Holly Phillips wins Sunburst Award

Holly Phillips has won the 2006 Sunburst Award for her collection of short stories In the Palace of Repose (Prime Books).

The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a prized and juried award that is presented annually. It is based on excellence of writing and awarded to a Canadian writer who has published a speculative fiction novel or book-length collection any time during the previous calendar year. Named after the novel by Phyllis Gotlieb, the award consists of a cash award of $1,000 and a hand-crafted medallion which incorporates a "Sunburst" logo, designed by Marcel Gagné.

The Sunburst jury said, "The stories of In the Palace of Repose spring to life from the page. As the characters uncover artefacts of an unimagined past, relive a long-forgotten murder, cope with a memory that suddenly wipes itself clean or struggle to adapt to startling new worlds, Holly Phillips's masterful writing, depth of characterization and complete control of her craft make this book a joy to read."

The other shortlisted works for the 2006 award were Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, Cory Doctorow (Tor Books); Gravity Wells: Speculative Fiction Stories, James Alan Gardner (HarperCollins Canada); The Wave Theory of Angels, Alison MacLeod (Penguin Canada); and Spin, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor Books).

Jurors for the 2006 Sunburst Award were Larissa Lai, Janet McNaughton, Uppinder Mehan, Derryl Murphy and Élisabeth Vonarburg. The 2007 Award jurors will be Steven Erikson, James Alan Gardner, Tom Henighan, Emily Pohl-Weary and Caitlin Sweet.

Cory Doctorow novelette nominated for Hugo Award

Cory Doctorow's novelette "I, Robot" (The Infinite Matrix, February 15, 2005) was nominated for the Best Novelette Hugo Award, which was won by "Two Hearts" by Peter S. Beagle (F&SF, October/November 2005). Other nominees were "The Calorie Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi (F&SF, October/November 2005), "TelePresence" by Michael A. Burstein (Analog, July/August 2005), and "The King of Where-I-Go" by Howard Waldrop (SCI FICTION, December 7, 2005).

The Hugo Awards, the premiere award in the science fiction field, are nominated for and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon). This year's Hugo Awards were presented at L.A.con IV, the 64th World Science Fiction Convention, held August 23 to 27 in Anaheim, California.

Joël Champetier wins Aurora Award for editing Solaris

Joël Champetier won the Aurora Award in the category of Best Work in French (Other) for his editing of Solaris, at the ceremony held at Toronto Trek 20 (this year's national Canadain SF convention) early in July.

The complete list of finalists and winners is here.

Although no other SF Canada members won awards this year, many were finalists. In the same category,Jean Pettigrew was a finalist for her critiques in Solaris 153-156, and Jean-Louis Trudel for his essay «Les enfants de Jules Verne au Canada: la génération étouffée», published in Solaris 156.

Other SF Canada finalists were, for Best Long-Form Work in French, Michèle Laframboise for Le Dragon de l'Alliance (Médiaspaul) and, in the same category, Élisabeth Vonarburg, a finalist for both Reine de Mémoire 1. La Maison d'Oubli and Reine de Mémoire 2. Le Dragon de Feu (both Alire).

In the Best Short-Form Work in English category, SF Canada nominees included Douglas Smith for "Going Harvey in the Big House" (Cicada, Jan/Feb 2005), Hayden Trenholm for "Like Monsters of the Deep" (On Spec #61 Summer/2005), and "Mayfly," by Derryl Murphy and Peter Watts (Tesseracts Nine, Edge).

Under Best Work in English (Other) SF Canada finalists included Joe Mahoney, in his role as producer for Birth, a radio drama written by Michael Lennick and Robert J. Sawyer and aired on CBC Radio One on July 8, 2005, and again as series coordinating producer for Six Impossible Things, hosted and curated by Nalo Hopkinson and airing on CBC Radio One May 16-27, 2005, Karl Johanson as editor of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, and Diane Walton as managing editor of On Spec.

In the Artistic Achievement category, Elaine Chen was a finalist for Wasps at the Speed of Sound and Mockingbird) and Stephanie Ann Johanson was a finalist for her Cover for Neo-opsis 6, and illustrations for Neo-opsis 5, 6 & 7).

Finally, under Fan Achievement (Other), Don Bassie was a finalist for the Made in Canada website/site web.

Ursula Pflug story wins first prize in Dark Tales's flash fiction competition

Ursula Pflug's story "A Shower of Fireflies" won first prize in Dark Tales's now-defunct monthly flash subsidiary.

A.M. Dellamonica nominated for Sidewise Award 

A.M. (Alyx) Dellamonica's short story "The Illuminated Heretic" (Alternate Generals III, edited by Harry Turtledove, Baen) was nominated for the 2005 Sidewise Award for excellence in alternate history, won by Lois Tilton for "Pericles the Tyrant" (Asimov's, October-November 2005).

Other nominees for the short form award were William Barton, "Harvest Moon" (Asimov's, September 2005), Kim Newman and Paul J. McAuley, "Prix Victor Hugo Script," and Jason Stoddard, "Panacea" (SciFiction, September 14, 2005).

