What this folder is for

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

This is a folder to post and discuss other literary awards liked to science fiction and/or fantasy. In this thread members can suggest the awards. We currently plan to have one thread per award. We do not currently plan to add winners or nominees of other awards to our reading list, because it is already huge. However, we welcome any buddy read proposals, which while not official monthly readings, can add to the enjoyment of our members.

This post will be updated with links to other threads regarding awards.

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Thanks for setting it up, Z. Many members read extra material that is off our Hugo & Nebula radar. Looking forward to extra discussions and finding the next good read.

[Silvana]

This is great, I like looking at other awards nominees especially the BSFA and PKD. Will you do the Lambda too?

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Silvana wrote: "This is great, I like looking at other awards nominees especially the BSFA and PKD. Will you do the Lambda too?"

Yes, I plan to do most international awards and maybe country-level if they are interesting. Anyone is encouraged to write here which ones to add

[Antti]

Is it OK to add obscure country-level awards? The winner of the biggest Finnish SF/F award, Tähtivaeltaja, was just announced last week. I could list the nominees and the winner in a separate post.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Antti wrote: "Is it OK to add obscure country-level awards? The winner of the biggest Finnish SF/F award, Tähtivaeltaja, was just announced last week. I could list the nominees and the winner in a separate post."

Yes, please do. Also, if you read nominees, please comment on their work

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Also, Annti, for us ignorant folks, you might indicate (if you know) if there are any translations (I assume most, if not all are written in Finnish, though I know that you have talked about the Finnish person living in California who has always written in Endlish)

[Antti]

Kate: As it happens, this year none of the nominations were originally written in Finnish. I think this is the first year that's happened.

The winner was written in Swedish, though, so I included a brief summary.

[Plamen]

Does anyone know what is going on with Campbell Memorial and will it be awarded this year at all?

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Plamen wrote: "Does anyone know what is going on with Campbell Memorial and will it be awarded this year at all?"

Formally they wrote "Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award award committee has limited book availability. We will release the Center's 2020 novel award finalists as soon as we can, likely later this summer." http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/news.htm

There has been nothing on their site about a possible renaming.

[Plamen]

There is nothing more then, thanks, Z!

[Ed]

Here is an interesting article comparing SFF and literary awards:
https://countercraft.substack.com/p/s...

Some other articles there by that same guy are interesting as well.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Ed wrote: "Here is an interesting article comparing SFF and literary awards:
https://countercraft.substack.com/p/s...

Some other articles there by that same guy are interesting as well."

Seems interesting, thanks Ed!

[Antti]

Excellent article with very interesting points; I have wondered myself why more "literary" authors don't win SFF awards - or even get nominated, but I never thought to think about it in terms of publishers.

[Kristenelle]

I hadn't realized that such detailed stats on the Hugo votes are kept. It was really interesting to look at. Am I understanding correctly that there are multiple voting rounds where one nominee is eliminated each round?

[Ed]

You are correct. And the admins have posted links to those stats in some years. The article was partly about how the SFF awards are more transparent about such things.

[Antti]

There aren't multiple voting rounds per se; each person votes only once, but since they vote for many books at once and have ranked them, calculating the winner looks like this.

From Wikipedia (Instant-runoff voting):
"Ballots are initially counted for each voter's top choice. If a candidate has more than half of the vote based on first-choices, that candidate wins. If not, then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The voters who selected the defeated candidate as a first choice then have their votes added to the totals of their next choice. This process continues until a candidate has more than half of the votes. When the field is reduced to two, it has become an "instant runoff" that allows a comparison of the top two candidates head-to-head."

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Kristenelle wrote: "I hadn't realized that such detailed stats on the Hugo votes are kept. "

I also thought what a trove of info, but now I'd like to see much more, like a complete list of nominees that get at least one vote

[Kristenelle]

Oleksandr wrote: "Kristenelle wrote: "I hadn't realized that such detailed stats on the Hugo votes are kept. "

I also thought what a trove of info, but now I'd like to see much more, like a complete list of nominee..."

Yeah, that would be really interesting. Info on voter demographics would be really interesting too. Is it skewing older/younger, male/female, repeat voters/first timers, etc.

