2019 James White Award

The winner of the 2019 James White Award is:

  • “Limitations” by David Maskill

David wins £200, his story will be published in a forthcoming issue of Britain’s longest running science fiction magazine, Interzone, and his story will be translated into Italian to be included in Mondi Incantati 2019).

Competition judge Chris Beckett described “Limitations” as an “ingenuous story” and said it was:

“very rich in ideas, it managed to be funny and touching while playing clever games with some very exotic science. I won’t say the science was plausible, but it was implausible in the way that real science is implausible these days. It was plausibly implausible. Likeable characters too.”

The judges also awarded a special commendation to runner up “Property Crime” by Michael Donoghue. They say he missed out by the narrowest margin in the Award’s history.

Martin McGrath, Award Administrator, described “Property Crime” as:

“an immensely likeable story with a strong emotional core that manages to combine recognisable elements from the crime and science fiction genres without ever feeling over familiar.”

The winner was selected by the James White Award’s final panel of judges, Chris Beckett, Donna Scott and Justina Robson.

The other shortlisted stories in this year’s competition were:

  • Better Lost Than Loved – Bryn Fazakerley
  • Bug on Bug – Mica Scotti Kole
  • Digital Nomad – Koji A Dae
  • The Last Words of Harry Niffen – Stephen Cashmore
  • Property Crime – Michael Donoghue

[Thanks to Mark Hepworth for the story.]