The British Fantasy Society has announced the finalists for the 2012 British Fantasy Awards:

Best Novel (There will be two awards in the best Novel category: The August Derleth Fantasy Award for best horror novel and The Robert Holdstock Award for best fantasy novel):

• The Heroes, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)
• 11.22.63, Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Cyber Circus, Kim Lakin-Smith (NewCon)
• A Dance With Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Harper Voyager)
• The Ritual, Adam Nevill (Pan)
• Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)

Best Novella

• Terra Damnata, James Cooper (PS)
• “Ghosts with Teeth”, Peter Crowther (A Book of Horrors)
• King Death, Paul Finch (Spectral)
• “Near Zennor”, Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors)
• “The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer”, John Ajvide Lindqvist (A Book of Horrors)
• Gorel and the Pot Bellied God, Lavid Tidhar (PS)

Best Short Story

• “Dermot”, Simon Bestwick (Black Static 8-9/11)
• “Sad, Dark Thing”, Michael Marshall Smith (A Book of Horrors)
• “Florrie”, Adam Nevill (House of Fear)
• “Alice Through the Plastic Sheet”, Robert Shearman (A Book of Horrors)
• “The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter”, Angela Slatter (A Book of Horrors)

Best Anthology

• A Book of Horrors, Stephen Jones, ed. (Jo Fletcher)
• House of Fear, Jonathan Oliver, ed. (Solaris)
• The Weird, Jeff & Ann VandeMeer, eds. (Corvus)
• Gutshot, Conrad Williams, ed. (PS Publishing)

Best Collection

• Rumours of the Marvellous, Peter Atkins (Alchemy)
• Mrs Midnight, Reggie Oliver (Tartarus)
• Everyone’s Just So So Special, Robert Shearman (Big Finish)
• A Glass of Shadow, Liz Williams (NewCon)

Best Non-Fiction

• Lest You Should Suffer Nightmares: A Biography of Herbert Van Thal, Johnny Mains (Screaming Dreams)
• Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero, Grant Morrison (Jonathan Cape)
• Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s, Kim Newman (Bloomsbury)
• Studies in Terror: Landmarks of Horror Cinema, Jonathan Rigby (Signum)
• Case Notes, Peter Tennant (Black Static)

Best Artist

• Ben Baldwin
• Vincent Chong
• Les Edwards
• Daniel Serra

Best Small Press (The PS Publishing Independent Press Award)

• Chomu Press; Quentin S. Crisp
• Gray Friar Press; Gary Fry
• NewCon Press; Ian Whates
• Spectral Press; Simon Marshall-Jones

Best Magazine

• Black Static
  
• Interzone
• SFX
• The Horror Zine
  

Best Graphic Novel

• Animal Man, Jeff Lemire & Travel Foreman (DC)
• Batwoman, J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman (DC)
• Locke and Key, Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
• The Unwritten, Mike Carey & Peter Gross (Vertigo)
• The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard (Image)

There are also nominees  in the screenplay category. Voting is open to all current members of the BFS, plus members of FantasyCon 2011 and FantasyCon 2012 who registered before March 31, 2012. Winners will be announced at this year’s British Fantasy Convention, FantasyCon 2012, held September 27 – 30, 2012 at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton, UK.

Stanley Schmidt is the winner of the 2012 Robert A. Heinlein Award, given for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space. Winners are chosen by a committee of SF authors chaired by Dr. Yoji Kondo, and receive a plaque, a sterling silver medallion, and two lapel pins, all featuring the likeness of Robert A. Heinlein.

The winner of the the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award has been announced:

• The Testament of Jessie Lamb, Jane Rogers (Sandstone Press)

The other nominees were:

• Hull Zero Three, Greg Bear (Gollancz)

• The End Specialist, Drew Magary (Harper Voyager)

• Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan)

• Rule 34, Charles Stross (Orbit)

• The Waters Rising, Sheri S. Tepper (Gollancz)

Rogers received a £2012 prize and a commemorative engraved bookend. This year’s judges were Juliet E. McKenna and Martin Lewis for the British Science Fiction Association, Phil Nanson and Nikkianne Moody for the Science Fiction Foundation, and Rob Grant for SF-FI-LONDON. Andrew M. Butler was chair of judges. Tom Hunter is award director. The winning title was announced at the SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival, May 2, 2012, in London.

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the top five finalists in each category of the 2012 Locus Awards.

Winners will be announced during the Science Fiction Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 15-17, 2012. Connie Willis will MC the ceremony and judge the annual Hawai’ian shirt contest on Saturday, June 16. Additional weekend events include author readings,  a kickoff meet-and-greet, panels with leading authors, an autograph session with books available for sale thanks to University Book Store, and a lunch banquet, all followed by the Clarion West Party on Saturday night honoring Clarion West supporters, awards weekend ticket holders, and special guests. NW Media Arts is running a writing workshop with Connie Willis and James Patrick Kelly bookending the weekend. Tickets are still available here.

