This substantial prize stands out as an international and cross-disciplinary award. It will be given biennially for an excellent and substantial piece of writing in the English language, in any genre or form. The theme will change with every prize: the 2009 theme is Complexity.

All members of the University of Warwick Staff – from nursery staff and gardeners to professors and porters – are invited to make a nomination for a prize entry by August. Warwick’s honorary professors and honorary graduates will also be asked to make nominations.

China Miéville, award- winning writer of what he describes as ‘weird fiction’, will chair the panel of five judges. Other judges include mathematician Professor Ian Stewart and literary blogger Stephen Mitchelmore. A longlist of 15 to 20 titles will be announced in October 2008 followed by a shortlist of six titles in January 2009. The winner will be announced in February 2009 in Warwick.

The winning submission will represent an intellectual, scientific and/or imaginative advance and be written with an energy and clarity that make it accessible and attractive to a wide audience.
David Morley, Director of the University of Warwick’s Warwick Prize for Writing, said: “We are tremendously excited about the Warwick Prize for Writing.  The award brilliantly reflects the University’s thematic approach to learning and reputation for creative excellence. The prize itself will help define where writing might be going; what new shapes and forms it may take; and even through what media it might be conducted – including electronic forms as well as the traditional form of a book”

The University of Warwick’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift said:
“I am delighted that the University of Warwick is making this major commitment to excellence in writing.  This new prize is part of the University’s Vision 2015 plan to enhance the University’s already significant international links and position it as an intellectual gateway to the UK and beyond. The University’s Warwick Writing programme is already one of the largest and most successful in the UK and this substantial new prize will help it build its international profile in the world of literature and creative writing. “

In addition to the £50,000 monetary prize, the winning author will be awarded the opportunity to take up a short placement at the University.

To find out more visit www.warwick.ac.uk/go/prizeforwriting

The complete ballot is available on the SFWA site including links to online versions of several of the nominees.

The Washington Science Fiction Association has announced a new Small Press Award, an annual award for short fiction published by a small press.

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the final ballot for the 2006 Bram Stoker Awards.  A complete list can be found on their web site.

From Locus Online: The Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards is now updated with all awards results through the end of 2006, plus 2007 nomination lists so far announced. Also new this year:

• Sections for two additional awards — Sir Julius Vogel (New Zealand fan awards), and Carl Brandon (for works by/about people of color)
• The first online listing of the complete 2006 Locus Poll results
• Fixed paginations, and permalinks, implemented in indexes for Literary nominees, Art nominees, and Film/TV nominees 

World Horror Convention 2007 announced Thursday, January 25, that Joe R. Lansdale has been voted the winner of the 2007 Grand Master Award.

The number of votes cast this year by members of the convention was the highest in the history of the seventeen-year-old award. Previous Grand Masters included Robert Bloch, Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz.

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of more than thirty novels in all genres, including crime, western, horror and pulp adventure. He has also written scripts for comic books and animated television shows, and his novella Bubba Ho-Tep, about an aged Elvis Presley and black John F. Kennedy battling a soul-sucking mummy, was filmed by Don Coscarelli in 2002. His short story, “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” was adapted as the first episode of the first season of TV’s Masters of Horror series.

Joe R. Lansdale has received six HWA Bram Stoker Awards, the British Fantasy Award, the MWA Edgar Award, the American Mystery Award, the Horror Critics Award, the “Shot in the Dark” International Crime Writer’s Award, the Booklist Editor’s Award and the Critic’s Choice Award.

For the first time in its seventeen-year history, The World Horror Convention is being held outside the United States. With a theme exploring “The Diversity of Horror”, World Horror Convention 2007 will take place over March 29-April 1 at the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre, located in the heart of Toronto, Canada.

The 2007 Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards Presentation will be held at the convention on the Saturday evening. For details about how to purchase your tickets to this very special event, please consult the Stoker Banquet page.

[via SFWA]

The 11th Annual Awards were announced over the weekend.

• Golden Aurealis (Selected from the winners of the other divisions below)
  Novel: The Pilo Family Circus, Will Elliott (ABC Books)
  Short Story: "The Arrival", Shaun Tan (Lothian)

• Science Fiction
  Novel: K-Machines, Damien Broderick (Avalon)
  Short Story: “The Seventh Letter”, Sean Williams (Bulletin Summer Reading Edition)
  
• Horror
  Novel (split): The Pilo Family Circus, Will Elliott (ABC Books) / Prismatic, Edwina Grey (Lothian)
  Short Story: “Dead of Winter”, Stephen Dedman (Weird Tales #339)
  
• Fantasy
  Novel: Wildwood Dancing, Juliet Marillier (Pan MacMillan)
  Short Story: “A Fine Magic”, Margo Lanagan (Eidolon I)
  
• Young Adult
  Novel: Monster Blood Tattoo: Book One. Foundling, D.M. Cornish (Omnibus)
  Short Story: "The Arrival", Shaun Tan (Lothian)

