Barkley — So Glad You (Didn’t) Ask: A Column of Unsolicited Opinions #33

The Ursula K. Le Guin Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

By Chris M. Barkley:

Ursula K. Le Guin in 2013. Photo by R. Durburow.

On the evening of March 6, 2018, I wrote the following, a boldly ambiguous press release for File770.com about re-naming the Young Adult Book Award:

Press Release for immediate distribution

6 March 2018

Subject: A Proposal to Re-Name the Young Adult Book Award at Worldcon 76

By Chris M. Barkley

“When the mind is free, magic happens.”

? Young Adult author C.G. Rousing

“Harry Potter” blew the roof off of children’s literature. But that doesn’t mean the work is done — for YA authors, it just means more scope for the imagination.”
– Huffington Post reporter Claire Fallon, June 2017

Reading is one of the great pleasures in life. For a time in our modern age, it is seems as though young grade and high school kids had abandoned reading books.

Then, in 1997, along came J.K. Rowling and her creation, the world of Harry Potter. And now, after twenty-one years, it’s hard to imagine what might have happened to entire generation of young readers if Bloomsbury and Scholastic Books hadn’t taken a chance on the saga of a young wizard and his friends and deadly enemies.

The Harry Potter novels, which continue to sell, provided a mighty tide that raised the fortunes of a great many writers; new authors such as Suzanne Collins, Garth Nix, Veronica Roth, Rick Riordan and Tamora Pierce, led story hungry children to the older works of seasoned professionals like Octavia Butler, Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Madeline L’Engle, Ursula K. Le Guin and Robert A. Heinlein.

In 2006, The Science Fiction and Fantasy writers of America created the Andre Norton Award, which is given to the author of the best young adult or middle grade science fiction or fantasy work published in the United States in the preceding year.

Five years later, a serious effort was started to establish a Hugo Award for young adult books. The World Science Fiction Convention Business Meeting, which governs the WSFS Constitution that administers the Hugo Awards, several committees over several years, determined that the proposed award would better be served as a separate category, to be on par with the other non-Hugo category, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

The amendment to add the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book to the WSFS Constitution was first ratified last summer at the 75th World Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki, Finland by the members of the Business Meeting and must be ratified a second time at this year’s Worldcon in San Jose, California to begin its official trial run as a category.

This year’s Worldcon Convention Committee (headed by Kevin Roche) has graciously accepted to administer the Young Adult Book award in addition to the new Best Series and Campbell Awards.

The nomination period for the Hugos, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer opened this past February 5th.

We, the undersigned, wish to congratulate the various YA Committee Members for reaching a consensus with their diligent work in crafting the parameters of the YA Award for the World Science Fiction Convention. However, we also think that the name of this new award should have a name which not only should be universally recognizable, but have an equivalent weight to the name of John W. Campbell, Jr.

We, the undersigned, will respectfully submit a new name for the Young Adult Book Award at the Preliminary Session of the Worldcon 76 Business Meeting on August 17th, 2018 as a strike though substitution for the name ‘Lodestar’, under the rules governing the WSFS Business Meeting.

We will also embargo the name until the start of the Preliminary Session.

There is very good reason why the name will not be revealed at this time and that explanation will also be given at that time.

While we also understand that while this motion may cause a great deal of consternation, we also feel that this would be an excellent opportunity to generate a great deal of interest about the Worldcon and bring MORE attention to this new award to potential nominators, readers of all ages, booksellers and the public at large.

The proposed name will forever be known and honored in perpetuity with the Hugo Awards, the John W. Campbell Award, and the World Science Fiction Convention.

This proposal was signed by myself, my partner Juli Marr and several other prominent authors,  editors and members of fandom.

All of this was done with good will and the best intentions. But by the end of the evening, there were a great many people who, if they had the time, inclination and opportunity, would have my head on a nice, long pike like poor Ned Stark. They chose instead to take a torch to my reputation in fandom, challenge my integrity and the very nature of the proposal.

