Sawyer in Ottawa
Robert J. Sawyer will speak at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa on October 19. The free lecture will run from 7:00-8:00 and is part of the museum’s National Science and Technology Week.
Sunburst Winners
The 2011 Sunburst Award winners have been announced. The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a juried award given to a Canadian writer for a book length work of SF. The prize comes with a hand-crafted medallion and Can$1,000.
- Sunburst Award: Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay
- Sunburst Young Adult Award: Bookweirder, by Paul Glennon
Sunburst Nominations
The jury for the tenth annual Sunburst Awards has announced the short-lists for 2011. The awards will be presented on September 14, 2011 at the Harbourfront Reading Series. Winners receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a hand-crafted medallion which incorporates the “Sunburst” logo, designed by Marcel Gagné. This year’s jury includes Kate Freiman, Mark Leslie, Christopher Roden, and Alison Sinclair.
Adult Category:
- Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay
- WWW: Wake, by Robert J. Sawyer
- Chimerascope, by Douglas Smith
- A Taint in the Blood, by S.M. Stirling
- Stealing Home, by Hayden Trenholm
Young Adult Category:
- Shapeshifter, by Holly Bennett
- Plain Kate, by Erin Bow
- The Painted Boy, by Charles De Lint
- Bookweirder, by Paul Glennon
- Dust City, by Robert Paul Weston
CUFF Winner Announced
Kent Pollard has been announced as the winner of this year’s Canadian Unity Fan Fund race. Pollard defeated Danielle Stephens 20-18-2 and will travel to CanVention, which is being held this year in conjunction with SFContario 2 in Toronto from November 18-20.
Lapses Contest
The Mariposa Writers’ Group is holding a writing contest in conjunction with the Lake County Literary Lapses. Entrants should not have been commercially published and pieces (no longer than 2,000 words) may be fiction or non-fiction. There is a Can$15 entry fee for each submission and the deadline is July 15.
SF Receives Alberta Readers Choice Nomination
The novel Cinco de Mayo, by Michael Martineck has been named a finalist for the Alberta Readers Choice Awards, presented for favorite work published by an Alberta, Canada-based publisher. Despite being a regional award, anyone may vote. The deadline for voting is the end of May. This is the first time a science fiction novel has made it to the finalists for this award. The nominees include:
- Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness, by Clem and Olivier Martini
- Cinco de Maya, by Michael Martineck
- The Grizzly Manifesto, by Jeff Gailus
- Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery, by Helen Waldstein Wilkes
- Too Bad: Sketches Toward a Self-Portrait, by Robert Kroetsch
Prix Aurora Winners and Nominees
The French language winners of the Prix Aurora were announced on May 15 in Montreal and the nominees in the English categories were announced at the same time.
French winners:
- Best French Novel:
- La tueuse de dragons, by Héloïse Côté
- Best French Short Story: “Pour l’honneur d’un Nohaum,” by Philippe-Aubert Côté
- Best French Related Work: Solaris (Revue. editor in chief: Joël Champetier)
And the English language nominations:
Professional Awards
Best English Novel
- Black Bottle Man, by Craig Russell
- Destiny’s Blood, by Marie Bilodeau
- Stealing Home, by Hayden Trenholm
- Under Heaven, by Guy Gavriel Kay
- Watch, by Robert J. Sawyer
Best English Short Story
- “The Burden of Fire,” by Hayden Trenholm
- “Destiny Lives in the Tattoo’s Needle,” by Suzanne Church
- “The Envoy,” by Al Onia
- “Touch the Sky, They Say,” by Matt Moore
- “Your Beating Heart,” by M. G. Gillett
Best English Poem / Song
- “The ABCs of the End of the World,” by Carolyn Clink
- “Let the Night In,” by Sandra Kasturi
- “Of the Corn: Kore’s Innocence,” by Colleen Anderson
- “The Transformed Man,” by Robert J. Sawyer
- “Waiting for the Harrowing,” by Helen Marshall
Best English Graphic Novel
- Goblins, by Tarol Hunt
- Looking For Group, Vol. 3, by by Ryan Sohmer
- Stargazer, Volume 1, by by Von Allan
- Tomboy Tara, by Emily Ragozzino
Best English Related Work
- Chimerascope, by Douglas Smith
- The Dragon and the Stars, edited by Derwin Mak and Eric Choi
- Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead, edited by Nancy Kilpatrick
- On Spec, edited by Diane Walton
- Tesseracts Fourteen, edited by John Robert Colombo and Brett Alexander Savory
Best Artist (Professional and Amateur)
- Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk
- Erik Mohr
- Christina Molendyk
- Dan O’Driscoll
- Aaron Paquette
Fan / Amateur Awards
Best Fan Publications
No award will be given out in this category due insufficient eligible nominees
Best Fan Filk
- Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers of Dandelion Wine for “Face on Mars” CD
- Karen Linsley; concert as SFContario Guest of Honour
- Phil Mills, for “Time Traveller” (song writing)
Best Fan Organizational
- Andrew Gurudata, organizing the Constellation Awards
- Brent M. Jans, chair of Pure Speculation (Edmonton)
- Liana Kerzner, chair of Futurecon (Toronto)
- Helen Marshall and Sandra Kasturi, chairs of Toronto SpecFic Colloquium (Toronto)
- Alex Von Thorn, chair of SFContario (Toronto)
Best Fan Other
- Tom Jeffers, Fundraising, FilKONtario
- John and Linda Ross Mansfield, Conception of the Aurora Nominee pins
- Lloyd Penney, Articles, columns and letters of comment – fanzines
ChiZine Relaunch
CZP has announced it will be relaunching their online speculative fiction ‘zine, The Chiaroscuro/ChiZine.com. The ‘zine began publishing in 1997 and in 2008, the publisher branched out to print as well. The April-June 2011 issue of the zine will be a massive issue with more than 200 short stories and poems by previous contributors including Elizabeth Bear, Bruce Boston, Gary Braunbeck, Mike Carey, Neil Gaiman, Jay Lake, Sarah Langan,Tim Lebbon, Stewart O’Nan, and Tom Piccirilli.
Willett: Writer in Residence
Canadian author Ed Willett has been named Writer-in-Residence for the Regina Public Library. The position will run from September 2011 through May 2012. The position will include talking about writing, conducting school readings, and holding at least one free workshop at the library. Willett is the twenty-fourth writer-in-residence since the program began in 1978 and will be the second speculative fiction author.
Toronto SpecFic Colloquium
The Chiaroscuro Reading Series will sponsor the second Toronto SpecFic Colloquium on October 15 at the Toronto Underground Cinema, located at 186 Spadina Avenue. This year’s one-day event will focus on the theme Modern Mythologies and will feature Mike Carey. There will also be a round-table discussion on the state of the field.