The awards were presented at LAConIV, the World Science Fiction Convention, in Anaheim, CA, in late August.

Nancy Kilpatrick-edited anthology Stoker Award finalist

Outsiders, edited by Nancy Kilpatrick and Nancy Holder and published by ROC, was a finalist for the 2006 Bram Stoker Award in the best anthology category. The award, presented at the Horror Writers Association's annual conference in Newark, New Jersey, in June, went to Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre, edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb (Carroll & Graf).

Other anthology finalists were Corpse Blossoms, edited by Julia and RJ Sevin (Creeping Hemlock Press) and Weird Shadows over Innsmouth, edited by Stephen Jones (Fedogan and Bremer).

Michèle Laframboise wins Solaris Prize

Michèle Laframboise won the 2006 Solaris Prize for her SF short story "Le vol de l'Abeille" (Flight of the Honey Bee). Québec-based science-fiction magazine Solaris is the oldest Canadian SF magazine, in its 32th year of publication.

Ahmed A. Khan story short listed for Carl Brandon Society Parallax Award

Ahmed A. Khan's story "The Meaning of Life, and Other Clichés" did not win the Carl Brandon Society Parallax Award but it did make the short list. In the words of judge M.J. Hardman, had some nice words to say about the story: "A dialogue between two stranded spacers coping with memories, watching maybe sentient will-o-the-wisps, telling a whole story sparsely. Lovely writing, close to poetry."

Marie Jakober wins Alberta Book Award

Marie Jakober's second Civil War novel, Sons of Liberty, won the Georges Bugnet Award for Novel at the Alberta Book Awards on May 13 in Calgary.

Tony Pi second in Writers of the Future contest

Tony Pi's novelette "The Stone Cipher" won second place in the Writers of the Future Contest, First Quarter 2006. Tony is a linguist, and this is one of several stories he has written which feature linguistics.

The Writers of the Future Contest is an international writing competition for new science fiction and fantasy writers. Entries are judged anonymously. Winners are invited to an all-expense paid trip to a one-week writing workshop and a gala award ceremony.

The judges in the first quarter of 2006 were Robert Silverberg, Anne McCaffrey, Algis Budrys and Eric Kotani.

Tony's story will appear in the Writers of the Future anthology, volume XXIII, to be published in Fall, 2007.

Sandra Kasturi, Mary Choo nominated for Rhysling Award

Sandra Kasturi and Mary Choo were both nominated for the Science Fiction Poetry Association's Rhysling Award in the short poem category this year.

Sandra was nominated for her poem "Frankenstein's Monster's Wife's Therapist."

Mary was nominated for her poem "Keepers (from Grannie's Garden)," which came out in ChiZine #24, April-June 2005.

The award went to Mike Allen for "The Strip Search."

Holly Phillips shortlisted for Crawford Award

Holly Phillips was among the finalists for the 2006 Crawford Award, given by the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts to the best fantasy writer whose first book has appeared in the last 18 months. Holly was nominated for her collection In the Palace of Repose. The award went to Joe Hill for Twentieth Century Ghosts. Other finalists were Judith Berman for Bear Daughter, Hal Duncan for Vellum, Francis Hardinge for Fly by Night, Sarah Monette for Melusine, and Anna Tambour for Spotted Lily.

Janine Cross novel makes Library Journal list of best 2005 genre fiction

Janine Cross's novel Touched by Venom (Roc), the first book (of three) in the Dragon Temple Saga, has been named to Library Journal's list of the best genre fiction of 2005. Says LJ:

An independent-minded young woman in a male-dominated society angers the Dragon Temple's dragonmasters, bringing disaster on her family and clan and setting the girl on an odyssey that will change her world. The jungle setting and tribal civilizations of this exciting debut novel vividly evoke the rain forests of Africa and South America.

Others on the list are Terry Bisson's Numbers Don't Lie (Tachyon), Sunstorm (Del Rey) by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, Andrew Eschbach's The Carpet Makers (Tor), and The Necessary Beggar (Tor) by Susan Palwick.

Cory Doctorow story makes BSFA Awards short list

Cory Doctorow's short story "I, Robot," published in Infinite Matrix, made the short list for this year's British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) awards for short fiction, presented April 15 at the 2006 Eastercon, Concussion, in Glasgow. The awards are given annually by the BSFA based on a vote of its members and members of Eastercon, the British national science fiction convention. The award was won by "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link (Magic For Beginners and F&SF).

Other short-listed stories in the short fiction category were "Bears Discover Smut" by Michael Bishop (SciFiction), "Bird Songs at Eventide" by Nina Allan (Interzone), "Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch" by Rudy Rucker (Interzone), "Imagine" by Edward Morries (Interzone), "Soft Apocalypse" by Will McIntosh (Interzone) and "Two Dreams on Trains" by Elizabeth Bear (Strange Horizons).