How did this happen? And more importantly, why is this being announced now, less than two weeks before the 76th Worldcon in San Jose?

To understand what happened and explain my actions in any sort of sensible context, I must go back to the origins of the Best Young Adult Book Award.

After the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal,  I began looking into the possibility of gathering support for a Young Adult novel award.  On January 2, 2011, I created a Facebook page to promote this idea: (https://www.facebook.com/YA-Hugo-Proposal-187492394596256/)

I would not call the page an overwhelming success because the number of members topped out at around 250 people. But what we lacked in numbers we made up in our enthusiasm about establishing a Young Adult Hugo award category.

I made recommendations to the committees of Reno Convention in 2011, Chicon 7 in 2012 and San Antonio in 2013 to no avail. But our persistence finally caught the eye of the Loncon Business Meeting in 2014, which set up a series of committees to study the concept and make recommendations.

While I was in the mix for the first committee, I dropped out due to personal concerns, mainly to deal with the failing health of my mother and father.  The members doing a majority of the heavy lifting were Katie Rask, Dave McCarty and Kate Secor. Without their diligence and hard work, the YA Award would have been dead on arrival.

One of the many choices that were eventually agreed upon by the committee was to establish the new category as a companion award to the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and not as a Hugo Award.  Their reasoning was that making a new category for novel length should be done separately to avoid any confusion or conflict with the Best Novel category.

While I disagreed with their decision, when it came time to debate and vote on their recommendation at MidAmeriCon Business Meeting in 2016, I wholeheartedly endorsed their proposal, which was passed by a majority of the members present.

But there were some unusual elements of that first passage of the amendment in the Finland Business Meeting (which requires votes by consecutive Business Meetings to become part of the Constitution) was made with the wording incomplete, including a name for the new award.

At this year’s Business Meeting in San Jose there will be the final ratification vote for what is being called the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book.

This had to be a hard choice because if you examine at the all the literary awards being given out today, you’ll see that all of the niftier names are already taken; Starburst, Aurora, Skylark, Bradbury, Heinlein, Norton, Asimov, Saturn, etc…

By definition, a lodestar is described as “a star that is used to guide the course of a ship, especially Polaris.”

I must admit that I was never really that enamored of the name “Lodestar” as the name for this award. Mind you, other names were bandied about, including the names of living and dead authors before they chose Lodestar. Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein were already taken.  Many were reluctant to consider an obvious choice like Madeline L’Engle because of her reputation as a overtly “Christian” fantasy writer. Octavia Butler was another great choice but she was passed over. Other notable writers of young adult fiction like Jane Yolen, Tamora Pierce and Ursula K. Le Guin were still among us and rejected for consideration. The decision seemed final and I was quite content to let it go at that.

But on January 22, 2018, Ursula Kroeber Le Guin passed away at the age of eighty-eight. Her death was a shock to the entire community because nearly all of her fiction and non-fiction were being issued in new editions and she had just published a new book of essays, No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters, in December of last year (and nominated in the Best Related Work category this year).

It was while I was attending Capricon 38 and participating in a panel obliquely called “Obligatory Discussion of New Hugo Award Categories,” that I first thought trying about changing the Young Adult Book category. And thought was not born out of malice towards the name Lodestar, seeking the spotlight for myself or upstaging the work of the committee that helped create it.

My thoughts were mainly on the family of Ms. Le Guin and the legacy of John W. Campbell, Jr.

Although I was grieving along with her family and readers around the world, I also saw this as the perfect opportunity to honor her lifetime of works, especially her young adult Earthsea series and the Annals of the Western Shore.

Then there is the matter of her illustrious career and awards; Ursula Le Guin was the Professional Guest of Honor at the 33rd World Science Fiction Convention in 1975 (AussieCon),  was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention in 1995, a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame (2001), named a Grand Master by her peers of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (2003) was the first woman to win a Hugo and a Nebula for Best Novel (The Left hand of Darkness, 1970) and the first to do it twice ( for The Dispossessed, 1975).

