Jay Lake sent me this link to the Guardian today, so you know, I clicked through out of curiosity. The headline was “The next generation of SF Writers” and then there’s a photo of a spiral arm galaxy, the caption of which is, “In a galaxy far, far away … Hill, Kowal or Scholes?”
Um. Whoa.
The science fiction and fantasy community likes to honour the writers in its ranks, and no honour comes higher for new writers than the John W Campbell award. Previous winners include Orson Scott Card, Stephen Donaldson and Cory Doctorow, so it’s certainly worth watching. This year, Mary Robinette Kowal beat a strong shortlist to scoop the award on the basis of a clutch of well-crafted short stories that showcase her emotional deftness while still telling strange and exhilarating stories in the SF tradition.
Thanks Mr. Walter! This is an excellent pre-birthday present.
Here, let me offer a party favor! Â This is an audio version of “Evil Robot Monkey” from the 2008 edition of the Solaris New Book of Science Fiction.
[audio:evilrobotmonkey.mp3]
via Damien Walter on exciting new SF and fantasy writers | Books | guardian.co.uk.
Happy Birthday, lady. Looks like you’ve moved to NYC as well. Funny that after 10 years we would be living in the same town again. I know a number of puppet-makers here, maybe I’ll run into you before long…
That is a funny coincidence. Be nice to see you again.
Wow, Mary — what a tremendous accolade! Makes me even sorrier I missed your reading in SF a couple of weeks ago (buried with a sudden job deadline). Hope to catch up with you sometime, somewhere. Maybe at WFC?
I’m just sorry we missed the chance to meet live-in-person. I’ll have to look forward to WFC even more.
Congrats!