SMOFCon Scholarship Offered by SFSFC

San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (SFSFC) has voted to offer a scholarship of $500 to help convention runners in training to attend the SMOFCon convention, to be held in Austin TX, December 4-6, 2009. SMOFCon is an annual convention about organizing science fiction conventions. The scholarship is open to anyone involved in running cons, regardless of their place of residence. However, applicants must be able to demonstrate that their attendance at SMOFCon will benefit San Francisco Bay Area conventions. Applications will be judged by the scholarship adminstrators, who for 2009 are once again the three directors of SFSFC who have chaired Worldcons: David W. Clark, Kevin Standlee, and Tom Whitmore. An application form is available from the SFSFC web site, or by writing to SFSFC at PO Box 61363, Sunnyvale CA 94088-1363. SFSFC must receive applications by October 15, 2009 (postmark date does not count).

Zoran Zivkovic, 2009 World Fantasy Guest of Honor

Author Zoran Zivkovic will be a GoH at the 35th World Fantasy Convention, to be held October 29 - November 1, 2009, in San José, California. Zivkovic has won numerous literary awards, including the World Fantasy Award in 2003. Nearly 50 foreign editions of his books have appeared in more than 20 languages. A professor of creative writing at the University of Belgrade, Živković lives in Serbia with his wife Mia, and their twin sons Uroš and Andreja.

World Fantasy Life Achievement Winners

The World Fantasy Life Achievement Award winners for 2009 are Jane Yolen and Ellen Asher. The award is presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field. Life Achievement winners are announced in advance; other winners will be announced at this year's World Fantasy Convention, to be held October 29 - November 1, 2009 in San José, California.

WSFA Small Press Award Finalists

The Washington Science Fiction Association announced the finalists for the 2009 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction. The award was created to showcase small-press publishers by recognizing the "best original short fiction" published by small presses in the previous year. The winner will be presented at Capclave, held October 16-18, 2009 in Rockville, Maryland.

Finalists are:

• “The Absence of Stars: Part 1”, Greg Siewert (Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show Dec 08)
• “Drinking Problem”, K.D. Wentworth (Seeds of Change)
• “Hard Rain at the Fortean Café”, Lavie Tidhar (Aeon Speculative Fiction Magazine #14)
• “His Last Arrow”, Christopher Sequeira (Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes)
• “Silent as Dust", James Maxey (Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show Jan 08)
• “Spider the Artist”, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (Seeds of Change)
• “The Toy Car”, Luisa Maria Garcia Velasco (Aberrant Dreams Apr 08)

2009 Locus Award Winners

Winners of the 2009 Locus Awards were announced at a ceremony and banquet June 27, 2009 in Seattle WA during the Science Fiction Awards Weekend.

Science Fiction Novel: Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic UK, Morrow)

Fantasy Novel: Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)

First Novel: Singularity's Ring, Paul Melko (Tor)

Young-Adult Book: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury)

Novella: "Pretty Monsters", Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters)

Novelette: "Pump Six", Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories)

Short Story: "Exhalation", Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)

Anthology: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's)

Collection: Pump Six and Other Stories, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books)

Non-Fiction/Art Book: P. Craig Russell, Coraline: The Graphic Novel, Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins)

Editor: Ellen Datlow

Artist: Michael Whelan

Magazine: F&SF

Publisher: Tor

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who voted! Look for detailed analysis of the voting in the July issue.

2009 Locus Award Finalists

The top five finalists in each category of the 2009 Locus Awards have been announced. The Locus Awards will be presented during the Science Fiction Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 26-27, 2009. Finalists are:

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• Matter, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK)
• City at the End of Time, Greg Bear (Gollancz, Del Rey)
• Marsbound, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
• Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic UK, Morrow)
• Saturn's Children, Charles Stross (Orbit, Ace)

FANTASY NOVEL

• The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)
• Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)
• The Bell at Sealey Head, Patricia A. McKillip (Ace)
• The Dragons of Babel, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
• An Evil Guest, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

FIRST NOVEL

• Thunderer, Felix Gilman (Bantam Spectra)
• Black Ships, Jo Graham (Orbit US)
• Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Ballantine Del Rey)
• The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann, Knopf)
• Singularity's Ring, Paul Melko (Tor)

YOUNG-ADULT NOVEL

• Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor)
• The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury)
• Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
• Nation, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK, HarperCollins)
• Zoe's Tale, John Scalzi (Tor)

NOVELLA

• "The Erdmann Nexus", Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 10-11/08)
• "Pretty Monsters", Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters)
• "The Tear", Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
• Once Upon a Time in the North, Philip Pullman (Knopf)
• "True Names", Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2)

NOVELETTE

• "Pump Six", Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories)
• "The Ice War", Stephen Baxter (Asimov’s 9/08)
• "Shoggoths in Bloom"Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s 3/08)
• "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away", Cory Doctorow (Tor.com 8/08)
• "Pride and Prometheus", John Kessel (F&SF 1/08)

