Edward Willett wins Regina Book Award

Edward Willett's YA fantasy novel Spirit Singer (Awe-Struck E-Books/Earthling Press) won the $1,500 Regina Book Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards gala dinner on Saturday, November 30, at the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts in Regina. The Regina Book Award, sponsored by the City of Regina, honors the best book published by a resident of Regina in the previous year.

Spirit Singer beat out six other short-listed finalists, which included another YA fantasy, The Phantom Queen (Coteau Books) by Ven Begamudré, as well as well-known Canadian mystery writer Gail Bowen's latest, The Glass Coffin (McClelland & Stewart), Frances Greenslade's non-fiction memoir, A Pilgrim in Ireland (Penguin Books), Norman Henderson non-fiction book Rediscovering the Great Plains (Johns Hopkins University Press), Britt Holmström's novel The Wrong Madonna (Cormorant Books), and Dianne Warren's collection of short stories A Reckless Moon (Raincoast Books).

Two of Ed's previous three YA novels were also short-listed for Saskatchewan Book Awards, but didn't win.

Hiromi Goto wins Tiptree Award

Hiromi Goto's novel The Kappa Child (2001 Red Deer Press) has been chosen for the 2001 James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award. The award was presented at Readercon, July 12-14 in Burlington, Mass. Hiromi received $1000 in prize money and an original artwork created by Kandis Elliott. The James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award was created in 1991 to honor Alice Sheldon, who wrote under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr. It is presented annually to a short story or novel that explores and expands gender roles in science fiction and fantasy.

Other authors on the short list for the award were Joan Givner, Half Known Lives (New Star Books, Vancouver); Ken MacLeod, Dark Light (Tor); Hugh Nissenson, The Song of the Earth (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill); and Sheri S Tepper, The Fresco (HarperCollins/Eos).

Bruce Ballon wins Origins Award

Bruce Ballon's book Unseen Masters won an Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game Adventure of 2001. The winners were announced at the 2002 Origins Game Expo, the North American Games Showcase, in Columbus, Ohio, July 4-7. The Origins Awards are the highest honour conveyed for excellence in hobby game design. Past winners have included such classic games as Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Civilization.

Charles de Lint nominated for World Fantasy Award

Charles de Lint's novel The Onion Girl (Tor) was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for best novel, but lost out to Ursula K. Le Guin's The OTher Wind (Harcourt). Winners were announced Sunday, November 3, 2002, at World Fantasy Convention 2002 in Minneapolis. Judges were Peter Adkins, Meg Davis, Jason Van Hollander, Michele Sagara West, and F. Paul Wilson, with awards administrator Peter Dennis Pautz. Other nominees were American Gods by Neil Gaiman (Morrow), Brown Harvest by Jay Russell (Four Walls Eight Windows), The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (Eos), From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury (Morrow),  and The Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll (Tor)

Candas Jane Dorsey, Hiromi Goto
nominated for Sunburst Award

Two SF Canada members, Candas Jane Dorsey and Hiromi Goto, were among the authors whose works were shortlisted for the second annual Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, won this year by Margaret Sweatman for When Alice Lay Down with Peter (Knopf Canada)..

The award, consisting of a cash prize of $1000 Canadian and a bronze medallion of the "Sunburst," crafted by Linda Carson (from a design by Marcel Gagné), was presented at the Winnipeg International Writers Festival September 24-29.

Other books on the shortlist were Thomas Wharton's Salamander (McClelland and Stewart) and The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor).

The jurors for the 2002 Sunburst Award were Douglas Barbour, Nalo Hopkinson, Hazel Hutchins, Don Hutchison and Tanya Huff.

Dorsey, Goto nominated for Spectrum Award

Hiromi Goto's novel The Kappa Child and Candas Jane Dorsey's novel A Paradigm of Earth were also finalists for the 2002 Spectrum Award for best science fiction, fantasy or horror novel originally released in North America during 2001 with significant positive gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender content. The winner was The Song of the Earth by Hugh Nissenson (Algonquin Books). The award was presented at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose over the Labour Day weekend.

Other nominees were Bouncing Off the Moon by David Gerrold (Tor), Dreamer by Steven Harper (Roc), The Ghost Sister by Liz Williams (Bantam), Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey (Tor) and Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett (Tor).

Ballon makes final ballot for Bram Stoker Awards

Bruce Ballon's book Unseen Masters was the first game module ever to make the final ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards in the Alternative Forms category.

Sandra Kasturi's Pursuits & Conjurings; Horrors, Guises poetry chapbook made the preliminary ballot of the Stoker Awards.

