This Year’s BSFA Awards (for works published in 2023) were announced at this year’s Eastercon in Telford, Levitation 2024.

The usual BSFA booklet containing the nominated works – or extracts from them – wasn’t posted out this year. Instead it was supplied by email as a PDF. I don’t like reading fiction from a screen so I’m afraid I didn’t get round to reading it all.

The fiction winners were:-

Best Novel: The Green Man’s Quarry, Juliet E. McKenna (Wizard Tower)

Best Shorter Fiction (for novelettes and novellas): And Put Away Childish Things, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Rebellion)

Best Short Fiction: How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub, P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny 1-2/23)

Best Collection (for collections and anthologies): The Best of British Science Fiction 2022, Donna Scott, ed. (Newcon press)

Best Fiction for Young Readers: The Library of Broken Worlds, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Harpercollins)

Congratulations to them.

The BSFA Awards for 2022 were announced on Saturday at this year’s Eastercon (Conversation) held in Birmingham.

The winners were

Novel:- City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Short Fiction:- Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances by Aliette de Bodard

Best Book for Younger Readers:- Unraveller by Frances Hardinge

Non-Fiction:- Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes by Rob Wilkins

I’ll be posting my thoughts on this year’s BSFA AWards Booklet tonight.

I got an email on Friday from the BSFA announcing the shortlists for the Awards for stories/items published in 2022.

“The British Science Fiction Association is delighted to announce the shortlist of nominees for the BSFA Awards, for work published in 2022. The BSFA Awards have been presented annually since 1970. The awards are voted on by members of the British Science Fiction Association and by the members of the year’s Eastercon, the national science fiction convention, held since 1955.

The winners will be announced at the Eastercon convention, ‘Conversation’ held at the Birmingham NEC Hilton 7-10th April.

The BSFA Awards ceremony is free to attend by all members of Eastercon and this year’s nominees: details will be released closer to the date. Members of the BSFA will receive excerpts of the nominated works in advance of the convention, and the Awards Booklet at a later date.”

Perusing the novel nominations I must say I am very disappointed that Braking Day by Adam Oyebanji didn’t make the cut.

Here are the fiction nominations:-

Best Fiction for Younger Readers

T. Kingfisher, Illuminations, Argyll Productions

Frances Hardinge, Unraveller, MacMillan Children’s Books

Kate Dylan, Mindwalker, Hodder and Stoughton

Gina Chen, Violet Made of Thorns, Hodder and Stoughton

Juno Dawson, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, Harper Voyager

Vanessa Len, Only A Monster, Hodder and Stoughton

Xiran Jay Zhao, Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, Margaret K. McElderry Books

Best Short Fiction

Or Luca, Luca, Luna Press Publishing

Aliette de Bodard, Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances, JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc

Rick Danforth, Seller’s Remorse, Hexagon Magazine, Issue 11

Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ogres, Rebellion

Neil Williamson, A Moment of Zugzwang, ParSec 4

I look forward to reading these (or extracts from them) in the usual annual BSFA booklet of nominated stories.

Best Novel

Adrian Tchaikovsky, City of Last Chances, Head of Zeus

Aliette de Bodard, The Red Scholar’s Wake, Gollancz

Adam Roberts, The This, Gollancz

Gareth Powell, Stars and Bones, Titan Books

EJ Swift, The Coral Bones, Unsung Stories

I have read none of these and have not been much impressed by previous offerings from two of these nominees.

This year’s BSFA Awards Booklet (for stories published in 2021) arrived on Wednesday.

Unfortunately due to things happening in my life I had no time to read it before voting ended. I’ll get round to it soon.

The awards themselves will be announced tomorrow – as usual at Eastercon.

This year’s BSFA Award winners have been announced. (They were livestreamed from Confusion – this year’s Eastercon – and on You Tube.)

They are:-

Best Novel: N.K. Jemisin, The City We Became (Orbit)
Best Non-Fiction: Adam Roberts, It’s the End of the World: But what are we really afraid of? (Elliot & Thompson)
Best Shorter Fiction: Ida Keogh, Infinite Tea in the Demara Cafe (London Centric)
Best Artwork: Iain Clarke, ‘Shipbuilding Over the Clyde,’ art for Glasgow in 2024 Worldcon bid.

I must say I don’t think 2020 was a vintage year. I have read (or seen) all – or part of – the winners’ works, though. (In the novel’s case that’s a bit fortunate as it is the ooly one of the nominees I did read due to reviewing it for Interzone.) Some of the other novel nominees I may get round to in time. When more normal service in daily life has returned.

SPFL Tier 2, Tannadice Park, 3/4/18.

I wasn’t at the game. I’m still coming down from Eastercon and it was likely I’d be frozen anyway.

It was Dumbarton nil again, too.

Where’s our next goal coming from?

This year’s BSFA Awards (for works published last year) were announced at Eastercon on Saturday 31^st March.

The winners were:-

Best novel: The Rift by Nina Allan

Best Short Fiction: The Enclave by Anne Charnock

Best Non-fiction: Paul Kincaid for Iain M Banks

The Best Artwork Award: was shared between Jim Burns and Victo Ngai

The BSFA’s annual booklet containing the nominees for the various awards for 2017 publications arrived on Thursday morning 29^th Mar.

The deadline for postal votes is (was!) Mon 26^th Mar and for electronic submissions Wed 28^th Mar. The results will be announced on Saturday 31^st Mar.

Not the BSFA’s fault it arrived late. Easter is about as early as it can be this year and there was precious little time between the close of the submission phase for the final nominations and Easter. They’ve done well to get it out at all.

Just as well I’m going to Eastercon this year where I can vote in person.

I’ve got my work cut out to read it all before then though.

My (belated) thoughts on its contents will appear next week.

Earlier today I read the news that Brian Aldiss has died.

At times during my youth he was about the sole standard bearer for British SF (for which actually read English SF as Science Fiction from other parts of these islands was more or less invisible till years later.) Only John Wyndham and J G Ballard had anything like as high a profile and they were very different writers.

(Edited to add: I don’t know why it was that Arthur C Clarke slipped my mind when I originally wrote this. Maybe because his output was hard SF as compared to the others.)

As a result of Aldiss’s prominence I have a large number of his books. I think The Interpreter was the first SF book I bought as opposed to borrowing them from the local library.

The latest such purchase was bought for me for Christmas by the good lady because she liked the cover so much – and she read it before me!

I suppose there won’t be any more now.

I did meet him once; briefly, at one of the Liverpool Eastercons.

One of the greats. Arguably the last of the SF pioneers.

Brian Wilson Aldiss: 18/8/1925 – 19/8/2017. So it goes.

The awards were announced on Saturday night at Mancunicon, this year’s Eastercon. See some pictures of the presentations here.

The fiction categories featured a double win for Aliette de Bodard.

Best Novel:
Aliette de Bodard, The House of Shattered Wings

Best Short Story:

Aliette de Bodard, Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight

Best Non-Fiction:
Adam Roberts, Rave and Let Die: The SF and Fantasy of 2014

Best Artwork:-
Jim Burns, cover of Pelquin’s Comet.

Rosie Oliver’s reflections are here.

Like her I felt that the novel award winner lay too far to the fantasy side of the SF/Fantasy divide to be considered for an SF award. Others obviously saw things differently.