Simon Bradshaw (Science Fiction Foundation)

Best Art

• Cover of Ian Whates’s The Noise Revealed, Dominic Harman (Solaris)
• Cover and illustrations of Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls, Jim Kay (Walker)
• Cover of Lavie Tidhar’s Osama, Pedro Marques (PS Publishing)
• Cover of Liz Williams’s A Glass of Shadow, Anne Sudworth (Newcon Press)

According to Donna Scott, BSFA Awards Administrator, this year “we have had some very diverse nominations on the list, from filmed installations and exhibitions to podcasts and pocket books.” One example that did not make the list was the British Library’s Out of This World exhibition for the Non-Fiction Award, so “in recognition of the support it has received and its success in encouraging people to explore and enjoy science fiction… [BSFA] will be giving it the status of Specially Commended.”

Voting is open to all current members of the BSFA and Eastercon. Winners will be announced at the 2012 Eastercon, to be held April 6-9, 2012 at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Heathrow, London.