I’m very pleased to announce that my podcast, The Worldshapers (“Conversations with science fiction and fantasy authors about the creative process”) has, for the second year in a row, been nominated for the Aurora Award for Best Fan Related Work–an award it won last year! (That’s the very nice trophy in the photo.)
The Aurora Awards are nominated by members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. The top five nominated works in each category are selected for the ballot, with additional works included when there was a tie for fifth place.
Other nominees in the Best Fan Related Work category are:
- Broadcasts from the Wasteland, Brandon Crilly & Evan May
- Kari Maaren for music on her YouTube channel
- Speculating Canada, Derek Newman-Stille
- Just Joshing, Joshua Pantalleresco
The rest of the ballot looks like this:
Best Novel
- Haunting the Haunted, E.C. Bell (Tyche)
- The Gossamer Mage, Julie E. Czerneda (DAW)
- A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada)
- The Quantum Garden, Derek Künsken (Solaris)
- Jade War, Fonda Lee (Orbit)
- Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
Best YA Novel
- Wolf’s Bane, Kelley Armstrong (KLA Fricke)
- The Brilliant Dark, S.M. Beiko (ECW)
- Metamorphosis, Marty Chan (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
- Bursts of Fire, Susan Forest (Laksa)
- Murder at the World’s Fair, M.J. Lyons (Renaissance)
Best Short Fiction
- This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga)
- “Clear as Quartz, Sharp as Flint”, Maria Haskins (Augur 2.1)
- Alice Payne Rides, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing)
- “Little Inn on the Jianghu”, Y.M. Pang (F&SF 9/19)
- “Modigliani Paints the World”, Hayden Trenholm (Neo-Opsis 30)
- “Blindside”, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm (Amazing Stories Fall ’19)
Best Graphic Novel
- The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel, Margaret Atwood & Renee Nault (McClelland & Stewart)
- Krampus Is My Boyfriend!, S.M. Beiko (https://www.smbeiko.com/)
- It Never Rains, Kari Maaren (http://itneverrainscomic.com/)
- Carpe Fin, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Douglas & McIntyre)
- Dakwäkãda Warriors, Cole Pauls (Conundrum)
Best Related Work
- PodCastle, Jen R. Albert & Cherae Clark, eds.
- Nothing Without Us, Cait Gordon & Talia C. Johnson (Renaissance)
- Neo-opsis, Karl Johanson, ed.
- Lackington’s, Ranylt Richildis, ed.
- “Dave Duncan’s Legacy”, Robert Runté (On Spec 111)
- Augur, Kerrie Seljak-Byrne, ed.
Best Poem/Song
- “The Girl Who Loved Birds”, Clara Blackwood (Amazing Stories Spring ’19)
- “At the Edge of Space and Time”, Swati Chavda (Love at the Speed of Light)
- “Steampunk Christmas”, David Clink (Star*Line Fall ’19)
- “The Day the Animals Turned to Sand”, Tyler Hagemann (Amazing StoriesSpring ’19)
- “Totemic Ants”, Francine P. Lewis (Amazing Stories Fall ’19)
- “Beauty, Sleeping”, Lynne Sargent (Augur Magazine 2.2)
- “Bursts of Fire”, Sora (theme song for book trailers)
Best Artist
- Samantha M. Beiko, cover for Bursts of Fire
- James F. Beveridge, cover for Fata Morgana and cover for On Spec 112
- Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk, “A Rivet of Robots” in On Spec and cartoons in Amazing Stories
- Nathan Fréchette, covers for Renaissance Press
- Dan O’Driscoll, covers for Bundoran Press and cover for On Spec 110
Best Visual Presentation
- The Umbrella Academy
- V Wars, Season 1
- Killjoys, Season 5
- Murdoch Mysteries, Episodes 10-18 in Season 12 and Episodes 1-9 in Season 13
- Van Helsing, Season 4
Best Fan Writing and Publications
- Graeme Cameron, weekly online columns for Amazing Stories
- Graeme Cameron, editing Polar Borealis (issues 9-12)
- “Travelling TARDIS“, Jen Desmarais (JenEric Designs)
- Steve Fahnestalk, weekly online columns for Amazing Stories
- “Will Voyager 1 leave the Milky Way?“, Ron S. Friedman (Quora)
- Books and Tea, Christina Vasilevski
Best Fan Organizational
- KT Bryski and Jen R. Albert, ephemera reading series, Toronto
- Brent Jans, Pure Speculation Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival, Edmonton
- Derek Künsken and Marie Bilodeau, co-chairs, Can-Con, Ottawa
- Randy McCharles, chair, When Words Collide, Calgary
- Sandra Wickham, Creative Ink Festival, Burnaby, BC
The (virtual) awards ceremony will be held online in conjunction with When Words Collide on August 15.
If you’d like to vote for the Aurora Awards, membership in the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association costs $10 for one year. Memberships are active from January 1 – December 31. As a voting member, you’ll receive an extensive voters’ package containing many of the nominated works.
You can join at the Aurora Awards website.
