CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

And many others. In the first Australian awards of 2009, Melina Marchetta has taken the Aurealis Award for best young adult novel for Finnikin of the Rock. Shaun Tan, Emily Rodda, Alison Goodman and Sean Williams are on the winners podium also.

The Science Fiction Awards blog tells us that the announcement of winners was made on a Twitter feed. Sign of the times.

Full list of Aurealis winners here.

Thirteen categories, 56 titles – that’s the shortlist for the 2008 Aurealis Awards, whittled down from more than 600 entries. Speculative fiction is big.

Several categories are of particular interest to us, although there is something for everyone in all of them.

Best Fantasy Novel

• Alison Goodman – The Two Pearls of Wisdom
• Sylvia Kelso – Amberlight
• Margo Lanagan – Tender Morsels
• Juliet Marillier – Heir to Sevenwaters
• Karen Miller – The Riven Kingdom

Best Illustrated Book /Graphic Novel

• Steve Hunt & David Richardson – The Cloudchasers
• Shaun Tan – Tales from Outer Suburbia
• Colin Thompson – The Floods Family Files
• Julie Watts & Graeme Base – The Art of Graeme Base

Best Young Adult Long Fiction

• Isobelle Carmody – The Stone Key
• David Cornish – Lamplighter
• Alison Goodman – Two Pearls of Wisdom
• Melina Marchetta – Finnikin of the Rock
• Sean Williams – The Changeling

Best Young Adult Short Fiction

• Deborah Biancotti, ‘The Tailor of Time’, Clockwork Phoenix, Norilana Books
• Dirk Flinthart, ‘This Is Not My Story’, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, #37
• Trent Jamieson, ‘Cracks’, Shiny, #2
• Kevin MacLean, ‘Eye of the Beholder’, Misspelled

Best Children’s Long Fiction

• Simon Higgins – Moonshadow (Eye of the Beast)
• Sophie Masson – Thomas Trew and the Island of Ghosts
• Emily Rodda – The Wizard of Rondo
• Carole Wilkinson – Dragon Dawn
• Sean Williams – The Changeling and The Dust Devils (Changeling series)

Best Children’s Illustrated Work/Picture Book

• Anna Fienberg, Barbara Fienberg & Kim Gamble -Tashi and the Phoenix
• Richard Harland & Laura Peterson (illustrator) – Escape!, Under Siege, Race to the Ruins, The Heavy Crown, (The Wolf Kingdom series)
• Ian Irvine & David Cornish (illustrator) – Thorn Castle, Giant’s Lair, Black Crypt, Wizardry Crag (The Sorcerer’s Tower series)
• Sally Morgan with Ezekiel, Ambelin and Blaze Kwaymullina & Adam Hill (illustrator) – Curly and the Fent
• Richard Tulloch & Terry Denton (illustrator) – Twisted Tales

The full list can be viewed here on the Aurealis Awards revamped site. Winners will be announced on January 24.

Addendum 21 December. Apologies to Simon Haynes, who has rightly pointed out the following omission:

Best Science Fiction Novel

• K A Bedford – Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait
• Marianne de Pierres – Chaos Space (Book Two of the Sentients of Orion)
• Simon Haynes – Hal Spacejock: No Free Lunch
• Kim Westwood – The Daughters of Moab
• Sean Williams – Earth Ascendant (Astropolis Book Two)

The Aurealis Awards for 2007 were announced on Australia Day. These awards acknowledge the best sci-fi and fantasy titles of the preceding year, with award categories that include fiction for young adults and younger readers.

Best fantasy novel overall was awarded to Lian Hearn’s prequel to her acclaimed Tales of the Otori series, Heaven’s Net is Wide. This title is currently with a reviewer, and we hope to have the review in the first issue of Fiction Focus for 2008.

Best Young Adult Novel went to WA’s Antony Eaton for Skyfall, also out for review. This is the second title in Anthony’s Darklands trilogy.

And although a little young for Fiction Focus, it should be noted that Kate Forsyth’s Chain of Charms series has scooped the pool with Books 2-6 collectively winning the Best Children’s (8-12) Long Fiction Award. These titles are part of the 2008 Primary Focus list and display.