Sandra Kasturi and Brett Savory have stepped down from all publishing-related duties at ChiZine Publications, effective immediately. Christine Harkin is now interim publisher, and can be reached by email for author-related requests. Kasturi and Savory said:
It is important to us that we clear all outstanding arrears as soon as possible; before the end of 2019 is a goal we feel can be met. Until the next distributor cheque arrives, ...Read More
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Kirkus has announced its selections for Best Fiction of 2019, including titles and authors of genre interest in several categories:
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy
George R.R. Martin received the 2019 Sir Arthur Clarke Imagination Award “for creating engrossing worlds of science fiction and fantasy” at the Unleash Imagination 2019 awards ceremony and dinner, held October 17, 2019 at Harman Hall in Washington DC. Scott Shannon of Random House presented the award, which is sponsored by the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation.
For more information, see the Clarke Foundation website.
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Blood Orbit by K.R. Richardson (Pyr) has won the 2019 Endeavour Award, announced during Orycon 41 on November 8, 2019 at the Red Lion Hotel in Portland OR. Other finalists were:
The award is given “for a distinguished science ...Read More
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Poisoned Pen Press (the mystery imprint at Sourcebooks) will launch a new line, the Haunted Library of Horror Classics, edited by Eric J. Guignard and Leslie S. Klinger and conceived by Lisa Morton. The first title will be a new trade paperback edition of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (1911), out in January 2020. Each book will include a new introduction by horror authors including Ramsey Campbell, ...Read More
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Ed Kramer, co-founder of Dragon Con and convicted child molester, is in legal trouble again, this time in a complicated computer hacking case that involves various figures in the Georgia legal system. Superior Court judge Kathryn Schrader has been indicted, along with Kramer, a private investigator named TJ Ward, and a former sheriff’s deputy named Frank Karic. Schrader alleges that Gwinnett County district attorney Danny Porter hacked her computer (which ...Read More
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The Down Under Fan Fund (DUFF) to send fans from Australasia to Worldcon will not have a race in 2019:
2019 is an awkward year for a Down Under Fan Fund race from the US to Australasia given that 2020 is slated to be Worldcon in New Zealand, and a 2020 race from Australasia to North America is not likely to have the time and energy given that Worldcon. As ...Read More
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Winners of the 2019 Prix Utopiales Awards were announced at the Nantes International Science Fiction Festival, held October 31 – November 4, 2019 at the Nantes Convention Center in Nantes, France.
Prix Utopiales
Subterranean Press has announced that Navah Wolfe will acquire and edit novellas for release in 2021 and beyond. Wolfe says, “I’ve admired the work Subterranean Press has been doing for years, so it’s an honor to get to work with them to publish original fiction. I’m really looking forward to publishing great novellas in Subterranean’s famously gorgeous editions.” She will be open to agented submissions and will also be soliciting ...Read More
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The World Fantasy Awards winners for works published in 2018 have been announced. The awards were presented November 3, 2019 during World Fantasy 2019 (WFC) at the Marriott Los Angeles Airport Hotel in Los Angeles CA.
The Lifetime Achievement Awards, presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field, went to Hayao Miyazaki and Jack Zipes.
The World Fantasy Awards winners are:
Best Novel
Multimedia company Vesuvian Media Group has acquired Black Spot Books, a small SF publisher that has produced a dozen titles so far. Its founder, Lindy Ryan, will continue to run the imprint. The parent company’s Vesuvian Books imprint has released around 50 adult, YA, and middle-grade books, and its Vesuvian Entertainment division has a first-look arrangement with Boilermaker Entertainment. CEO Italia Gandolfo says, “As we grow, the importance of acquiring ...Read More
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Jim Freund’s venerable SF radio call-in show Hour of the Wolf has gone off the air after nearly 50 years. The show aired on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York, but on October 8, 2019, the station’s owner Pacifica Across America canceled all local programming and replaced it with shows from other stations due to “financial losses.” The closure came without warning, and station employees and volunteers vowed to take ...Read More
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Dream Foundry, a “non-profit dedicated to bolstering the careers of nascent professionals working with the speculative arts,” has announced the finalists for its inaugural writing contest which “was open to anyone with a completed short story who had not yet been professionally paid for their work”:
The
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Vintage), The Binding by Bridget Collins (HarperCollins), and Lanny by Max Porter (Faber) are on the 11-title shortlist for the 2019 Waterstones Book of the Year award. Shortlisted titles are nominated by Waterstones booksellers. The 2019 winner will be chosen be a panel headed by James Daunt and announced on November 27, 2019. Previous winners include La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume 1 ...Read More
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Margaret Atwood was named a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, “a special award granted to those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time.” Non-British nationals, including Commonwealth citizens, can be honorary members. Queen Elizabeth presented the award at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on October 25, 2019.
