The Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas is pleased to announce the 2013 finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short story of the year:
“Things Greater Than Love,” Kate Bachus, Strange Horizons (19 March 2012).
“Immersion,” Aliette de Bodard, Clarkesworld (June 2012).
“Scattered Along the River of Heaven,” Aliette de Bodard, Clarkesworld (January 2012).
“Close Encounters,” Andy Duncan, The Pottawottamie Giant (PS Publishing). NOTE: Duncan, a juror, removed the story from consideration.
“The Grinnell Method,” Molly Gloss, Strange Horizons (3 September & 10 September 2012).
“The Weight of History, The Lightness of the Future,” Jay Lake, Subterranean Press Magazine (Spring 2012).
“The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species,” Ken Liu, Lightspeed (August 2012).
“Mono No Aware,” Ken Liu, The Future Is Japanese (Haikasoru).
“Nahiku West,” Linda Nagata, Analog (October 2012).
Eater-of-Bone, Robert Reed, (PS Publishing).
“The Peak of Eternal Light,” Bruce Sterling, Edge of Infinity (Solaris).
“(To See the Other) Whole Against the Sky,” E. Catherine Tobler, Clarkesworld (November 2012).
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, by Nancy Kress (Tachyon Press).
The Sturgeon Award was established in 1987 by James Gunn, Founding Director of the Center, and the heirs of Theodore Sturgeon, including his partner Jayne Engelhart Tannehill and Sturgeon’s children, as an appropriate memorial to one of the great short-story writers in a field distinguished by its short fiction. The current jury consists of Elizabeth Bear, Andy Duncan, James Gunn, Kij Johnson, George Zebrowski, and Noël Sturgeon, Trustee of the Theodore Sturgeon Literary Estate.
Sturgeon, born in 1918, was closely identified with the Golden Age of science fiction, 1939-1950, and is often mentioned as one of the four writers who helped establish that age. The others were Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and A. E. van Vogt; all four had their first SF stories published in 1939. In addition to fiction (his best-known novel is the classic, More Than Human), Sturgeon also wrote book reviews, poetry, screenplays, radio plays, and television plays, including two classic teleplays for the original Star Trek. He was a popular lecturer and teacher, and was a regular visiting writer at the Intensive Institute on the Teaching of Science Fiction. Sturgeon died in 1985. His books, manuscripts, and papers are deposited at the University of Kansas.
The Sturgeon Award will be presented Friday, June 14, at the Campbell Conference, held at the Oread Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas, June 14-16, 2013.
Printable (.doc or .pdf) versions of the press release are available on the Center’s News page: