James Tiptree Jr. / Otherwise Award Discussion

[Joe]

Discussion on the James Tiptree Jr. Award; which started in 1991.

[Joe]

I completely missed the fact the 2016 winner had been announced in March. Here's a link to it: https://tiptree.org/2017/03/anna-mari...

I've heard of many of the Honor list books and authors but not the winner, Anna-Marie McLemore. Saying that I'm no expert on this award overall. I know the basic idea behind it and it's theme, plus it's author, but relatively few of the winners.

[Jon]

The 2018 Tiptree Award was announced on March 22nd.

I can't find a Goodreads link.

They Will Dream In The Garden - written by Gabriela Damian Miravete

More info can be found at tiptree.org.

This is a translated short story. It was translated by Adrian Demopulos. The synopsis sounds interesting so I might try to read it this weekend.

[Nick]

Crikey - I've only just seen this announcement.

We’ve spent the last month deep in discussion about the name of this award. We’ve listened to your feedback, reflected on our own assumptions and commitments, and we have decided that it’s time for the name to change.

The Tiptree Award is becoming the Otherwise Award.

As far as I can make out there's been criticism because Tiptree and her husband died in a suicide pact when their health started failing, but now some critics are suggesting that it was murder-suicide, with Tiptree murdering her husband because he was disabled.

[Jon]

The 2019 Otherwise Award winner was announced on April 11th.

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi


The synopsis does sound interesting but I have heard this novel described as magical realism and that style typically does not work well for me.

There is also an Honor List of nine additional works. This can be looked at as a recommended reading list for the award.

[Nick]

I've still got 40 winners to go before I start on the also-rans!

But my average rating for the winners of the Otherwise at the moment is 3 stars, so I don't know if I'd really want to do extra reading for them.

[Jon]

The 2020 Otherwise Award was awarded to Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki for the novella Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon . It can be found in Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora.

I looked up the book and it does look interesting. I might pick it up. I do like anthologies because I can usually read a story every night or two along with my other reading.