• Children’s
  Novel: Melissa Queen of Evil, Mardi McConnochie (Pan Macmillan)
  Short Fiction (split): “The True Story of Mary Who Wanted to Stand on Her Head”, Jane Godwin (Allen & Unwin) / “Woolvs in the Sitee”, Margaret Wild, Anne Spudvilas (Penguin)

[From Talking Squid via SF Signal]

[Via The SFWA News]

The shortlists for the 2006 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) awards were announced January 14, 2007:

Best Novel

Darkland Liz Williams (Tor)
End of the World Blues Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Gollancz)
Icarus Roger Levy (Gollancz)
The Last Witchfinder James Morrow (Weidenfield & Nicholson)
Nova Swing M. John Harrison (Gollancz)

Best Short Fiction

“The Djinn’s Wife Ian McDonald (Asimov’s Science Fiction, June)
The Highway Men Ken MacLeod (Sandstone Press Ltd)
“The House Beyond Your Sky Benjamin Rosenbaum (Strange Horizons)
“The Point of Roses Margo Lanagan (Black Juice, Gollancz – original to UK edition, 2006)
“Signal to Noise Alastair Reynolds (Zima Blue and Other Stories, Nightshade Books)
“Sounding Elizabeth Bear (Strange Horizons)

Best Artwork

Angelbot Fangorn (Cover of Time Pieces, ed. Ian Whates)
Cover of Farthing magazine issue 2, Spring 2006. Credited to ‘Vertebrate Graphics’
Droid Fahrija Velic (Cover for Interzone 206)
The Return to Abalakin Alexander Preuss
Ring of the Gods William Li (Cover of Holland SF 226)

Best Non-Fiction – BSFA Recommended Reading List

The Arthur C. Clarke Award: A Critical Anthology ed. Paul Kincaid and Andrew M. Butler (Serendip Foundation)
Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century Justine Larbalestier (Wesleyan University Press)
Great British Comics Paul Gravett (Aurum Press Ltd)
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon Julie Phillips (St Martin’s Press)
Polder: A Festschrift for John Clute and Judith Clute ed. Farah Mendlesohn (Old Earth Books)

There will be no individual award for Non-Fiction; instead the whole shortlist is being recognized as a BSFA Recommended Reading List. The shortlists for the awards are compiled from nominations submitted by members of the BSFA, and will then be voted on by BSFA members and by attending members of the convention.

The awards will be presented on Saturday 7th April 2004, during the British national science fiction convention, Contemplation. This convention was organized in just that past few weeks, as the original 2007 British National Convention was canceled.

Brook West, Nebula Award Report editor, announces the Preliminary Ballot for the Nebula Awards® for 2006. SFWA members may nominate no more than five works in each category.

The final ballot will be mailed in early March.

The Nebula Awards® are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Founded as the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 by Damon Knight, the organization began with a charter membership of 78 writers; it now has over 1,400 members, among them most of the leading writers of science fiction and fantasy.

The Awards will be announced at the Nebula Awards® Banquet to be held at the New York Marriott Financial Center May 11-13, 2007.

Novels:

From the Files of the Time Rangers – Richard Bowes (Golden Gryphon Press, Sep05)
Crystal Rain – Tobias Buckell (Tor, Feb06)
The Girl in the Glass – Jeffrey Ford (Dark Alley, Aug05)
The Privilege of the Sword – Ellen Kushner (Bantam Spectra, Jul06)
Counting Heads – David Marusek (Tor, Oct05)
To Crush the Moon – Wil McCarthy (Bantam Spectra, May05)
Seeker – Jack McDevitt (Ace, Nov05)
A Princess of Roumania – Paul Park (Tor, Aug05)
Remains – Mark W Tiedemann (BenBella Books, Jul05)
Spin – Robert Charles Wilson (Tor, Mar05)

Novellas:

“Sanctuary” – Michael A. Burstein (Analog, Sep05)
Burn – James Patrick Kelly (Tachyon Publications, Dec05)
“The Walls of the Universe” – Paul Melko (Asimov’s, Apr/May06)
“Inclination” – William Shunn (Asimov’s, Apr/May06)

Novelettes:

“The Language of Moths” – Chris Barzak (Realms of Fantasy, Apr05)
“Two Hearts” – Peter S. Beagle (F&SF, Oct/Nov05)
“A Key to the Illuminated Heretic” – Alyx M. Dellamonica (Alternate Generals III, Harry Turtledove, Ed., Baen, Apr05)
“Second Person, Present Tense” – Daryl Gregory (Asimov’s, Sep05)
“Do Neanderthals Know?” – Robert J Howe (Analog, Dec05)
“Little Faces” – Vonda McIntyre (SCI FICTION, 23 Feb05)
“Journey into the Kingdom” – M. Rickert (F&SF, May06)
“Walpurgis Afternoon” – Delia Sherman (F&SF, Dec05)

Short Stories:

“Helen Remembers the Stork Club” – Esther M. Friesner (F&SF, Nov05)
“Pip and the Fairies” – Theodora Goss (Strange Horizons, 3 Oct05)
“Echo” – Elizabeth Hand (F&SF, Oct/Nov05)
“Mahmoud’s Wives” – Janis Ian (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly #1, WS & LWE, Ed., Sum06)
“Henry James, This One’s For You” – Jack McDevitt (Subterranean #2, Nov05)
“The Woman in Schrodinger’s Wave Equations” – Eugene Mirabelli (F&SF, Aug05)
“Anyway” – M. Rickert (SCI FICTION, 23 Aug05)

Scripts:

Howl’s Moving Castle – Hayao Miyazaki, Cindy Davis Hewitt, and Donald H. Hewitt (Studio Ghibli and Walt Disney Pictures, U.S. Premier 10 Jun05. Based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones.)
The Girl in the Fireplace – Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, BBC/The Sci-Fi Channel, Oct06 (broadcast 10 Oct06))
Batman Begins – Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer (Warner Bros., released 17 Jun05)

Also awarded by SFWA: Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy:

Midnighters #2: Touching Darkness – Scott Westerfeld (Eos, Mar05)
Magic or Madness – Justine Larbalestier (Penguin Razorbill, May05)
Peeps – Scott Westerfeld (Penguin Razorbill, Sep05)

The Norton Jury may add up to three additional works to the final ballot. In the Nebula Award catagories, juries may add one work to the final ballot.

Online versions of some of the works are available to the public. Other works are only available to SFWA Members.

David Guy Compton will be participating in the 2007 Nebula Awards^® Weekend as Author Emeritus.

Born in the United Kingdom, Compton moved to the United States in 1981. Writing as D G. Compton, Guy Compton, or Frances Lynch, he published over 20 SF, romance and mystery novels between 1965 and 1996. His better known works include The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe which was filmed as La mort en direct (Deathwatch); and The Steel Crocodile which was a 1971 Nebula Best Novel nominee.

SFWA began its Author Emeritus program in 1995 as a way of recognizing senior writers who have made significant contributions to our field. Previous participants were Emil Petaja, Wilson “Bob” Tucker, Judith Merril, Nelson S. Bond, Philip Klass (William Tenn), Daniel Keyes, Robert Sheckley, Katherine MacLean, Charles L. Harness, and William F. Nolan.

The 2007 Nebula Awards Weekend will be held Friday, May 11th through Sunday, May 13th at the Marriott in the Financial Center, New York City, 85 West Street, New York, NY 10006. The awards will be presented at a gala banquet on Saturday, May 12th. The Nebula Awards is open to the general public.

Source: D G Compton selected as Author Emeritus

Gunn was president of the Science Fiction Writers of America for 1971-72, president of the Science Fiction Research Association from 1980-82 and has been guest of honor at many regional SF conventions.  He is now a professor emeritus and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, which awards the annual John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of the year.

The title "Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master" is bestowed upon a living author for a lifetime’s achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy. While it is not a Nebula Award, the Grand Master honor is conferred as part of the Nebula Awards Banquet. This year’s ceremony will take place on May 11-13, 2007, in New York City.  Gunn is the twenty fourth writer recognized by SFWA as a Grand Master.

Previous SFWA Grand Masters

• Robert A. Heinlein (1974)
• Jack Williamson (1975)
• Clifford D. Simak (1976)
• L. Sprague de Camp (1978)
• Fritz Leiber (1981)
• Andre Norton (1983),
• Arthur C. Clarke (1985)
• Isaac Asimov (1986)
• Alfred Bester (1987)
• Ray Bradbury (1988)
• Lester del Rey (1990)
• Frederik Pohl (1992)
• Damon Knight (1994)
• A. E. van Vogt (1995)
• Jack Vance (1996)
• Poul Anderson (1997)
• Hal Clement (1998)
• Brian Aldiss (1999)
• Philip Jose Farmer (2000)
• Ursula K. Le Guin (2003)
• Robert Silverberg (2004)
• Anne McCaffrey (2005)
• Harlan Ellison (2006)

Here are the other awards:

• Novel – Haruki Murakami. Kafka on the Shore† (Harvill; Knopf)
• Novella – Joe Hill. Voluntary Committal (Subterranean Press)
• Short Fiction – George Saunders. "CommComm" (The New Yorker 1 Aug 2005)
• Anthology – Marvin Kaye, ed. The Fair Folk† (SFBC)
• Collection – Bruce Holland Rogers. The Keyhold Opera† (Wheatland Press)
• Artist –  James Jean
• Special Award, Professional – Sean Wallace (for Prime Books)
• Special Award, Non-Professional – David Howe & Stephen Walker (for Telos Books)

Judges for this year’s awards were Steve Lockley, Barbara Roden, Victoria Strauss, Jeff VanderMeer, and Andrew Wheeler.

You may note that Joe Hill also just won the International Horror Guild Award for his collection 20th Century Ghosts† (PS Publishing).  I’ll have more later on Fabin and Crowley.