Garcia Wins 2024 Sturgeon Award
“Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia (Uncanny, 7/23) is the winner of the 2024 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction story, presented by the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction.
The second-place runner up was “Patsy Cline Sings Sweet Dreams to the Universe” by Beston Barnett (Strange Horizons 11/20/23). The third-place runner up was “The Year Without Sunshine“ by Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny 11-12/23).
Other finalists were:
- “The Rainbow Ghosts”, Violet Allen (Luminescent Machinations: Queer Tales of Monumental Invention)
- “The Unpastured Sea”, Gregory Feeley (Asimov’s 9-10/23)
- “The State Street Robot Factory”, Claire Humphrey (Apex 3/23)
- “What It Means to Be a Car”, James Patrick Kelly (Tor.com 7/26/23)
- “Notes From a Pyre”, Amal Singh (The Deadlands 3/23)
- “An Infestation of Blue”, Wendy N. Wagner (Analog 11-12/23)
Established in 1987 by James Gunn and the heirs of Theodore Sturgeon, including his partner Jayne Engelhart Tannehill and Sturgeon’s children, the Sturgeon Award is “a memorial to one of the great short-story writers in a field distinguished by its short fiction.” This year’s jurors were Elizabeth Bear, Kelly Link, Sarah Pinsker, Noël Sturgeon, and Taryne Taylor.
The award will be presented in-person at the third annual Sturgeon Symposium at the Hall Center for the Humanities in Lawrence, KS. The Sturgeon Award ceremony, to be held on October 24, will feature a reception, opening remarks, presentation of the award, a reading by Garcia, and a Q&A session. The theme of this year’s symposium is “Stars in Our Pockets: Celebrating Samuel R. Delany.” The Symposium itself is from October 24-25.
For more information, see the Gunn Center’s website.
