CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

We know, we know. There’s an unabashed Shaun Tan bias on this blog. But we had to let you know that he has been nominated for a Chesley Award for Tales from Outer Suburbia.Twice.

The Chesleys are given by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, and this time Shaun is up for Best Interior Illustration and Artistic Achievement.

Winners will be announced at Anticipation, the 67th World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal 6-10 August.

Somehow this award has slipped under our radar in the past, but any organisation that shortlists Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, Ursula le Guin and Terry Pratchett in the same year must be listened to.

Have a look at the impressive list of Mythopoeic Awards finalists for 2009 in four categories here.

The Mythopoeic Society, a body devoted to the serious study of ‘fantastic and mythic literature’, will announce the eventual winners in Los Angeles in July.

From midnight tonight (AEST) speculative ficton writers from around the world (and their readers) will be participating in Flycon 2009 - an online convention of author chats, interviews, workshops and panels.

Here’s the schedule, and you will see that there’s much to interest YA aficionados. It’s thoughtful of the organisers to give five time zones : Auckland, Sydney, London, US East Coast, US West Coast.

The Fairy Tale workshop on Sunday morning sounds especially interesting, although it’s on at 4am Perth time so it might be a tough one to ‘attend’:

From Walt Disney to Robin McKinley to Anne Rice to Gregory McGuire and beyond, lots of people have been drawn to retell fairy tales. In this workshop we’ll examine what makes a good retelling so satisfying, and also take a look at some of the retelling trends that aren’t so hot. We’ll also discuss fairy tale friendly markets. Put your name down for this, as workshop will be locked to protect publication rights.

Have a look and see if there is anything for you. You can also follow the action on twitter. There is an aggregated Flycon feed here.

The shortlists for the Nebulas, the awards presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, have just been announced.

The full list of nominees is here. Of particular interest to readers of YA are the categories of novel (with two YA titles shortlisted), and the Norton Award (named in honour of the great YA fantasy writer, the late Andre Norton). There’s a Knight of the Realm and not to make too fine a parochial point, an Aussie.

Novel

• Little Brother (Cory Doctorow)
• Powers (Ursula le Guin)
• Cauldron (Jack McDevitt)
• Brasyl (Ian McDonald)
• Making Money (Terry Pratchett)
• Superpowers (David A. Schwartz)

Norton Award

• Graceling (Kristin Cashore)
• Lamplighter (D.M. Cornish)
• Savvy (Ingrid Law)
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Mary E. Pearson)
• Flora’s Dare … (Ysabeau S. Wilce)

Winners will be announced in Los Angeles over the weekend of April 24-26.

It’s a pity Melina Marchetta wasn’t a guest as she did well in the recent Aurealis Awards with Finnikin of the Rock. Her Printz might even have scored a mention. What does the author of Looking for Alibrandi have to do to get media attention in this country?

But at least Radio National’s Book Show is talking about the Aurealis Awards and speculative fiction generally with Alison Goodman, Adrian Bedford and Jonathan Strahan. The podcast will be available for a short time only.

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.

And Neil Gaiman changed the world. From the i09 SciFi site.

Musings from Westerblog.

At the Hugo Awards for Science Fiction on Saturday, there were two awards that Shaun Tan didn’t win. Mind you, the final report indicates that he was a close second (44 votes to 48) for the Best Related (SciFi) Book for The Arrival. This Award was won by Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher.

Shaun was also in contention for Best Artist and came fifth in this category, which was won by Stephan Martiniere.

The Teenreads website has an interview with Cory Doctorow, author of the much-acclaimed Little Brother.

Although not available here yet in conventional book-as-we-know-it form, as we mentioned a few posts ago, as an advocate of Creative Commons, Doctorow has made Little Brother available as a free ebook.

The issues that this title raises are highly relevant for our times.