Jean-Louis Trudel, Don Bassie
win Aurora Awards/Prix Aurora

Jean-Louis Trudel won the 2003 Prix Aurora Award for Meilleur livre en français/Best Long-Form Work in French for his novel Le Revenant de Fomalhaut (Médiaspaul, 2002), while Don Bassie won the Aurora Award for Fan Achievement (Publication)/Accomplissement fanique (publication) for his Made in Canada webzine.

The Aurora Awards were presented August 30 at a ceremony in the Royal York Hotel, during TorCon3, the 61st World Science Fiction Convention.

Winners of this year's Prix Aurora Awards
Back row, left to right: Joël Champetier for Sylvie Bérard, Don Bassie, Karl Schroeder, Mel Vavaroutsos, Robert J. Sawyer, Jean-Louis Trudel
Front row, left to right, Jason Tamaguchi, Georgina Miles

Other winners included Karl Schroeder, in Best Long-Form Work in English/Meilleur livre en anglais, for his novel Permanence (Tor, 2002); Robert J. Sawyer, in Best Short-Form Work in English/Meilleure nouvelle en anglais, for his short story "Ineluctable," (Analog, November 2002), and Sylvie Bérard, in Meilleure nouvelle en français/Best Short-Form Work in French, for «La Guerre sans temps» (Solaris 143).

Edo van Belkom won the Best Work in English (Other)/Meilleur ouvrage en anglais (Autre) for editing the Be VERY Afraid! horror anthology (Tundra Books).  No award was given in the Meilleur ouvrage en français (Autre)/Best Work in French (Other) category due to insufficient nominations.

The Artistic Achievement / Accomplissement artistique Aurora went to Mel Vavaroutsos, while Fan Achievement (Organizational)/Accomplissement fanique (Organisation) went to Georgina Miles and Fan Achievement (Other)/Accomplissement fanique (autre) went to Jason Taniguchi for his one-man SF parody shows.

Several SF Canada members were nominated for Auroras but did not win this time around.  They included all of the other nominees for Meilleur livre en français/Best Long-Form Work in French:  Joël Champetier, nominated for Les Sources de la magie (Alire, 2002); Michèle Laframboise, nominated for Piège pour le Jules-Verne (Médiaspaul, 2002), Esther Rochon, nominated for L'Aigle des profondeurs (Alire, 2002), and Guy Sirois, nominated for Horizons blancs (Médiaspaul, 2002).

Other nominated SF Canada members were Eric Choi, nominated for Best Short-Form Work in English/Meilleure nouvelle en anglais for his story "Just Like Being There" (Orbiter: Tales from the Wonder Zone, Trifolium Books); Isaac Szpindel, nominated in the same category for "By Its Cover" (Explorer: Tales from the Wonder Zone, Trifolium Books); Michèle Laframboise, nominated for Meilleure nouvelle en français/Best Short-Form Work in French for «Les Femmes viennent de Mars et les hommes de Vénus» (Solaris 140), and, in the same category, Jean Pettigrew and Mark A. Rayner for «Les Navires de Saint-Elme» (Solaris 143) and «Un Port dans la Tempête» (Science-Fiction Magazine, Fév/2002, traduction: Marc Bailly).

In Best Work in English (Other)/Meilleur ouvrage en anglais (Autre), SF Canada nominees included Isaac Szpindel, nominated for his TV screenplay for "Bat's Life" (Rescue Heroes Cycle III, Episode 33b, Warner Bros./Nelvana), and Joe Mahoney, nominated along with Robert J. Sawyer and Barbara Worthy for "Faster Than Light," a drama pilot for CBC Radio that first aired September 22, 2002.

SF Canada members nominated for Artistic Achievement/Accomplissement artistique were  James Beveridge and Michèle Laframboise.

Edward Willett wins  Dream Realm Award
for electronically published YA SF, fantasy or horror

Edward Willett's YA fantasy novel Spirit Singer (Awe-Struck E-Books/Earthling Press) won the 2003 Dream Realm Award for best electronically published young adult science fiction, fantasy or horror.

The Dream Realm Awards were presented at ArmadilloCon 25, a literary science fiction convention which ran August 8-10 in Austin, Texas.  The other two finalists in the young adult category were Faces in the Dark by Glen Ebisch (LTDBooks) and Dragon's Moon by Bent Lorentzen (Twilight Times Publishing).

Earlier this year Spirit Singer tied for the 2003 EPPIE Award in the category of young adult fiction with Painted with Shadows by Becca De La Rosa (LTD Books). The EPPIEs are presented annually by EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Connection), a professional organization of e-published authors, at its annual conference, EPICon, which was held this year in Tampa, Florida.

Spirit Singer also previously won the 2002 Regina Book Award (one of the annual Saskatchewan Book Awards) for best book by an author from the city of Regina.

Claude Lalumière a final nominee for Origins Award

"The Ethical Treatment of Meat"--Claude Lalumière's story from The Book of More Flesh--is a final nominee for the Origins Awards, best game-related fiction short form (although Claude is quick to point out that his story is not a game tie-in--the story is eligible because the anthology was published by a gaming company). "The Ethical Treatment of Meat" also picked up a few Stoker Award recommendations, though not enough to make the ballot, and appeared on a number of "best of the year" lists.

Donna Farley wins Word Guild Award
for Canadian Christian writers

Donna Farley won the 2003 Word Guild Award in the Short Story category for her science-fiction story "The Passing of the Eclipse," which appeared in the anthology Sky Songs (Skysong Press 2002, edited by Steve Stanton) and envisions a futuristic, post-cataclysmic, low-tech Earth. The awards, which recognize excellence among Canadian Christian writers, were announced on June 13 at the 19th Annual "God Uses Ink" conference in Guelph, Ontario.

"The Passing of the Eclipse" was one of two SF stories on the three-story short list; the other was Shawn J. Pollett's "An Eye For An Eye," from Dreams & Visions #29 (Skysong Press, Summer 2002, also edited by Steve Stanton).

Marie Jakober wins award for best Civil War novel

Marie Jakober's novel Only Call Us Faithful has received the Michael Shaara Award for best Civil War novel of 2002. It has also been shortlisted for the Georges Bugnet Award from the Writers Guild of Alberta.

Sherry Ramsey wins Fantasy Writers Dream
Short Story Contest

Sherry Ramsey's short story "To Walk The Ways" was awarded first place in the Fantasy Writers Dream Short Story Contest.  The judge was Australian fantasy author Jennifer Fallon. The story will appear in a future issue of Runes Magazine.