The Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College has named the winners of the inaugural Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards in Speculative Fiction. The awards go to three works of fiction that “demonstrate that the future can be imagined as something other than a slick, techno-dystopia.”

2018 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award “Open Category”

• On the Edge of Gone by Corrine Duyvis (Amulet/Abrams, 2016)
• Central Station by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon Publications, 2016)

2018 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award “Debut Speculative Fiction Award”

• Best Worst American by Juan Martinez (Small Beer Press, 2017)

Each award winner will receive a $5,000 honorarium that will be presented during a Dartmouth-hosted panel to discuss the genre and their work.

Lavie Tidhar, co-winner in the open category for Central Station, said: “Writing Central Station, I was finally able to put into form many of the ideas on the future – of people, of machines, of communication – that occupied me since first loading a command line prompt, and since the first time I heard the siren call of a modem. I’m honored to be among the inaugural recipients of the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards.”

Corinne Duyvis, co-winner in the open category for On the Edge of Gone, said: “This was a highly personal book for me to write, and for it to receive an honor of this magnitude is thrilling both professionally and personally.”

Juan Martinez, winner in the debut author category for Best Worst American, said: “I’m thrilled, humbled, and tremendously happy. I’m a huge fan of the writers on the shortlist, and it was a surprise to find myself in there; it’s an even bigger surprise to be among the winners.”

The Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards program was announced last year as an open competition to honor and support creative works around speculative fiction. The inaugural playwriting award announced earlier this year was given to Jessica Andrewartha for her play, “Choices People Make.” Andrewartha’s play navigates a
near-world future dominated by artificial intelligence, but that also struggles with the real-world issues faced in today’s society.

The Neukom Institute for Computational Science is dedicated to supporting and inspiring computational work. The Literary Arts Awards is part of the Neukom Institute’s initiative to explore the ways in which computational ideas impact society.

More about the Neukom Award can be found here.

[Thanks to Jim DeMaio and Mark Hepworth for the story. This coverage is based on the press release.]