In addition, she was nominated for a total of 42 Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards and won six of each, won 19 Locus Awards, a 1973 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (The Farthest Shore), was named as a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress for “her significant contributions to America’s cultural heritage” and two awards in 2004 from the American Library Association for her lasting contributions to young adult literature.

I could go on (because there is SO MUCH more) but I’ll leave you with this one last singular honor; in 2014, Ursula K. Le Guin was honored with the Medal for Distinguished American Letters by the National Book Foundation.  Here’s her acceptance speech:

As you may have noted, her defense of and praise for her fellow writers of fantasy and sf and her veiled damnation Amazon and her own publisher were not well received. And it did not matter a bit to her; she wore her convictions and informed opinions proudly on her sleeve for all to see.

John W. Campbell, Jr. is still revered in this day and age as one most influential writers and monolithic editors of the 20th century science fiction and fantasy literature. I think we can safely surmise that that without him, the development of modern science fiction and fantasy literature may have been slowed or stunted. And while we all owe him a measure of gratitude for what followed in his wake, we also cannot overlook his insensitivity towards writers of color and the public displays and editorial statements of racism.

If we are to continue to honor Campbell’s name in this fashion, then I have no doubt whatsoever that the name Ursula K. Le Guin name should adorn this award we are establishing to honor the best young adult book of the year.

After concluding that this was the course of action to take, I sought out a number of fans at Capricon, including a member of the committee that helped write the YA amendment. To a person they all concurred that this was an excellent idea.

Returning home, I immediately wrote out a constitution amendment to facilitate the name change.  When I sent a copy to the eminent parliamentarian and esteemed Business Meeting Chair emeritus Kevin Standlee for an appraisal, he pointed out that a name change as an amendment would be a known as a “greater change”, which, if it were passed by the assembly, would be the start of another two year cycle of voting for it to be ratified.

Mr. Standlee then pointed out that if the name change was presented as a substitution of language (by presenting by striking out the old language and substituting a revised version) it may be considered in tandem with the amendment under review.

Having found the proper way to submit the addendum to the San Jose Business Meeting, I was ready to email the substitution for submission to the agenda.

But I hesitated because I was lacking two things; sponsorship from others and more vitally, expressed permission from the Le Guin family.

I decided that contacting the family had priority so one month to the day after the death of Ursula Le Guin, I reached out to another prominent fan, who in turn led me to the author’s agent, Ms. Ginger Clark of the Curtis Brown Agency, Ltd.

Good Evening Ms. Clark,

I realize that I am writing to you on the one month anniversary of our loss of Ms. Le Guin but I have an urgent matter that I must bring to your attention.

As a member of the World Science Fiction, I have been at the forefront of making the Hugo Awards fair, competitive, engaging and most importantly, relevant in the 21st century.

I’ve been working since 2010 to establish a Young Adult Book category. After some considerable struggle, a YA category was finally created at the Worldcon past August. As you might imagine, there was some considerable discussion about who, or what, to name the award after.

Of course, Ms. Le Guin’s name came up but there were objections from a majority on the standing committee exploring the issue (but not from me, mind you) about naming the award after a living person. In the end, they decided on the name, Lodestar.

The late Ms. Le Guin was one of the brightest stars in modern literature. I, and a few other friends, would like to honor her by naming our new YA award after her; the Ursula K. Le Guin Earthsea Award for Best Young Adult Book.

At the moment, I have no way of contacting the family and I would like to seek their permission before submitting her name to the San Jose Worldcon Business Meeting for a ratification vote in August, which I think will have no trouble at all passing.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could pass this request along to Ms. Le Guin’s family for their approval. I can be reached via this email address:

On February 26, I received a reply from Ms. Clark, who thanked me for the email which she passed along to the family.

