Alas, it isn’t me.
Nevertheless, congratulations to Barbara Sapergia, whose novel Dry (Coteau Books) is one of the finalists for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science fiction novel of 2006.
(I suspect Barbara doesn’t self-identify as a science fiction writer, based on her biography on the Coteau site, so this may come as a bit of a shock to her…but I could be wrong; I don’t know as we’ve ever met in person. It may come as a shock to Coteau, too, which never uses the term “science fiction,” preferring instead to call the book a “powerful literary thriller.” On the other hand, somebody must have nominated the book…)
UPDATE: Barbara has emailed me and reminded me (with admirable gentleness and restraint) that in fact we have met on more than one occasion, including at least once when she and her husband Geoffrey Ursell–himself a very fine writer–complimented me on my singing after some performance or other. Which just goes to prove that my inability to connect faces and names has not miraculously improved with age.
The other nominees:
Titan by Ben Bova (Tor)
A Small and Remarkable Life by Nick DiChario (Robert J. Sawyer Books)
Infoquake by David Louis Edelman (Pyr)
Nova Swing by M. John Harrison (Gollancz)
Odyssey by Jack McDevitt (Ace)
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow (William Morrow)
Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson (Tor)
Dry by Barbara Sapergia (Coteau Books)
Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder (Tor)
Glasshouse by Charles Stross (Ace)
Rainbow’s End by Vernor Vinge (Tor)
Farthing by Jo Walton (Tor)
Blindsight by Peter Watts (Tor)
There are two other Canadians on the list (that I know of for sure), Karl Schroeder and Peter Watts, and of course Robert J. Sawyer Books is a Canadian publisher.
The award will be presented during the Campbell Conference Awards Banquet at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, in conjunction with the Sturgeon Award.
