For Your Consideration: The Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2009

As I mentioned earlier this month, nominations are now open for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2009, New Zealand’s equivalent of the Hugo Awards. They recognise excellence in a number of fields related to science fiction, fantasy and horror. The 2009 Awards are for works published in 2008.

Nominations close on 28 February 2009. You can find details of the categories and how to nominate on the SFFANZ site, and also lists of works eligible to be nominated (these lists are not comprehensive, and can be added to as further works are nominated).

Anyone can nominate works for the awards, although voting is restricted to members of SFFANZ and/or the 2009 National Science Fiction Convention, Conscription.

So who are the contenders? I’m not well qualified to talk about the fan or media categories, but I can think of a few possible contenders for Best Novel, Best Collected Work and Best Short Story. I should emphasise here that what follows is my opinion – it’s up to the organising committee to decide what works qualify in which categories.

Best Novel

There are a very healthy number of contenders listed on the SFFANZ site.

My personal favourite is Helen Lowe’s Thornspell. Other contenders include two SF novels published by writers better known for work in other genres: The Jigsaw Chronicles by Kevin Ireland, and Chinese Opera by Ian Wedde. And one mustn’t forget Jack Ross’s EMO!

Best Collected Work

On the SFFANZ list, Transported is the only short story collection listed for 2008 – a worrying state of affairs, as there needs to be competition in each category! I intend to nominate JAAM 26, since it contains quite a few eligible short stories, as suggested below.

Best Short Story

There are lots of candidates here! Here is my list – again, not an official list – of stories from JAAM 26 and Transported which I think are eligible. I have only listed the stories from JAAM 26 which seem to me to fit within the relevant genres. The list from Transported is quite short, as stories have to be first published in 2008 to be eligible, and many stories in Transported are reprints.

JAAM 26

Tracie McBride, Last Chance to See [sf]
Renee Liang, Voodoo [fantasy/horror]
Esther Deans, Breathing in Another Language [fantasy/magic realism]
Ciaran Fox, In the End Our Apathy Will Desert Us [sf]
Darian Smith, Banshee [fantasy]
Helen Lowe, Ithaca [alternate history/mythology]
Michael Botur, Historic Breakfasts [alternate history]
Lyn McConchie, Just a Poor Old Lady [horror]

If you think your story should be on this list, please let me know and I’ll add it.

Transported

The New Neighbours [sf]
The Wadestown Shore [sf]
Filling the Isles [sf]
Measureless to Man [alternate history]
The Seeing [sf]
Going Under [sf]
Cold Storage [sf/horror]

Happy nominating!