Category: Awards

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And the nominees are…

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This year’s Aurora Award ballot has just been announced. Several SF Canada members are nominated as finalists (their names are in capitals below).

The Aurora Awards are nominated by members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. Voting on this ballot runs from August 3th to September 14th. The awards ceremony will be held at Can-Con in October.

Congratulations to all nominees!

Best Novel
Armed in Her Fashion by Kate Heartfield, ChiZine Publications
Graveyard Mind by Chadwick Ginther, ChiZine Publications
One of Us by Craig DiLouie, Orbit
They Promised Me The Gun Wasn’t Loaded by James Alan Gardner, Tor
The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken, Solaris Books and Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Witchmark by C. L. Polk, Tor.com Publications

Best Young Adult Novel
Children of the Bloodlands: The Realms of Ancient, Book 2 by S.M. Beiko, ECW Press
Cross Fire: An Exo Novel by Fonda Lee, Scholastic Press
The Emerald Cloth by Clare C Marshall, Faery Ink Press
Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks by ‘Nathan Burgoine, Bold Strokes Books
Finding Atlantis by J.M. Dover, Evil Alter Ego Press
Legacy of Light by Sarah Raughley, Simon Pulse
The Sign of Faust by Éric Desmarais, Renaissance Press
Timefall by Alison Lohans, Five Rivers Publishing

Best Short Fiction
A Hold Full of Truffles by Julie E. Czerneda, Tales from Plexis, DAW Books
Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield, Tor.com Publications
Critical Mass by Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders, Laksa Media
For A Rich Man to Enter by SUSAN FOREST, InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 62
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson, Tor.com Publications

Best Graphic Novel
Crash and Burn by Finn Lucullan and Kate Larking, Astres Press
FUTILITY: Orange Planet Horror by Rick Overwater and Cam Hayden, Coffin Hop Press
It Never Rains by Kari Maaren, Webcomic
Krampus Is My Boyfriend! by S.M. Beiko, Webcomic
Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal, Drawn and Quarterly

Best Poem/Song
Echos by Shannon Allen, By the Light of Camelot, Edge
How My Life Will End by Vanessa Cardui, Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders, Laksa Media
Osiris by Leah Bobet, Uncanny Magazine
Trips to Impossible Cities by SANDRA KASTURI, Amazing Stories Magazine, issue #2, Winter 2018
Ursula Le Guin in the Underworld by SARAH TOLMIE, On Spec issue 107 vol 28.4

Best Related Work
By the Light of Camelot edited by J. R. Campbell and Shannon Allen, Edge
Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction edited by DOMINIK PARISIEN and Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Uncanny Magazine
Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes edited by J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec, EDGE
Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders edited by SUSAN FOREST and LUCAS K. LAW, Laksa Media
We Shall Be Monsters: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 200 years on edited by Derek Newman-Stille, Renaissance Press

Best Visual Presentation
Bao, written and directed by Domee Shi , Pixar Animation Studios
Deadpool 2, written and produced by Ryan Reynolds, Twentieth Century Fox
Murdoch Mysteries, 2018 episodes, Peter Mitchell and Christina Jennings, Shaftesbury Films
Travelers, Season 3, Brad Wright, Carrie Mudd, John G. Lenic, and Eric McCormack, Peacock Alley Entertainment
Wynonna Earp, Season 3, Emily Andras, Seven24 Films Calgary

Best Artist
Lily Author, cover art for Polar Borealis Magazine #8, Dragon Lab
Samantha M. Beiko, covers for Laksa Media
James F. Beveridge, cover art for Tyche books
Roger Czerneda, cover for Tales from Plexis, DAW Books
Dan O’Driscoll, covers for Bundoran Press
Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk, cartoons for Amazing Stories Magazine

Best Fan Writing and Publications
Adios Cowboy, Adam Shaftoe
Books and Tea, Christina Vasilevski
Constructing the Future, Derek Newman-Stille, Uncanny Magazine
Mars vs. Titan, RON S. FRIEDMAN, Quora
She Wrote It But…Revisiting Joanna Russ’ “How to Suppress Women’s Writing” 35 Years Later, KRISTA D. BALL
Travelling Tardis, Jen Desmarais, JenEric Designs

Best Fan Organizational
SANDRA KASTURI, chair Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Toronto
Derek Künsken and MARIE BILODEAU, co-chairs, Can*Con, Ottawa
Matt Moore, MARIE BILODEAU, and Nicole Lavigne, co-chairs, Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Ottawa
Randy McCharles, chair, When Words Collide, Calgary
Sandra Wickham, chair, Creative Ink Festival, Burnaby, BC

Best Fan Related Work
S.M. Beiko and Clare C. Marshall, Business BFFs (Podcast)
Kari Maaren, ChiSeries Toronto, monthly musical performances
Derek Newman-Stille, Speculating Canada
Joshua Pantalleresco, Just Joshing (Podcast)
EDWARD WILLETT, The Worldshapers (Podcast)

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Sandra Kasturi wins Sunburst Award

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SF Canada member Sandra Kasturi is the winner of the 2018 Sunburst Award for Short Story. “The Beautiful Gears of Dying” appeared in Laksa Media’s The Sum of Us anthology.

The Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic has celebrated the best in Canadian fantastic literature in both Adult and Young Adult publications since 2001. Winners receive a medallion that incorporates the Sunburst logo. Winners of both the Adult and Young Adult Sunburst Award also receive a cash prize of $1,000, while winners of the Short Story Sunburst Award receive a cash prize of $500.

The Sunburst Jury commented:
In a strong field with many outstanding stories, Sandra Kasturi’s “The Beautiful Gears of Dying” did for the jury what speculative writing does best, by using a fantastic/technological trope to explore the complexity of human relations and the texture of human life. Kasturi’s story is linguistically complex, economical, emotionally intense, and yet accessible, and it provokes recurring thoughts about our human predicaments.

Sandra Kasturi is a poet, writer and editor, and the co-publisher of the World Fantasy and British Fantasy Award-winning press, ChiZine Publications. Born in Estonia to an Estonian mother and Sri Lankan father, she now lives in Canada. She is the co-founder (with Helen Marshall) of the Toronto SpecFic Colloquium and the national Chiaroscuro Reading Series. Sandra’s work has appeared in various venues, including ON SPEC, Prairie Fire, several Tesseracts anthologies, Evolve, Chilling Tales, A Verdant Green, TransVersions, ARC Magazine, Taddle Creek, Abyss & Apex, 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin, and Stamps, Vamps & Tramps. Her two poetry collections are: The Animal Bridegroom (with an intro by Neil Gaiman) and Come Late to the Love of Birds. She is currently working on two books: a new poetry collection called Snake Handling for Beginners, as well as a story collection, Mrs. Kong & Other Monsters.

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2018 Aurora Award Winners!

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The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association has announced this year’s Aurora Award winners. We are very pleased to note that three SF Canada members were recognized for their outstanding achievements:

Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law won in the Best Related Work category for The Sum of Us: Tales of the Bonded and Bound anthology. Congratulations, Susan and Lucas!

Candas Jane Dorsey has been inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association Hall of Fame. Candas is internationally known for her contribution to the literature of the fantastic. Her oeuvre includes novels Black Wine (winner of Tiptree, Crawford and Aurora Awards) and Paradigm of Earth (shortlisted for Sunburst and Spectrum Awards); short story collections Machine Sex and other stories (containing the Aurora Award-winning storySleeping in a Box), Dark Earth Dreams, and Vanilla and other stories (winner of the WGA Short Fiction Award); four poetry books; several anthologies edited/co-edited, and stories, poems, reviews, critical essays, and rants in anthologies and magazines.

She was editor/publisher for nine years of Canadian independent SF publisher Tesseract Books, and for 14 years of a literary press, The Books Collective. She teaches writing and speaks internationally on SF and other topics. She was the founding president of SF Canada. She works as a freelance writer, editor and communications consultant, and is an active arts and community advocate.

Well deserved, Candas!

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2018 Aurora Awards Ballot Announced

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The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association has announced this year’s Aurora Award ballot for works done in 2017 by Canadians. We are very pleased to note that numerous SF Canada members are included in the ballot in various categories:

In Best Young Adult Novel, S.M. Beiko (Scion of the Fox)

In Best Poem/Song, Rhea Rose (Cruising Glaciers)

In Best Related Work, Spider Robinson(Compostela (Tesseracts 20)), Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law (The Sum of Us: Tales of the Bonded and Bound), and  Lucas K. Law (Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy)

In Best Artist, Samantha M. Beiko (cover for Laksa Media)

In Best Fan Writing and Publications, Krista D. Ball (Reflections on Community and Gender in Canadian SFF), and Ron S. Friedman (Science literacy for Science Fiction Readers and Writers)

In Best Fan Organizational, Marie Bilodeau (executive, Can*Con), and Marie Bilodeau (co-chair, Chiaroscuro Reading Series)

In Best Fan Related Work, S.M. Beiko (Business BFFs podcast)

As well, various members are associated with other nominated projects and anthologies.

Voting has begun and will end on September 8, 2018. The awards ceremony will be held at VCON 42, October 5-7, 2018, in Richmond, BC (www.vcon.ca). If you would like to join CFFSA to be eligible to vote on the shortlisted nominees, you can do so at their website: www.prixaurorawards.ca.

Congratulations to all the finalists!

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Five Rivers Publishing round-up

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SF Canada member Lorina Stephens, publisher and senior editor of Five Rivers Publishing, shares some news:

Five Rivers’ cover artist, Ann Crowe, has been shortlisted for a Prix Aurora Award for Best Artist, for her cover for Timothy Gwyn’s fascinating young adult SF novel, Avians.

D.G. Valdron’s grim-dark fantasy novel, The Mermaid’s Tale, was shortlisted for the Kevin Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction, through the Manitoba Book Awards.

Lorina Stephens’ historical fantasy novel, Shadow Song, is now available in audiobook.

Lorina Stephens’ spec-fic novel, Caliban, is now available in print and eBook.

Michael Skeet’s novel, A Poisoned Prayer is now available in audiobook.

Ann Marston’s Western King is now available in audiobook.

Aaron Kite’s A Touch of Poison is now available in audiobook.

D.G. Laderoute’s 2014 Prix Aurora shortlisted Out of Time, is now available in audiobook.

SF Canada congratulates Five Rivers Publishing on its recent tenth anniversary and its ongoing contributions to Canadian speculative fiction.