Donna Farley nominated for Rhysling

Donna Farley's poem "February 4th, Farmer's Almanac Entry," which won the Millennium Poetry Contest of the Burnaby Writers' Society in 2000 and subsequently appeared in Mythic Delirium last year, was nominated for the Rhysling award for best SF, Fantasy and Horror poetry of 2001. It will appear in the 2002 Rhysling anthology, published by the SF Poetry Association. Rhysling winners this year were Lawrence Schimel for "How to Make a Human" in the long poem category, and William John Watkins for "We Die as Angels" in the short poem category.

Natasha Beaulieu, lauréate du Grand Prix de la science-fiction et du fantastique québécois

The Grand Prix de la science-fiction et du fantastique québécois 2002 went to SF Canada member Natasha Beaulieu. Other finalists included SF Canada member Laurent McAllister and Danielle Simard. The $2,500 prize was awarded on April 25, in Quebec City.

Québec, 25 avril 2002. Le Grand Prix de la science-fiction et du fantastique québécois a été décerné aujourd'hui à Natasha Beaulieu pour l'ensemble de sa production de l'année 2001 qui comprend deux nouvelles, "BM Zone", parue dans Solaris 137, et "Klé", publiée dans L'Année 1998 de la science-fiction et du fantastique québécois. La lauréate a reçu une bourse de 2 500 $ qui provient d'une commandite de la Fédération des Caisses populaires Desjardins du Québec, au cours d'une cérémonie officielle qui a eu lieu au Salon international du livre de Québec.

Natasha Beaulieu, qui a publié sa première nouvelle en 1991, s'est affirmée rapidement comme nouvelliste. Les deux textes qui lui ont permis de remporter le Grand Prix illustrent bien son talent. Natasha Beaulieu ne craint pas de s'inspirer des diverses expressions de l'imaginaire populaire (bande dessinée, manga, gothic), tout en se tenant loin des clichés. Poétique sans artifices, passionnée sans délire, elle pratique un fantastique noir qui côtoie le néon plutôt que les torches. Son oeuvre scrute le corps nocturne, la chair et le métal, la plume, le cuir et les amours qui transcendent les différences. Symbolique sans lourdeur, d'un romantisme vrai, elle ouvre l'esprit sur une vision vaste.

Natasha Beaulieu est née à Montréal le 29 février 1964. Elle est diplômée de l'Université Concordia en cinéma et littérature. Elle a publié depuis ses débuts une quarantaine de nouvelles et un roman fantastique, L'Ange écarlate (Alire). "La Cité de Penlocke" lui a valu en 1995 le prix Septième Continent.

Les deux autres finalistes du Grand Prix étaient Laurent McAllister, auteur virtuel d'un roman de fantasy, Le Messager des orages (Médiaspaul), et Danielle Simard, auteure d'un roman fantastique pour jeunes, Le Pouvoir d'Émeraude (Pierre Tisseyre). Comme la lauréate, plutôt que de mettre leur écriture au service du divertissement ou d'un message didactique, ils ont su présenter une vision originale et cohérente de leur imaginaire, où l'on chemine par le coeur autant que par l'intellect.

Le jury était composé de Laurent Laplante, journaliste pigiste, d'Esther Rochon, écrivaine et quadruple lauréate du Grand Prix, de Jean Dion, nouvelliste, d'Éric Bourguignon, éducateur en service de garde scolaire, et d'Eddy Szczerbinski, professeur au collégial.

Jan Lars Jensen nominated for Seiun

Jan Lars Jensen's story "The Secret History of the Ornithopter" was nominated for the Seiun award in Japan this year for best foreign short story.. The Seiun is the Japanese equivalent of the Hugo Award, an award voted by members of the annual Japanese Science Fiction Convention. ("Seiun" translated is "Nebula".) The winners were announced July 14, 2002, and the awards were re-presented at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California, over the Labor Day weekend. This year's winner was Greg Egan, for "Oceanic."

Four SF Canada members among Aurora winners

Four SF Canada members (names in bold below) were among the winners, and several others were short-listed for this year's Aurora Awards, awarded in Calgary August 10, 2002, at ConVersion. Winners and nominees are listed below.

Best Long-Form Work in English
Meilleur livre en anglais

In the Company of Others, Julie E. Czerneda (DAW, 2001)

•  Ascending, James Alan Gardner (EOS, 2001)
•  Teeth, Edo van Belkom (Meisha Merlin, 2001)
•  Maelstrom, Peter Watts (Tor, 2001)
•  The Chronoliths, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor,  2001)

Meilleur livre en français
Best Long-Form Work in French

Les Transfigurés du Centaure, Jean-Louis Trudel
(Médiaspaul, 2001)

•  Ithuriel, Michèle Laframboise (Éditions Naturellement, 2001)
•  Le Messager des orages, Laurent McAllister (Médiaspaul, 2001)
•  Le Pouvoir d'Émeraude, Danielle Simard (Pierre Tisseyre, 2001)