Science Fiction Novel

• Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• 11/22/63, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton as 11.22.63)
• Embassytown, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)
• Rule 34, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
• The Children of the Sky, Vernor Vinge (Tor)

Fantasy Novel

• A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
• Snuff, Terry Pratchett (Harper; Doubleday UK)
• The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss (DAW; Gollancz)
• Deathless, Catherynne M. Valente (Tor)
• Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)

First Novel

• Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (Crown; Century)
• God’s War, Kameron Hurley (Night Shade)
• Soft Apocalypse, Will McIntosh (Night Shade)
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday)
• Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, Genevieve Valentine (Prime)

Young Adult Book

• Planesrunner, Ian McDonald (Pyr)
• Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor (Viking)
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs (Quirk)
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Catherynne M. Valente (Feiwel and Friends)
• Goliath, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

Novella

• The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs, James P. Blaylock (Subterranean)
• “The Man Who Bridged the Mist”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 10-11/11)
• “Kiss Me Twice”, Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s 6/11)
• “The Ants of Flanders”, Robert Reed (F&SF 7-8/11)
• Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA)

Novelette

• “Underbridge”, Peter S. Beagle (Naked City)
• “The Copenhagen Interpretation”, Paul Cornell (Asimov’s 7/11)
• “The Summer People”, Kelly Link (Tin House: The Ecstatic/Steampunk!)
• “What We Found”, Geoff Ryman (F&SF 9-10/11)
• “White Lines on a Green Field”, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Fall ’11)

Short Story

• “The Way It Works Out and All”, Peter S. Beagle (F&SF 7-8/11)
• “The Case of Death and Honey”, Neil Gaiman (A Study in Sherlock)
• “The Paper Menagerie”, Ken Liu (F&SF 3-4/11)
• “The Bread We Eat in Dreams”, Catherynne M. Valente (Apex 11/11)
• “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld 4/11)

Magazine

• Analog
• Asimov’s
• Clarkesworld
• F&SF
• Tor.com

Publisher

• Baen
• Night Shade
• Small Beer
• Subterranean
• Tor

Anthology

• Welcome to Bordertown, Holly Black & Ellen Kushner, eds. (Random House)
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-eighth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
• Steampunk!, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, eds. (Candlewick; Walker UK)
• Eclipse Four, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade)
• Engineering Infinity, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris; Solaris UK)

Collection

• Sleight of Hand, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)
• The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller, Volume 1,
  Carol Emshwiller (Nonstop)
• Two Worlds and In Between, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean)
• After the Apocalypse, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer)
• The Bible Repairman and Other Stories, Tim Powers (Tachyon)

Editor

• Ellen Datlow
• Gardner Dozois
• Jonathan Strahan
• Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
• Gordon Van Gelder

Artist

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

Non-fiction

• In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, Margaret Atwood (Talese; Virago; Signal (Canada))
• Becoming Ray Bradbury, Jonathan R. Eller (University of Illinois)
• Musings and Meditations, Robert Silverberg (Nonstop)
• Evaporating Genres: Essays on Fantastic Literature, Gary K. Wolfe (Wesleyan)
• Sightings: Reviews 2002-2006, Gary K. Wolfe (Beccon)

Art Books

• Out of This World: Science Fiction But Not As You Know It, Mike Ashley, ed. (British Library)
• Cor Blok, A Tolkien Tapestry: Pictures to Accompany The Lord of the Rings (HarperCollins UK)
• Spectrum 18: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner (Underwood)
• Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art, Karen Haber, ed. (Rockport)
• Jeffrey Jones, Jeffrey Jones: A Life in Art (IDW)

The 2012 inductees to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame are Joe Haldeman; James Tiptree, Jr.; James Cameron; and Virgil Finlay.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame display will reopen as part of the Icons of Science Fiction exhibit at the Experience Music Project Museum, formerly known as the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum, on June 9, 2012 in Seattle, WA.

The World Horror Convention 2013 will be hosted by the Horror Writers Association and will be part of the Bram Stoker Awards weekend in New Orleans, June 13-16, 2013.

For more information, see The Bram Stoker Awards Weekend incorporating World Horror Convetion 2013 website.

In commemoration of 100 year anniversary of the birth of Canadian SF writer A.E. van Vogt, the Winnipeg Science Fiction Association Inc. (WINSFA) has announced the creation of the A.E. van Vogt Award. The award will spotlight Canadian SF and will consist of a presentation piece and a monetary prize, with an award ceremony in Winnipeg in late September.

The 2012 Edgar Award winners were presented by the Mystery Writers of America for the best mystery fiction, non-fiction, and television produced in 2011.

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit US) won for Best Paperback Original, and Michael Dirda’s On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling won in the Best Critical/Biographical category.

