Obituary: Harry Alan Towers

Producer and screenwriter Harry Alan Towers (b.1920), (a.k.a. Joachim Linden and Peter Welbeck) died on July 31 in Toronto from complications from pneumonia and heart disease. His genre work included the film She, Dorian, The Mummy Lives, Masque of the Red Death, and numerous others. Using his Welbeck pseudonym, he wrote the screenplay to both Gor and its sequel, Outlaws of Gor.

Obituary: Harvey Frand

Producer Harvey Frand (b.1940), died on July 23. Most recently, Frand worked on Battlestar Galactica, but his prior genre credits included the 1985-7 version of The Twilight Zone, The Lazarus Man, and The Pretender. Frand won an Emmy for his work on Battlestar Galactica: Razor in 2008.

Norton Award Seeks Submissions

The Andre Norton Award is one of the few awards presented by SFWA to still make use of a jury. The award is presented to works of excellence in young adult science fiction and fantasy. This year’s jury, comprised of James Bassett, Aliette de Bodard, Patrick Lundrigan, Michael Payne, Lawrence Schoen, Sherwood Smith, and Lindalee Stuckey, has called for publishers and authors to submit works which the jury may otherwise overlook. Publishers and authors may contact nebulanortonjury @ sfwa.org for submission information.

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SFWA Annual Meeting

SFWA has announced that is will hold its annual business meeting on October 31 at 8:30 am at the Fairmont Hotel at 170 South Market Street in San Jose. The meeting will coincide with this year’s World Fantasy Con. Normally, SFWA holds this annual meeting in conjunction with Worldcon, but since SFWA’s current incorporation requires the business meeting to be held in the United States, World Fantasy Con was selected as an alternate venue.

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World Fantasy Award Nominations

The nominees for the World Fantasy Awards have been announced. The winners will be announced at World Fantasy Con, held this year in San Jose, California the weekend of October 29-November 1.

Best Novel

• The House of the Stag, by Kage Baker
• The Shadow Year, by Jeffrey Ford
• The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
• Pandemonium, by Daryl Gregory
• Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan

Best Novella

• “Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel,” by Peter S. Beagle
• “If Angels Fight,” by Richard Bowes
• “The Overseer,” by Albert Cowdrey
• “Odd and the Frost Giants,” by Neil Gaiman
• “Good Boy,” by Nisi Shawl

Best Short Story

• “Caverns of Mystery,” by Kage Baker
• “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss,” by Kij Johnson
• “Pride and Prometheus,” by John Kessel
• “Our Man in the Sudan,” by Sarah Pinborough
• “A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica,” by Catherynne M. Valente

Best Anthology

• The Living Dead, edited by John Joseph Adams
• The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow
• The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-First Annual Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, & Gavin J. Grant
• Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, edited by Ekaterina Sedia
• Steampunk, edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Best Collection

• Strange Roads, by Peter S. Beagle
• The Drowned Life, by Jeffrey Ford
• Pretty Monsters, by Kelly Link
• Filter House, by Nisi Shawl
• Tales from Outer Suburbia, by Shaun Tan

Best Artist

• Kinuko Y. Craft
• Janet Chui
• Stephan Martinière
• John Picacio
• Shaun Tan

Special Award, professional

• Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House
• Farah Mendelsohn for The Rhetorics of Fantasy
• Stephen H. Segal & Ann VanderMeer for Weird Tales
• Jerad Walters for A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft
• Jacob Weisman for Tachyon Publications

Special Award, Non-Professional

• Edith L. Crowe for her work with The Mythopoeic Society
• John Klima for Electric Velocipede
• Elise Matthesen for setting out to inspire and for serving as inspiration for works of poetry, fantasy, and SF
  over the last decade through her jewelry-making and her “artist’s challenges.”

• Sean Wallace, Neil Clarke, & Nick Mamatas for Clarkesworld
• Michael Walsh for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books

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