Michael Flynn and Virginia Heinlein were awarded the first Robert A. Heinlein Awards at a banquet in Toronto on August 29, 2003, held in conjunction with Torcon 3, the 61st World Science Fiction Convention.
Presented by the Heinlein Society, the evening's first award was presented posthumously to Heinlein's widow, Virginia 'Ginny' Heinlein, who died in January. The award for outstanding published work in hard science fiction or technical writings inspiring the human exploration of space was then presented to Michael Flynn, author of novels and stories including In the Country of the Blind (1990), "Melodies of the Heart" (1994), and most recently The Wreck of The River of Stars (Tor).
Judges were Greg Bear, Joe Haldeman, Yoji Kondo, Elizabeth Moon, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Spider Robinson, Stanley Schmidt, Herb Gilliland, and John Hill. The Heinlein Society page about the awards includes photos and background.
Links
Heinlein Society—
First Heinlein Award Presented
Locus Online—
Heinlein Award to Be Presented