On the afternoon of March 2nd, I received an email from Ms. Clark stating that the family approved the use of her name and the name Earthsea (although she pointed out that the name Earthsea was trademarked and may be a factor on my decision to use in the title of the award.

As a matter of fact, it did; I had some very serious doubts that the members of the Business Meeting would want to bother with a trademarked name so I dropped it from the proposal. And, I reasoned, it would be in incredibly bad form to jettison the name Lodestar, a name the committee worked very hard to come up with in the first place.

But a short time after the confirmation email, Ginger Clark threw me a curveball; she was under the impression that I was putting her name out publicly closer to the convention in early August, and definitely not in March, which was NOT what the family wanted. And I can see the reasoning behind this request; the family was still in mourning and waiting until August would give the family enough space to grieve. Out of respect for the family, I emailed Ms. Clark with a solemn promise not to reveal officially Ursula K. Le Guin’s name under any circumstances until August and the addendum was submitted.

So I was faced with a paradoxical dilemma; how could publicize a name change without naming the person we were going to honor?

I contacted Kevin Standlee to see if the addendum proposal could be embargoed for a few months but he immediately replied with a firm no, the items up for discussion were open for scrutiny at all times.

After consulting with my partner Juli for several days, we came up with a (somewhat ingenious) plan; we will recruit a all-star lineup of co-sponsors, explain that we were going to honor Ursula Le Guin by inserting her name into the new award, swear everyone involved to secrecy and issue a press release teasing of reveal of the name in August, right before the convention.

Well, I dipped into my list of Facebook contacts and I did recruit a stellar group of writers, editors and fans to co-sponsor the addendum and explaining clearly (or, so I thought at the time) that the process will play itself out at the convention and that their sponsorship would be a key element in ensuring its passage.

On Tuesday evening, March 6th, I sent the press release above to Mike Glyer for immediate release on the File 770 website.

We then proceeded to go out to dinner and play several round of Buzztime Triva with some close friends.

What, Juli and I thought at the time, could possibly go WRONG?

As it turned out, almost EVERYTHING went wrong.

Almost immediately, one prominent author was inundated with curious and/or angry emails, text and Facebook messages demanding why she would be involved with such fannish chicanery? She immediately spilled the beans about what and who of the whole affair on her Facebook page. From her page the word spread like wildfire over social media. She messaged me an hour after the press release was published and asked to have her name removed as a co-sponsor.

Over the next several hours, the “controversy” spread accordingly to several other co-sponsors, who subsequently asked to have their names removed as well.  (Please note that I have avoided naming names to spare any of the people involved from any further inquires or harassment.)

For several days, I was pilloried and flamed on every social network platform. Or, that’s what friends reported back to me because I did neither read nor reacted to any way of the negative commentary thrown my way. If I had, I’d still be fighting and responding to EVERY SINGLE REPLY.

I also did not respond because I made a promise to the Le Guin family not to officially reveal her name as the subject of this project on the record, TO ANYONE, until the addendum was submitted to the Business Meeting.

But, as badly as the news was received in some fannish circles, the proposal actually did elicit some support with some people, which gave me some hope that the storm over this may pass in time. And, looking on the bright side, everyone was debating this open secret drawing their own opinions and conclusions.

(My partner Juli Marr, did read and keep track of the comments and did come across one amusing anecdote; someone on a Facebook page had hypothesis that my press release was actually a classic “false flag” operation designed to malign the name and reputation of Ursula Le Guin in order for the supporters of Madeline L’Engle to mount a counter insurgency campaign at the Business Meeting to have her name submitted as true name of choice. Yeah, uh-huh, sure, THAT scenario may actually happen. NOT!)

On July 28th, I emailed Ginger Clark:

Ginger,

I am checking in with you one last time since the deadline for proposing a name change at the Worldcon is next Thursday.

The text of the name change has been written and a follow up column for File 770 officially explaining why the Young Adult Book Award should be called the Ursula K. Le Guin Award will be presented.