@Antti - Thanks for the explanation!

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Interesting. Thanks!

[Ed]

Antti wrote: "Excellent article with very interesting points; I have wondered myself why more "literary" authors don't win SFF awards - or even get nominated, ..."

There are more counterexamples than he mentions. For example, David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro have at least been nominated for SFF awards.

Also, many stories by Heinlein were originally published in literary magazines like Saturday Evening Post.

But the general trend of his observations seems right.

[Kalin]

Kristenelle wrote: "Oleksandr wrote: "Info on voter demographics would be really interesting too. Is it skewing older/younger, male/female, repeat voters/first timers, etc."

I don't think anyone's collecting that info. I think a lot of people would take issue with giving that information for this purpose.

[Kristenelle]

Kalin wrote: "Kristenelle wrote: "Oleksandr wrote: "Info on voter demographics would be really interesting too. Is it skewing older/younger, male/female, repeat voters/first timers, etc."

I don't think anyone's..."

Yeah, I could see that. It would be interesting though!

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

regarding gender split over time there are several researches, one of them here https://www.adastrasf.com/worldcon-me... and there https://www.adastrasf.com/report-worl...

[Ed]

The "2020 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award" went to Rick Raphael.

http://file770.com/2020-cordwainer-sm...

The 2021 award will be announced during Readercon in August. This year it is happening virtually, online.
https://www.readercon.org/program

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Ed wrote: "The "2020 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award" went to Rick Raphael.."

I plan to try him

[Ed]

I don't intend to read Rick Raphael. I looked, but the stories don't seem interesting to me. But I love the "Rediscovery Award". It is a bit like the retro hugos, but seems to pick more obscure authors. I'm currently reading stuff by a previous winner Zenna Henderson, and she deserves to be rediscovered.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Ed wrote: " I'm currently reading stuff by a previous winner Zenna Henderson, and she deserves to be rediscovered.."

Got a book by her, yet to read it. As for Raphael, he got several short story nominees in HUGO

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Ed wrote: "I don't intend to read Rick Raphael. I looked, but the stories don't seem interesting to me. But I love the "Rediscovery Award". It is a bit like the retro hugos, but seems to pick more obscure authors. I'm currently reading stuff by a previous winner Zenna Henderson, and she deserves to be rediscovered."

Zenna Henderson is one of my favorites from long, long ago. I have never heard of Raphael, so I will look him up

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Here's a Kindle US page where you can buy 6 Rick Raphael books for zero $$$ https://www.amazon.com/Rick-Raphael/e... Of course I bought them all

[Ed]

Kateblue wrote: "Here's a Kindle US page where you can buy 6 Rick Raphael books for zero $$$ "

You can get 5 of those from project Gutenberg. But if amazon is more convenient for you, go ahead!

[Allan]

WWE has a new list of authors who have won this award, linking to the books in their database.

https://www.worldswithoutend.com/auth...

[Ed]

Thanks. I couldn't find any other site with the whole list.

[Ed]

This year's winner of the "Rediscovery Award" is D.G. Compton. I have only read The Silent Multitude, and I liked it very much. (4 stars.) I am interested in The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

I also am interested in The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe. Maybe sometime in the future, like, 2056. The price might have come down by then, too!

[Ed]

In today's Wash Post, Michael Dirda talks about his trip to this year's readercon and says that "At this 32nd Readercon, its Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award honored D.G. Compton, whose best-known novel, “The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe,” was recently reissued as a classy New York Review paperback. "

Huh? He was awarded that in 2021. Maybe they felt like they weren't able to adequately celebrate it in 2021 due to pandemic.

[Stephen]

This year it was Josephine Saxton. I don’t know her work.

[Ed]

Thanks! The SF Encyclopedia agrees with you. I also don't know her so I can only discover her, not re-discover her.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

I haven't read either D.G. Compton or Josephine Saxton. I have to try both, I like old stuff

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Oleksandr wrote: "I haven't read either D.G. Compton or Josephine Saxton. I have to try both, I like old stuff"

I am definitely interested in trying The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe even though the rating is not as high as books I usually select.