Awards were presented at the 66th Gala Banquet, April 26, 2012 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

For the full list of winners, visit the Edgar Awards site.

The 2012 Ditmar Awards ballot, for Australian SF, has been announced:

Best Novel

• Debris (The Veiled Worlds 1), Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
• Burn Bright, Marianne de Pierres (Random House Australia)
• The Shattered City (Creature Court 2), Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperCollins)
• Mistification, Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot)
• The Courier’s New Bicycle, Kim Westwood (HarperCollins)

Best Novella or Novelette

• “And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living”, Deborah Biancotti (Ishtar)
• “Above”, Stephanie Campisi (Above/Below)
• “The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt”, Paul Haines (The Last Days of Kali Yuga)
• “Below”, Ben Peek (Above/Below)
• “Julia Agrippina’s Secret Family Bestiary”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Love and Romanpunk)
• “The Sleeping and the Dead”, Cat Sparks (Ishtar)

Best Short Story

• “Bad Power”, Deborah Biancotti (Bad Power)
• “Breaking the Ice”, Thoraiya Dyer (Cosmos 37)
• “The Last Gig of Jimmy Rucker”, Martin Livings & Talie Helene (More Scary Kisses)
• “The Patrician”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Love and Romanpunk)
• “Alchemy”, Lucy Sussex (Thief of Lives)
• “All You Can Do Is Breathe”, Kaaron Warren (Blood and Other Cravings)

Best Collected Work

• Bad Power, Deborah Biancotti (Twelfth Planet)
• The Last Days of Kali Yuga, Paul Haines (Brimstone)
• Nightsiders, Sue Isle (Twelfth Planet)
• Ishtar, Amanda Pillar & K.V. Taylor, eds. (Gilgamesh)
• Love and Romanpunk, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Twelfth Planet)

Best Artwork

• “Finishing School”, Kathleen Jennings, in Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (Candlewick)
• Cover art for The Freedom Maze (Small Beer), Kathleen Jennings

Best Fan Writer

• Bruce Gillespie, for body of work including “The Golden Age of Fanzines is Now”, and SF Commentary 81 & 82
• Robin Pen, for “The Ballad of the Unrequited Ditmar”
• Alexandra Pierce, for body of work including reviews at Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus, Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth, and Randomly Yours, Alex
• Tansy Rayner Roberts, for body of work including reviews at Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus, and Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth
• Sean Wright, for body of work including “Authors and Social Media” series in Adventures of a Bookonaut

Best Fan Artist

• Rebecca Ing, for work in Scape
• Kathleen Jennings, for work in Errantry, including “The Dalek Game”
• Dick Jenssen, for body of work including work in IRS, Steam Engine Time, SF Commentary, and Scratchpad
• Lisa Rye, for “Steampunk Portal” series
• Rhianna Williams, for work in Nullas Anxietas Convention Programme Book

Best Fan Publication in Any Medium

• SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie, ed.
• Galactic Chat podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts & Sean Wright
• Galactic Suburbia podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayer Roberts, & Alex Pierce
• The Writer and the Critic podcast, Kirstyn McDermott & Ian Mond
• The Coode Street podcast, Gary K. Wolfe & Jonathan Strahan

Best New Talent

• Joanne Anderton
• Alan Baxter
• Steve Cameron

William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review

• Russell Blackford, for “Currently reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke”, in Metamagician and the Hellfire Club
  
• Damien Broderick & Van Ikin, for editing Warriors of the Tao: The Best of Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature
  
• Liz Grzyb & Talie Helene, for “2010: The Year in Review”, in The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010
  
• David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts & Tehani Wessely, for “Reviewing New Who” series, in A Conversational Life
• Alexandra Pierce & Tehani Wessely, for reviews of Vorkosigan Saga, in Randomly Yours, Alex

Voting for the Ditmar Awards is conducted in accordance with the rules, and is open to members and supporting members of Continuum 8 and to members of Swancon Thirty Six who were eligible to vote in the 2011 Awards. Voting will remain open until one minute before midnight, Perth time, on Sunday, 27th of
May, 2012 (ie. 11:59 p.m., GMT+8). For more, see the Ditmar Awards Website.

Tor Books president and publisher Tom Doherty has announced the company will stop selling e-books encrypted with digital rights management (DRM) software starting this July. This change encompasses the Tor, Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen lines.

Doherty wrote, “Our authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time… They’re a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them. It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of e-reader to another.”

Tor titles are expected to remain available from current e-book retailers, and to become available from retailers who exclusively sell DRM-free e-books.

While several prominent genre publishers — including Baen and Night Shade Books — already sell DRM-free e-books, Tor is the first imprint of a “Big Six” trade publisher to embrace DRM-free digital publishing. Tor is the largest publisher of SF/fantasy in the world.