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Shortlists for the Foyles Books of the Year awards have been announced, including several titles of genre interest in the following categories:
Fiction
Children’s & Young Adult
The tenth annual Xingyun awards for Chinese science fiction were presented by the World Chinese Science Fiction Association on October 27, 2019 in Chongqing, China.
Best Novel
Best Novella
Navah Wolfe has left Saga Press, and her senior editor position has been eliminated. Wolfe co-founded Saga in 2013 with Joe Monti as an imprint of the Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division and was named senior editor in 2017. Before that she was a children’s book editor for seven years at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, focusing on SF and fantasy. In 2019, Saga became an imprint ...Read More
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George R.R. Martin was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in a ceremony held October 27, 2019 at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park NJ. Inductees are recommended by New Jersey residents, and final selections are made by public vote. Martin, who currently lives in New Mexico, grew up in Bayonne NJ.
Peter Benchley was inducted posthumously.
For more information, including a complete list of inductees, see the ...Read More
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Publishers Weekly has announced its list of the best books of 2019, including “100 best adult titles and 50 for children and teens.”
The best books in the SF/Fantasy/Horror category are:
SF writer and doctor Michael Blumlein, 71, died October 24, 2019 of lung cancer.
His debut novel The Movement of Mountains appeared in 1987, and was followed by X,Y (1993; adapted as a feature film in 2004), and The Healer (2005). His first SF story, “Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report” (1984) appeared in Interzone. Other notable stories include World Fantasy Award finalist “The Brains of Rats”(1986), Stoker ...Read More
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Publishing trade conference Book Expo is going back to its old schedule for the 2020 event, with one day of “programming and education” on May 27, and two days of trade show exhibitions on the 28th and 29th. For the past two years the show had some exhibition space open on the first day of the event “to give everyone additional time on the floor to discover and connect,” according ...Read More
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The African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) has announced the winners for the 2019 Nommo Awards. All titles “are speculative fiction, were published in calendar year 2018, and are thought to be by Africans as defined by the ASFS and Nommo Awards Guidelines.”
Best Novel
XX by Angela Chadwick won the 2019 Polari First Book Prize, announced October 22, 2019 during the London Literature Festival held at the Southbank Centre in London, England. The £1,000 prize celebrates “work that explores the LGBT experience.” Judges for 2019 were Kiki Archer, Paul Burston (chair), Cerys Evans, Rachel Holmes, and John McCullough.
For more information, see the Polari Prize website.
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Finalists for the 2019 Endeavour Award have been announced:
The award is given “for a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the ...Read More
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Winners of the 2019 Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) Amateur Writing Contest were announced on October 19, 2019 during Capclave, held at the Rockville Hilton in Rockville MD.
The contest is open to non-professional writers residing in Maryland. The first place winner receives $250, an invitation to read
James Patterson continues his tradition of encouraging children to read, this time by giving grants to 4,500 teachers via his Patterson Partnership. Four thousand teachers will receive $250 to improve their classroom libraries (with a matching 250 “bonus points” from Scholastic Book Clubs), while 500 teachers with three years or less of experience will get $500 and 500 points. This is the fifth year the Patterson Partnership has given grants. ...Read More
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The British Fantasy Society announced the winners for the 2019 British Fantasy Awards on October 20, 2019 during FantasyCon 2019 at the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland.
Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)
“The Thing in the Walls Wants Your Small Change” by Virginia M. Mohlere (Luna Station Quarterly 5/18) is the winner of the 2019 Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) Small Press Award for Short Fiction.
Other finalists were “The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat”, Brooke Bolander (Uncanny 7-8/18); “Familiar in Her Angles”, E.A. Brenner (Metaphorosis 9/21/18); “Baggage”, Leslie Burton-Lopez (When ...Read More
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The 2019 Aurora Awards winners were announced during an awards ceremony held at Can-Con 2019, October 19, 2019, in Ottawa ON.
Best Novel
Winners for the 2019 Geffen Awards for best science fiction and fantasy published in Hebrew have been announced by the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Best Translated Science Fiction Book
Best Translated Fantasy Book
Stephen & Tabitha King have received city council approval to rezone their Bangor ME home as a non-profit, with plans to turn it into a museum. Stephen King’s personal archives, previously housed at the University of Maine, will be moved to the home and made available to scholars and other visitors by appointment. A house next door, also owned by the Kings, will accommodate up to five writers-in-residence at a ...Read More
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