SHORT STORY

• "King Pelles the Sure", Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
• "Boojum", Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette (Fast Ships, Black Sails)
• "Exhalation", Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
• "The Kindness of Strangers", Nancy Kress (Fast Forward 2)
• "After the Coup", John Scalzi (Tor.com 7/08)

MAGAZINE

• Analog
• Asimov's
• F&SF
• Realms of Fantasy
• Subterranean

PUBLISHER

• Ace
• Baen
• Night Shade Books
• Subterranean Press
• Tor

ANTHOLOGY

• The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: 21st Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin)
• Galactic Empires, Gardner Dozois, ed. (SFBC)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's)
• Eclipse Two, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade Books)
• The Starry Rift, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Viking)
  

COLLECTION

• Pump Six and Other Stories, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books)
• The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
• Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link (Viking)
• The Best of Lucius Shepard, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press)
• The Best of Michael Swanwick, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean Press)

EDITOR

• Ellen Datlow
• Gardner Dozois
• David G. Hartwell
• Jonathan Strahan
• Gordon Van Gelder

ARTIST

• Bob Eggleton
• John Picacio
• Shaun Tan
• Charles Vess
• Michael Whelan

NON-FICTION/ART BOOK

• Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
• What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, Paul Kincaid (Beccon)
• Rhetorics of Fantasy, Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press)
• P. Craig Russell, Coraline: The Graphic Novel, Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins)
• Shaun Tan, Tales From Outer Suburbia (Allen & Unwin; Scholastic '09)
  

Come to the Locus Awards Ceremony in Seattle WA during the Science Fiction Awards Weekend, June 26-27, 2009!

2009 Dell Awards Winner Announced

The 2009 Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing went to "We Were Real" by Josh Eure of North Carolina State University. Eure received $500 as well as an expense-paid trip to Orlando FL where Sheila Williams presented him with the Award at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts.

First runner-up was "The Best and Bitt'rest Kiss" by Sarah Miller of Bard College at Simon's Rock, second runner-up was "Suspended" by Maggie Morgan of North Carolina State University, and honorable mentions went to "Between Dusk and Twilight" by Rahul Kanakia of Stanford University, "Locked and Keyed" by Jeannette Westwood of Stanford University, "Aeroplasty" by Elena Gleason of Knox College, and "The Case of the Unassuming Book and the Very Soiled Trousers" by Lara Donnelly of Wright State University.

For more information and photos, see the full report in the May issue of Locus.

Jordan's Series Conclusion and JordanCon

The Gathering Storm, the twelfth Wheel of Time book and the first episode of the series' concluding trilogy A Memory of Light, is slated to appear on shelves November 3, 2009 according to Tor Books. The conclusion was written in part by Jordan and is being completed by bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. After Jordan's death in 2007, his editor and wife Harriet McDougal chose Sanderson to finish the final book, now a trilogy since "the scope and size of the novel was such that it could not be contained in a single volume. " Plans for comics series and graphic novels of Jordan's books, as well as a film by Universal Pictures, are also in the works.

The first ever JordanCon will take place this year, April 17-19 in Alpharetta GA. Jordan's wife and editor, Harriet McDougal, Tom Doherty, Brandon Sanderson, and other "Team Jordan" members will be featured guests.

SFRA Awards Winners Announced

The SFRA Awards winners were announced today by SFRA president Lisa Yaszek:

The Pilgrim Award — Brian Attebery
The Pioneer Award — "Giving An Account of Oneself: Ethics, Alterity, Air", Neil Easterbrook
The Clareson Award — Hal Hall
The Mary Kay Bray Award — Sandor Klapcsik for his review of Rewired (SFRAR #284)
The Graduate Student Paper Award — "The Imperial Unconscious: Samuel R. Delany's The Fall of the Towers", Dave Higgins


This year's SFRA conference will take place June 11-14, 2009, in Atlanta GA.

2011 Seattle Worldcon Bid Drops Out

Bobbie DuFault, chair for the 2011 Seattle Worldcon bid, announced with much regret that Seattle is dropping out due to difficulty securing facilities appropriate for the event. "Seattle is such a popular destination for conventions that all of the reasonable dates (early August through early September) already have groups that have firmer commitments than we do.... We do not want to host the Worldcon in a venue and situation that would prove to be less than World class.... We will be reviewing future opportunities with our potential facilities with an eye toward bidding for a subsequent year."

This leaves Reno as the only Worldcon site bid for 2011.

New Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo in 2010

With the continuing success of their New York Comic Con, Reed Exhibitions plans to launch a Midwestern Comic Con, the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), to be held the weekend of April 16-18, 2010. The company is also changing the dates of the 2010 New York Comic Con (NYCC), now taking place October 8-10, 2010, instead of in February (this year's con will be held February 6-8, 2009). The original Comic Con in San Diego (SDCC) will still be held July 23-26, 2009.

Reed Exhibitions Canada is also closing the 2009 trade show BookExpo Canada, citing insufficient interest from publishers. Reed plans to have BookExpo America serve all of North America's publishers and booksellers.