If the family has any second thoughts or concerns at this point, PLEASE contact me (or have a family representative do so) as soon as possible.

Thank You,

Chris Barkley

On July 30th, Ms Clarke replied that the family had no second thoughts, wanted me to proceed with the submission of the addendum and wished us Good Luck!

So, on Tueday August 1st, a day before the deadline for the New Business deadline, the following was submitted to the Worldcon 76 Business Meeting for discussion with copies sent to all of the co-sponsors.

And with that, my promise was kept…

22 February – 2 March 18

Re-Naming the Lodestar Award – A Proposal for a Strikethrough Addendum

A.4 Short Title: Re-Name That Award

Moved: to name the award for best young adult book the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book by inserting words as follows. The revised Young Adult Book award would then read as follows:

3.7.3: Nominations shall be solicited only for the Hugo Awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book.

3.10.2: Final Award ballots shall list only the Hugo Awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book.

3.3.18: Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book. The Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book is given for a book published for young adult readers in the field of science fiction or fantasy appearing for the first time during the previous calendar year, with such exceptions as are listed in Section 3.4.

Proposed by: Members of the YA Award Committee

Replaced by:

A.4 Short Title: (Re)Name That Award: The “Ursula K. Le Guin Lodestar Award for Young Adult Book” Award

Moved: to name the award for best young adult book from the Lodestar Award to the Ursula K. Le Guin Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book by inserting words as follows. The revised Young Adult Book Award would then read as follows:

3.7.3: Nominations shall be solicited only for the Hugo Awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Ursula K. Le Guin Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book.

3.10.2: Final Award ballots shall list only the Hugo Awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Ursula K. Le Guin Award Lodestar for Best Young Adult Book.

3.3.18: The Lodestar Ursula K. Le Guin Award Lodestar for Best Young Adult Book. The Lodestar Ursula K. Le Guin Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book is given for a book published for young adult readers in the field of science fiction or fantasy appearing for the first time during the previous calendar year, with such exceptions as are listed in Section 3.4.

The YA Committee is to be congratulated for their diligent work in crafting the parameters of the YA Award for the World Science Fiction Convention. However, we the undersigned see an opportunity to honor the work, legacy and memory of Ursula Kroeber Le Guin by re-naming this new award after her.

Thusly, she will be known and connected in perpetuity with the Hugo Awards Ceremony and the World Science Fiction Convention. We are also of the opinion that such a award must have a name of important stature, just as the other non- Hugo Award category, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

The proposers of this change wish to thank the Le Guin family for their consent with a special acknowledgement to Ginger Clark, the literary agent of the Le Guin estate for her help in facilitating this historic agreement.

Proposed by Juli Marr (Attending Member), Chris M. Barkley (Attending Member), Robert J. Sawyer (Attending Member), David Gerrold (Attending Member) and Steven H. Silver (Attending Member).

In closing, I would like to thank my co- sponsors, Robert J. Sawyer, David Gerrold, Steven H. Silver and my One True Love, Juli Marr.

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.

Ursula K. LeGuin

85 thoughts on “Barkley — So Glad You (Didn’t) Ask: A Column of Unsolicited Opinions #33

  1. I am really, really disappointed that you do not seem to have learned anything from your previous extremely ill-advised attempt to hijack the Lodestar Award as approved by the WSFS Business Meeting members, in your dissatisfaction that they did not do what you personally wanted — and that you continue to misrepresent the results of your dishonesty with the potential sponsors of this amendment as being other peoples’ fault. 🙁

    Le Guin is certainly deserving of a recognition for her achievements, but this YA award is not the appropriate vehicle for someone whose accomplishments were far wider than the YA arena. Slapping her name on the first thing available, rather than taking the time to find an appropriate way to honor her which reflects her wide range of achievements (such as an Ursula K. Le Guin Award for Best First Novel by a Woman), is a poor way to do her that honor.

