honored

I’ve been thinking a lot about awards of late. I type this in the wake of the 2009 Academy Awards <oscar.com>. I don’t know if it says something about me or the times, but I saw very few of the nominees this year. Nonetheless I sat through the first couple of hours of the show. Meanwhile, I’ve just finished serving on the jury that chose four new entrants into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Science Fiction Museum <empsfm.org>. And a story of mine that appeared on these pages has somehow stumbled onto the final ballot for the Nebula Awards. And Hugo nominations are due. And there is the Locus Poll to fill out. And on and on and on. Maybe awards season has something to do with the fact that we’ve been snowbound for the past twelve weeks and have nothing better to do with our idle hours. Wait a minute, that might explain what’s going on here in frigid New Hampshire, but how does it explain why people in Miami and Phoenix and San Diego care?

So why do we give all these awards, anyway? For good or ill, it seems to me that they are an important part of our cultural conversation. Whenever any group of friends get together, at some point they will probably start to swap ideas about the latest music. Or else argue about the hottest new game for the Wii. Which was your favorite story in the June issue of ’Mov’s? What did you think of Watchmen <watchmenmovie.warner bros.com>? Awards are how large affinity groups have these same conversations. And awards dissent is at least as useful to the group as is the affirmation of naming the winner. Was J. K. Rowling’s <jkrowling.com> Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire more Hugo-worthy than George R.R. Martin’s <georgerrmartin. com> A Storm of Swords? Glimpses by Lewis Shiner <lewisshiner.com> for the 1994 World Fantasy Award for best novel or The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick <michaelswanwick. com>? Jonathan Lethem <jonathan lethem.com> stirred up a hornet’s nest when he published a fascinating alternate history of SF <verysilly.org/lethem/lethems_vision.html> that imagined that Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon <thomaspynchon.com> had beaten out Arthur C. Clarke’s <arthurcclarke.net> Rendevous With Rama for the 1974 Nebula. And yes, Pynchon was on the final ballot!

top ten

The last time I wrote about awards in this space <asimovs.com/_issue_0505/onthenet.shtml>, I got into trouble by suggesting—with tongue firmly in cheek—that the Hugos might be dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century by adding five new digital award categories. This was regarded as heresy in some quarters, although I think the ideas behind that column  gather momentum with each passing year. This time around, however, I’m trying not to step on sensitive toes. Instead I simply offer a guided tour of what I consider the top ten genre awards—in inoffensive alphabetical order, if you please.

The Asimov’s <asimovs.com> and Analog <analogsf.com> Awards—the proper names of these sister awards, voted each year by you readers, are the Asimov’s Readers’ Award and the Analog Analytical Laboratory. They were first given in 1987. Each magazine gives individual awards for best novella, novelette, short story, and cover. There is also an AnLab award for best fact article, while here at ’Mov’s we give a nod to best poem.

The Hugo Awards <thehugoawards.org> are the oldest of the genre awards and probably the most prestigious, though some of the Science Fiction Writers of America might disagree. They are nominated for and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention. 2009’s is called Anticipation <anticipationsf.ca>, and it will take place in Montreal from August 6-10. Typically about a thousand members vote. There are fourteen Hugo categories; the various awards go to writers, editors, artists, and fans. There also are two best dramatic presentation awards, Long (think movies) and Short (think TV). From time to time the Hugo committee will give out special Hugos; it was the one-shot special Hugo category of Best Web Site that got me in hot water in that previous column.

The James Tiptree, Jr. Award was birthed in 1991 by founding mothers Pat Murphy <brazenhussies.net/murphy> and Karen Joy Fowler <karenjoyfowler.com>. It is a juried award given to a work of science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender. Because the jury changes every year, and the notion of exploring gender has been kept deliberately vague, the winners have been an eclectic bunch. The award is entirely supported by fundraising, included two cookbooks, feminist bake sales, and auctions. James Tiptree, Jr. <davidlavery.net/Tiptree>, of course, was the penname of the late Alice Sheldon.

The John W. Campbell Memorial Award <www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/campbell.htm> traveled around the world in the years after it was founded in 1973, but since 1979 it has settled at the annual Campbell Conference <www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/campbell-conference.htm> held at the University of Kansas. The Campbell jury, charged with picking the best science fiction novel of the year, changes slowly, with some members serving for years at a time. If you thought that the Campbell award went to the best new writer of the year, don’t worry. You’re right. But that’s the other John W.Campbell Award <writertopia.com/awards/Campbell>, also named after the late, great editor and writer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell>. It’s sponsored by Dell Magazines and given every year at the Hugo ceremony, although it is not, as the WorldCon administrators will rush to remind you, a Hugo.

The Locus Poll <locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Locus.html> is decided in a single round of voting based in part on recommendations made by the staff of that venerable voice of science fiction, Locus Magazine <locusmag.com>. Once, the right to vote was limited to readers of the magazine, but in recent years it has been open to anyone who stops by the website. The folks at Locus crow that the pool of voters for their award is larger than that of any other award. There are fourteen categories in the Locus Poll, which was first taken in 1971.

The Nebula Awards <sfwa.org/awards> are nominated for and voted on each year by the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America <sfwa.org>. They are given in four categories, novel, novella, novelette, and short story. At various times in their contentious history there have been Nebulas given to dramatic presentations and then not, and then to scripts and now not. Also awarded at the Nebula banquet are the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy <sfwa.org/awards/nortonguide.htm> and the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award <sfwa.org/Awards/grand.htm>, but these are not Nebulas. Over the years, SFWA has tinkered tirelessly with the Nebula rules, trying to make them more fair—with mixed results. Earlier this year a new set of reforms was put in place, the most significant of which was to revert the awards to a calendar year basis. Under the previous arcane rules of rolling eligibility, works that had been previously published up to two years prior to the ceremony were winning awards.

The Philip K. Dick Award <philipkdickaward.org> is presented annually at Norwescon <norwescon.org> to the best original paperback published each year in the United States. This is a jury award, with the members of the jury changing every year. It was first given in 1982, the year of Dick’s death, and is co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, the Philip K. Dick Trust <philipkdick.com>, and the NorthWest Science Fiction Society.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame <empsfm.org/exhibitions/index.asp?categoryID=203> was founded in 1996 by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society at that bastion of SF awards, the University of Kansas. Each year since, four individuals have been selected by a rotating jury to honor their contribution to the science fiction field. There are four broad categories from which the honorees are selected: Literary, Art, Media and Open. The Hall is now housed in a beautiful display at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle.

The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of the year was founded in 1987 by James Gunn <www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/bio.htm> and the heirs of the celebrated writer Ted Sturgeon <physics.emory. edu/~weeks/sturgeon>. In its early years the Sturgeon was selected by a committee headed by Orson Scott Card <hatrack.com>, but since 1995 it has been a juried award. The jurors on this one change rarely. The Sturgeon is presented each year at the Campbell Conference. Up until 2003, only one story was honored. Since then, first, second, and third place stories have been acknowledged.

The World Fantasy Awards <world fantasy.org/awards>, first given in 1975, are presented at the annual World Fantasy Convention. Members of the convention get to nominate two works in each category, and a panel of judges, which changes from year to year, can then add three or more nominees. Because the eventual winners are determined solely by the judges, the World Fantasy is less of a popularity contest than the Hugos or Nebulas, and the award has sometimes gone to deserving but relatively obscure works. The World Fantasy Awards honor the best novel, novella, short story under ten thousand words, anthology, single-author collection, and artist. In addition, there are special awards for professionals and non-professionals.

exit

If you’re not exhausted at this point, know that I’ve barely begun to list all the hardware that the various fantastic genres deploy to pat their practitioners on their backs. For example, I’ve probably offended some of my friends in the horror end of the biz by failing to mention the Stokers <horror.org/stokers.htm>. And what about recognizing all that wonderful art which graces our humble screeds? Jim sez check out the Chesleys <asfa-art.org/chesley.html>. Although some of the awards I’ve mentioned are international in scope, many countries have indigenous awards, like the British Science Fiction Association Awards <bsfa.co.uk/awards.aspx>, the Australian Aurealis Awards <aurealisawards.com>, and  the Japanese Seiun Awards <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiun_Award>,  to name but three.

And on and on and on. But I have to stop soon, because Sheila doesn’t give awards to longwinded columnists. So let me leave you with two indispensible guides, if you want to continue to explore AwardLand. The Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards <locusmag.com/SFAwards/index.html>, complied by the indefatigable Mark R. Kelly, is a historical archive of all the winners and nominees of every important award ever handed out. But if you need to know what is happening right now with your favorite award, click immediately to Science Fiction Awards Watch <sfawardswatch.com> for unbiased reporting and astute commentary by Cheryl Morgan and Kevin Standlee.

And if you should ever have the pleasure, as I have had, to be a contender for an award, never forget this truth: It’s an honor just to be nominated.