Yesterday, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand announced the finalists for New Zealand’s speculative fiction awards, the Sir Julius Vogel Awards. Huge CONGRATULATIONS to those who made the finalist lists and to those who created something last year but didn’t. There were definitely some surprises in there.
Thank you so much to everyone who nominated, and especially thank you to those who nominated me. I was stunned to see I made it into the finalist lists in FOUR categories. Four. I may have cried a bit.
I am a finalist for:
Best Short Story, for ‘The Fisher’ first published by newsroom and being reprinted in The Best of British Fantasy 2019 this year
Best Novelette/Novella, for Would She Be Gone, the first novelette in my Censored City trilogy, which I completed earlier this year.
Best New Talent, an award for a writer in the first four years of their career for all of their work published in the previous year. For me in 2019, that was 17 short stories in 16 publications along with the first two of my novelettes and a bunch of blog posts. The stories included my first three SFWA qualifying professional rate sales, and an appearance in Years Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy Volume I (and it was awesome to see Paper Road Press’s wonderful work recognised with this anthology appearing in the finalists for Best Collection).
Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and award for significant achievement by an individual or group that has encouraged science fiction, fantasy or horror as genres within New Zealand. This nomination caught me totally by surprise and I am so honoured. The nomination published on the finalist list reads:
“Mel has been instrumental in bridging the gap between Kiwi SFF and Worldcon. She has organized a local group of Wellington writers across the SFF spectrum, including those who are familiar with Kiwi fandom and those who have historically worked in the literary scene. She is also coordinating Kiwi SFF participants at CoNZealand, both ensuring a wide variety of voices and encouraging those who might not otherwise attend to consider doing so. She is involved both with SpecFicNZ and the New Zealand Society of Authors to bring all authors of speculative work together to share knowledge and resources and celebrate Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror writing in Aotearoa.”
I am super excited for all my friends who were nominated as well. If I try to list them I may forget someone, so go check out the finalist list! I think I can see 20 finalist slots filled by my Wellington speculative fiction crew! And four of the five Best New Talent finalists! Voting by SFFANZ and CoNZealand members will take place through to 8pm 4 July 2020. The awards will be presented at CoNZealand sometime between 29 July and 2 August.
I am going to take a moment to call out a few excellent works that didn’t make it to the finalists that you should definitely read:
Novels
Sekhmet's Desire, by Nova Blake
The Absolute Book, by Elizabeth Knox. Victoria University Press
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, by H.G. Parry, Hachette
Youth Novels
The Dog Runner, by Bren MacDibble, Allen & Unwin [won the Award for Junior Fiction and the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults]
Missing, Presumed Dead, by Emma Berquist, Greenwillow Books [I nominated this for a Hugo as well, it was awesome]
Awa and the Dreamrealm, by Isa Pearl Ritchie, Te Rā Aroha Press
Novellas
Retaking Elysium by M. Darusha Wehm, In Potentia Press [the sequel to their award-winning interactive fiction The Martian Job]
Collected Work
Pūrākau, edited by Witi Ihimaera and Whiti Hereaka, Penguin [a stunning collection of short stories including several that are speculative. My favourite was Born. Still. By Briar Grace-Smith]
Mary Shelley Makes a Monster, by Octavia Cade, Aqueduct Press [was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for poetry!]
Short Stories
There are too many. Check out the long-list. You can read a few, they’re only short. :)
Last year I made a spreadsheet of works that were potentially eligible for nomination. It had the majority of the works that were nominated, but there were still a few we missed. I’ve already started the list of 2020 works. It can be hard to know about all the wonderful new releases coming out from kiwi writers, so I hope these spreadsheets help people find the ones they would have otherwise missed. Please add anything you see missing!
Congratulations to everyone who created/published something in 2019! Thank you to everyone who nominated this year! Happy reading and happy voting!