Broad Universe News

posted 18 May 2001

Linda Nagata, a Nebula April 28 for her novella, "Goddesses," (Sci Fiction on the Scifi.com web site). The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Molly Gloss, the 2000 James Tiptree Jr. Award for her novel, Wild Life (Simon and Schuster). This year's Tiptree short list includes Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle; "Soma," by Camille Hernandez-Ramdwar in Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root (Ed. By Nalo Hopkinson); "The Glass Bottle Trick," by Nalo Hopkinson in Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root; Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson; "Once on the Shores of the Stream Senegambia," by Pamela Mordecai in Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root; The Annunciate by Severna Park; and Sea As Mirror by Tess Williams. For the full Tiptree Short List go to www.tiptree.org. The Tiptree Award is an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that explores and expands the roles of women and men.

Mary Gentle, the award for best novel from the British Science Fiction Association on April 15 for her book, Ash: A Secret History (Gollancz in the United Kingdom and published in four parts by Avon in the United States). The BSFA Awards are presented annually by the association, based on a vote of BSFA members and members of the British national SF convention, Eastercon.

Also from the British Science Fiction Association, Gwyneth Jones was presented with the second Richard Evans Award, which is given to an author whose body of work within the genre has attracted critical acclaim without the commensurate financial rewards. The award includes a check for 2,000 pounds.

Women received 10 nominations in professional or semi-professional categories for the 2000 Hugo Awards. Kristine Kathryn Rush received two nominations. "The Retrieval Artist" (Analog June 2000) was nominated for best novella and "Millennium Babies (Asimov's January 2000) was nominated for best novellette. Other nominees include Nalo Hopkinson for Midnight Robber and J.K. Rowling for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for best novel, Catherine Asaro for "A Roll of the Dice" (Analog July/August 2000) for best novella, Ellen Datlow for best professional editor, Jo Walton and Kristine Smith for the John W. Campbell Award, Farah Mendlesohn, Andrew M. Butler and Edward James, editors, for Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature for best related book, and Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell and Kevin Maroney for the New York Review of Science Fiction for best semiprozine.

A full list of nominees is available at www.netaxs.com/~phil2001/hugos/press-release.html. The Hugo Awards are nominated and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention. The winners will be announced at the 59th World Science Fiction Convention, The Millennium Philcon, in Philadelphia in September. This year there were 495 total nominating ballots and a total of 46 nominees in professional and semiprofessional categories, not including dramatic presentation. For information on voting memberships to PhilCon click on www.milphil.org/costs.html.

Nalo Hopkinson's Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction (Invisible Cities Press), one of the 12 "Best Books of 2000" by the Vermont Book Professionals Association. The book was published by a publishing house in Vermont.

Kij Johnson, the William L. Crawford Award for Best New Fantasy Author for her book, The Fox Woman (Tor Books). The Crawford Award is given annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, a scholarly organization devoted to the study of the fantastic in literature, film and other arts.

Mindy L. Klasky, Barnes and Noble's Fourth Annual Explorations' Maiden Voyage Award for her novel, The Glasswrights' Apprentice (Penguin). Explorations is Barnes and Noble's in-house speculative fiction magazine. The Maiden Voyage Award is given by the readers of Explorations for excellence for a first-time novelist writing in the field of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Carol Berg and Jo Walton, nominated for the 2000 Compton Crook Book Award, which is presented annually by the members of Balticon. Berg's Transformation, (Roc Books), and Walton's The King's Peace, (Tor Books), are among the five novels nominated. Balticon is hosted by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society on Memorial Day weekend.

Strange Seas by Suzy McKee Charnas, available as a download and soon on CD-rom from Hidden Knowledge, an e-publisher. This is a complete departure for an experienced fantasy and science fiction author: a non- fiction account of an exploration of the lives, history, and cultures of the whales and dolphins, through dreams and other unusual and occult means.

Bending the Landscape: Horror, edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel, Overlook Press, is the editors' third anthology of original gay and lesbian fiction. Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction was published by Overlook Press in 1998 and Bending the Landscape: Fantasy, was printed by White Wolf Publishing in 1997.

Native Tongue By Suzette Haden Elgin, Feminist Press. With the passage of the 25th amendment, which denies women equal rights, a cold war between the sexes ensues for several hundred years in an Earth that relies on interplanetary trade. Reissue. First published in 1984.

Mentor's Lair, Book Two of the Zaddack Tales by Karen Daniels, Vivisphere Publishing, Inc, is the second in a series begun with the novel, Dancing Suns. The third book in the series, MindSpark, will be out later this year. In Dancing Suns, Serall, one of the last humans in the universe is psychically bonded to a highly evolved four-legged zaddack, Kafa. Together they embark on a journey across Riatha to find what remains of humankind. In Mentor's Lair Serall has fled Riatha in a spaceship with a ragtag group and must fight her own dispair while struggling to maintain leadership. In MindSpark, a darkness is sweeping through the universe, destroying all life that stand in its way. Will Serall's children, or anyone, find a way to survive?

Autumn World by Joan Marie Verba, Tess Meara, Deborah K. Jones, Margaret Howes, and Ruth Berman, Stone Dragon Press, centers around Leah, the sole human survivor of a ship that crashed on Autumn World. Injured and struggling under the higher gravity, Leah becomes the object of contention of three factions: religious, political, and scientific.