Awards season
It’s international awards nominations time for the BSFA, The Hugo Awards, the Nebula and the Bram Stoker prize.
John Scalzi has a great guest space for writers, artists and to mention their eligible works over at his Whatever blog.
But I thought I’d do one for South African writers and artists whose work I admire.
If I haven’t mentioned your eligible work here, please add in the comments. (Please check the websites of the various awards first to make sure that it IS eligible. The rules are finicky).
And if you’d like to vote for the awards?
Join ChiCon to vote for Hugos ($50 for a supporting membership buys you not just the opportunity to vote, but also electronic editions of practically every work on the ballot that year, best novels, short stories, comics, artwork, everything. It’s like an Oscars voters pack of goodness).
You could also join Science Fiction Writers of America (pro organisation, you need to qualify) and the British Science Fiction Association (great perks for those in the UK).
My eligible work:
My novel, Zoo City, is eligible for The Hugo and The Nebula.
2011 Short stories (eligible for everything)
Ghost Girl, published in Fantasy Magazine (free to read)
Unathi Battles The Black Hairballs in SFX (free to read)
Unaccounted in the Further Conflicts anthology edited by Ian Whates, NewCon Press (Buy on Amazon)
Chislehurst Messiah in Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse published by Jurassic London (Buy ebook or request review copy for nominations purposes)
Now on to the important stuff, eligible work I’ve loved this year by other South Africans:
NOVELS:
The Mall by SL Grey (aka Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg), published by Corvus. A chilling consumer horror with a sly social edge. Great review in The Independent here. Published in the UK by Corvus, 2011.
Deadlands by Lily Herne (aka Sarah Lotz and her 19 year old daughter, Savannah). Published in South Africa by Penguin, 2011. (Hugo and BFS, I *think* but not Nebula or BSFA)
SHORT STORIES:
OMG GTFO by S.L. Grey - The social media apocalypse unfolds in a hilariously disturbing tale.
The Immaculate Particle by Charlie Human - Dissolving cities and nasty cults and compromise.
Postapocalypse by Sam Wilson - Typically weird and genius Sam-ish mind-bendy stuff about perception warping reality.
These were all in Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse, published by Jurassic London. These are all eligible for the Hugo and the BSFA Awards.
It got a great review in AfricaScreams.
You can buy the e-book for a mere $2.99, packed with brilliant stories, including work by Sophia McDougall and Jon Courtenay Grimwood as well as SA stars SL Grey, Sam Wilson and Charlie Human.
But editors Anne and Jared have also generously offered free review copies to awards voters. Here’s the info on that.
(And although they’re not South African, they’ve been huge supporters of SA spec fic and just fantastic people all round, so if you wanted to, you could also nominate them for best fan writers and related work for the Hugos)
MAGAZINES:
Something Wicked is South Africa’s best (only) speculative, science fiction and horror magazine. It’s a paying market and mixes up hot local talent (Diane Awerbuck, Sarah Lotz, Sam Wilson, artists Vincent Sammy and Jesca Marisa) with stories from the likes of John Connolly.
They’ve got a list of their eligible works up over at http://www.somethingwicked.co.za/, including best editors – and trust me, Joe and Vianne work hard.
Their eligible short stories from South Africans are:
The Silver City & The Green Place by Abi Godsell
And the novella Scission by Domenico Pissanti
Eligible for best fan-art:
Pierre Smit
Jesca Marisa
Hendrik Gericke
(While you’re there, you could get the latest issue featuring an interview with Sam Wilson and Charlie Human talking about their books which have both just been snatched up by major international agents.)
And of course, Something Wicked is eligible for best semiprozine for the Hugos too.
Hmmm, I also reckon There Are No Heroes, the short film made by Donald Leitch and Kyle Stevenson based on Charlie Human’s short story, might just qualify too, although the guys might have to put the whole film up on YouTube or similar so that voters can see it.
That’s all I got off the top of my head. If you know of other eligible works or would like to punt your own (please, please check the rules on the various awards sites first to make sure that it IS eligible) or just talk about SA genre fiction in general, please do in the comments.
