On Mon, 15 Feb 1999, Lynda Williams wrote:
> I have recently discovered that my very good friend, Dr. Alison
> Sinclair, has been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke award
> for her latest novel, Cavalcade.
>
> I had to brag for her.
>
> Also need to address my own ignorance. I believe the award is
> to honor writers whose science is particularly solid, among
> other things. Anyone give me a deeper grasp of the award than that?
>
I was the first administrator of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and have
written an article about it (given at the Eaton Conference five years ago
and still not published, because of the interminable amount of time that
the Eaton volumes take to get into print....), and my partner Farah
Mendlesohn is one of the four judges for this year, so I am possibly the
person to reply.
There are so far six books on the short list; the winner will be chosen in
May. The award is given for "the best science fiction novel published in
the United Kingdom in the previous year". It does NOT say it has to be a
book whose science is particularly solid; it is certainly not an award for
Hard SF (the first winner was The Handmaid's Tale!) And the judges, each
of whom is chosen for a two year stint, two by the BSFA and two by the
SFF, never agree as to what"the best" means. Last year The Sparrow was an
easy winner; most years there is no easy winner. I have no idea what the
frontrunner this year is, so I can give no hints to Alison at all!
There is a list of all previous winners, and a list of the current
shortlist, at amazon.co.uk, on their science fiction page (NOT
amazon.com).
Hope this helps!
Edward James
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Professor Edward James, Dept of History, Faculty of Letters and Social
Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, READING RG6 6AA, UK
Director, Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies
Editor, FOUNDATION: THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION
Director of Studies, MA in Science Fiction: Histories, Texts, Media
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/~lhsjamse/home.htm
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