F&SF Forum » Other Topics

1. dtruesdale
   Member

   But more specific to the subject title of this topic, congratulations to World Fantasy Award winner in the Novella category, Richard Bowes, for "If Angels Fight," from the Feb. 2008 issue of our beloved F&SF (and thus congrats go also to our esteemed editor Gordon Van Gelder).

   This marks Richard's -second- World Fantasy Award trophy, his first coming in 1998 for his 1997 F&SF story "Streetcar Dreams." Which, I not so humbly add, was the year (1998) in which I was honored to be chosen as one of the five WFA judges for work appearing in 1997. I loved "Streetcar Dreams" and was the first to bring it to the attention of my fellow judges. After a thorough vetting and discussion among the judges (with several other high caliber works in the running), it ended up being one of our easier picks, with nearly zero horse trading--if any--needed to give it its well deserved win.

   Believe me, this year's contenders in the novella category were a tough bunch with which to contend, with F&SF co-contender Albert Cowdrey's deeply moving "The Overseer" from the March, 2008 issue, and the elephant in the room coming by way of the highly popular and in vogue Neil Gaiman with his "Odd and the Frost Giants."

   Rick indeed achieved a monumental victory against such other worthy stories--along with the other nominees--and he (and F&SF) should be doubly proud.

   For those who may not have read Rick's World Fantasy Award winning story, I again most humbly point to my short review of it from my SF Site column from last year here: http://www.sfsite.com/columns/tangent276.htm

   Heartfelt commiserations to Bert Cowdrey for not winning (there's nothing like winning, but let me tell you from experience, it truly *is* an honor to be nominated), for his story will undoubtedly be reprinted many times elsewhere down the road for the excellent piece of work it is, and a rousing Well Done to Rick Bowes for his second, well-deserved win.

   The complete list of the 2009 WFA winners and nominees can be found here (among other places):

   http://www.locusmag.com/News/2009/11/world-fantasy-awards-winners.html

   Posted 2 weeks ago #

2. dtruesdale
   Member

   Hard to believe I'm the only one here (after an entire week!) to congratulate Rick Bowes on his WFA win, and by extension GVG and F&SF.

   Can't imagine why...

   Brian? How about you? Aren't you up for giving praise where praise is certainly due? If you -- or anyone else here -- were to win a -major- writing award, wouldn't you sorta, kinda like to read congrats from anyone?

   Not requisite for proclaiming praise for any winner, mind you, but did you perchance happen to read Rick Bowes' story from the Feb., 2008 issue of F&SF? If so, what did you think of it? How did it compare with the other WFA stories on the ballot, most specifically Albert Cowdrey's "The Overseer" from the March, 2008 issue?

   Anyone else have thoughts, pro or con, on these two award-nominated stories from our favorite magazine? I actually, if truth be known, rather preferred the Cowdrey entry, though I liked both and, as I've stated, was extremely pleased that Rick won his second WFA award.

   So how about some well earned and deserved hurrahs to Rick, GVG, and F&SF for their great showing at the WFA awards this year? And perhaps at least some cursory thoughts on the Bowes and Cowdrey stories since they have been judged as two of the Best of the Year by the World Fantasy Award eligible voters, plus the five judges as well?

   Brian, you up for it, you rascal you? :-)

   What made these stories work for you, or not? Do you think they were worthy nominees?

   --Dave

   Posted 2 weeks ago #

3. BrianCrowley
   Member

   Dave,

   I'm sure you were asking another Brian, but I'll respond anyway:

   I liked "The Overseer" quite a bit more than "If Angels Fight". The alternating 1st person confession & 3rd person narrative in Overseer was an effective style and the civil war setting was nicely depicted and integrated into the events of the story. I also thought the characters in the Overseer were better developed & a bit more interesting. Therefore, overall a somewhat more engaging story for me.

   Also, fundamentally, the whole angel angle in "If Angels Fight" didn't work well for me so it wouldn't have been my top choice anyway.

   "Immortal Snake" could have been a good nominee. I assume most of the other F&SF Novellas that year would not qualify for this award as they were more SF than fantasy; however, I'm not really familiar with the award.

   Posted 1 week ago #

4. galaxie500
   Member

   I agree with Brian. I think it was time for Mr. Cowdrey to get an award.
   But, congratulations to Mr. Bowes, because he's an excellent writer too, and to F&SF for publishing excellent fiction.

   Posted 1 week ago #

5. SuperWhitePill
   Member

   It must be such a thrill to get nominated, much less win the award. Unfortunately I haven't read any of the stories nominated since I only signed up to the magazine in February 2009. What a waste of 20 years of my life....

   Posted 1 week ago #

6. dtruesdale
   Member

   Brian Crowley: "I'm not really familiar with the award."

   If you go here and scratch around a bit, you'll find out pretty much what you need to know about the World Fantasy Awards.

   http://www.worldfantasy.org/index.html

   There are five judges every year. You can only be a judge once. Judges are selected by the WFA Administrators (listed at the site). Of the five nominees in each category, two are selected by a vote of the members who attended the previous year. The other three final nominees are selected by the judges. These five final nominees comprise the final ballot.

   The judges then debate and discuss the merits of each nominee and vote for the winners. I believe the WF Awards began in 1975.

   If you want to add an addition to your house (if you have one), being a WFA judge is the perfect excuse, for you receive tons of books from all over the place--boxes and boxes and boxes of books from publishers, both large and small. For the Best Artist category, I recall receiving from as far away as France, four little pastel drawings of fairies, each separated with artists tissue paper (onion paper?) for consideration. You never know what to expect in the mail, but you have to love getting all those wonderful books (both fantasy of all kinds, and horror of all kinds).

   --Dave

   Posted 1 week ago #

7. Gordon Van Gelder
   Editor/Publisher

   Bert Cowdrey did win a World Fantasy Award one year---if memory serves, it was for "Queen for a Day."

   This year's judges said there were a few categories where they were able to come to a consensus easily, but the long fiction category was not one of them. It was a strong ballot this year.

   Posted 1 week ago #

8. dtruesdale
   Member

   Bert's WFA win for "Queen for a Day" was in 2002 for his F&SF Oct/Nov 2001 novelette (short fiction category, as defined by WFA). For the Hugos, the short story word limit goes up to 7,500, novelette 7,501-17,500, and novella from 17,501-40,000 wds. Anything above 40,000 wds. is considered a novel.

   For the WFA there's just two short fiction categories: short story (up to 10,000 wds.) and novella (up to the same 40,000 wds. as the Hugos, IIRC). So while Bert's 2001 story was a novelette by Hugo standards, it fell into the short story category for the World Fantasy Awards.

   The above word limits are for those not familiar with the WFA, and the differences between its word limits for certain categories and those of the Hugos.

   --Dave

   Posted 1 week ago #

9. BrianCrowley
   Member

   Dave - thanks for the info about WFA & your experience judging. Sounds like a pretty cool experience.

   Posted 1 week ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.