Best Short-Form Work in English
Meilleure nouvelle en anglais

"Left Foot on a Blind Man", Julie E. Czerneda
(Silicon Dreams, DAW)

•  "Waking the Dead", Robert H. Beer (On Spec Fall 2001)
•  "Equations", Mary E. Choo (The Magazine of Speculative Poetry Spring 2001) [poem]
•  "After the Internet", Mark A. Rayner (Western Alumni Gazette Fall 2001)
•  "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down", Douglas Smith (The Third Alternative #28)
•  "The Red Bird", Douglas Smith (On Spec Summer 2001)
•  "The Deed of Snigli", Marcie Tentchoff (Weird Tales, Summer 2001) [poem]

Meilleure nouvelle en français
Best Short-Form Work in French

«Souvenirs de lumière», Daniel Sernine (Solaris 138)

•  «Klé», Natasha Beaulieu (L'ASFFQ 1998, Alire)
•  «Huit harmoniques de Lumière», Joël Champetier (Solaris 136)
•  «Bientôt sur votre écran», Éric Gauthier (Solaris 139)
•  «L'Enfant des Mondes Assoupis», Yves Meynard (Solaris 139)
•  «La Parade du Hoyl», Douglas Smith (Solaris 138) [traducteur: Benoît Domis]

Best Work in English (Other)
Meilleur ouvrage en anglais (Autre)

 "Underwater Nightmare," Isaac Szpindel (Rescue Heroes Cycle II -- Episode 17a, air-date August 2001) [TV screenplay]

•  Call of Cthulhu: Unseen Masters, Bruce Ballon (Chaosium) [gaming supplement]
•  Charles de Lint, "Books to Look For" review column in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction [book reviews]
•  Wild Things Live There: The Best of Northern Frights, Don Hutchison, ed. (Mosaic Press, September 2001) [anthology]
•  On Spec (The Copper Pig Writers' Society) [SF magazine]
•  Nancy Kilpatrick, for editing (World Fantasy Convention 2001 CD-ROM) [editing]

Meilleur ouvrage en français (Autre)
Best Work in French (Other)

 Solaris, Joël Champetier, réd.
(Les Compagnons à temps perdu)

•  L'Année 1998 de la science-fiction et du fantastique québécois, Claude Janelle et Jean Pettigrew (Alire, 2001)
•  Dissection par un résurrectionniste du XIXe siècle fantastique en Amérique française, Mario Rendace (Éd. du Ressurrectionniste, 2001)
•  «Les Bibliothèques imaginaires», Mario Tessier (Solaris 138)

Artistic Achievement
Accomplissement artistique

 James Beveridge (On Spec Spring/01, On Spec Summer 2001)

•  Lar deSouza (On Spec Winter/2000, Parsec Spring/Summer 2001)
•  Jean-Pierre Normand (Solaris 136, On Spec Spring 2001, Les Nuages de Phoenix)
•  Scott Patri (CUFF: A Trip Report Found in a Plain Manila Envelope)
•  Martin Springett (On Wings of a Dragon)
•  Larry Stewart (SF artwork for NECTAR: New Era Classroom, Technology and Research)
•  Ronn Sutton (On Spec Winter 2000, Elvira)

Fan Achievement (Fanzine)
Accomplissement fanique (Fanzine)

 Voyageur, Karen Bennett & Sharon Lowachee, eds. (USS Hudson Bay / IDIC) [clubzine]

•  BCSFAzine, Garth Spencer, ed. (British Columbia S.F. Association) [clubzine]
•  Made in Canada Newsletter, Don Bassie, ed. [webzine]
•  Opuntia, Dale Speirs, ed. (Box 6830, Calgary, Alberta T2P 2E7) [fanzine]
•  OSFS Statement, Paul Valcour, ed. (July-December) (Ottawa SF Society) [clubzine]

Fan Achievement (Organizational)
Accomplissement fanique (Organisation)

 Peter Johnson (USS Hudson Bay / IDIC)

•  Paul Carreau (KAG Kanada)
•  Cathy Palmer-Lister (ConCept 2001)
•  Bernard Reischl (MonSFFA & www.monsffa.com)
•  Yvonne Penney (SF Pubnites in Toronto)

Fan Achievement (Other)
Accomplissement fanique (autre)

 Alex von Thorn, fan writing/écriture fanique

•  Janet Hetherington (Cinema Scarité) [film reviews/ critiques de vidéo]
•  Lloyd Penney, fan writing/écriture fanique
•  Larry Stewart, entertainer/personnalité: amuseur
•  Jason Taniguchi (one-man SF parody shows / presentations individuelles de parodies SF)