    A Proposal to Re-Name the Young Adult Book Award at Worldcon 76

    Tremendous Pushback Against Barkley YA Award Name Proposal

  2. One of the main reactions was that a) the name had been gone over at length by the YA committee including a survey to consult the membership and b) it had been decided for very good reasons that naming new awards after a particular person was a Bad Idea. Chris has not addressed either of those things here, just as he did not address them at the time they were made.

    Another point made previously – on the correct assumption that it was Le Guin – were that she is not actually thought of as primarily a YA author and as JJ says there will be better methods to honour her memory.

    My view is that the logic for avoiding real people’s names still holds, and while “Lodestar” isn’t everyone’s favourite option no-one’s managed to come up with one that gets greater support. The bar for ignoring the work of the YA committee and the survey results should be a high one, and this proposal doesn’t reach it.

  3. What JJ and Mark said. And I don’t see how adding something to Lodestar as opposed to replacing it would avoid the “greater change” requiring another year for ratification.

  4. This nonsense again? Barkley, bubbelah, you need to let this go. It stinks and the more you clutch it to your breast, the more the stink transfers. It’s unbecoming of a grown man to throw this kind of foot-stomping, breath-holding tantrum.

  5. Add me to the list of people who thinks your proposal is a bad idea for reasons that have been discussed extensively here and elsewhere, but I also wanted to comment on this:

    Octavia Butler was another great choice but she was passed over.

    Octavia Butler would have been a terrible choice, given that she wrote exclusively adult SFF novels. Please stop trying to cram square pegs into round holes (in both your namedropping of Butler and your proposed renaming of the YA award to “honor” Le Guin).

  6. I see Glyer is still paying you by the word.

    Otherwise, this could have been shortened by several thousand words, keeping people from slogging through this enormous argument—if they bothered.

  7. My favourite part is where he openly says he hasn’t actually read any of the rebuttals, but still feels the need to write a 4,000 word column to help us all “understand” the backlash. Because, apparently, what else could possibly be relevant beyond Chris’ perspective?

  8. I’m guessing the initial idea of waiting until the Preliminary Business Meeting to reveal the name was a big inspiration for the proposed Standing Rule change that’s on this year’s agenda (see A.1).

  9. Here in 3868, we look back on the renaming of this award for LeGuin as a fine idea.

    Over the turbulent decades that began with the dissolution of the Second United States in 2019, LeGuin was the SF author most responsible for leading young SF readers in the Western Continents on into adult SF readership. The long-lived third Northwest Confederation’s civic religion included several of her books among their Sacred Library.

    We now believe that only a small number of her books could be classified as “Young Adult” literature was the key to this transition. Today, of course, the idea that one must specialize in a particular type of literature to achieve great things is understood as late capitalist decadence. Had the proposal been named after one of the famous Young Adult writers of that era*, whose works seldom provided a path out of YA and into the wider world of fantastic literature for adults, we now believe SF would have become a marginal genre, had it survived at all. Since LeGuin’s so-called YA books were suitable for young and old alike, they were the perfect transitional reading material.

    Here’s hoping you don’t alter the timeline! The other one…well, let’s just say the pseudo-Polesotechnic League didn’t work out. The Day of the Red Button was a sad occasion.

    And now, I have to go to my all-afternoon neighborhood council. You know what we say here in The Future–Freedom Is An Endless Meeting!

    *Surviving records indicate the most prominent were Kathryn Kenny, Victor Appleton II, Robert Galbraith (who wrote YA as J. K. Rowling, using initials to disguise his gender during the Gilead Era backlash of the late second millenium), R. S. Stine, Francesca Lia Block, E. L. James, and the mysterious W. J. Clinton, who deserves more study.

    Clinton wrote both as James Patterson and under feminine first names, such as Hillary, Kate, Chelsea, and George. (The one thing we know with reasonable certainty about W. J. is he was somehow related to Georgia “George” Clinton, musician and first black Vice-President of the First United States), again during the late second millennium.

  10. @John A Arkansawyer – sounds like the time machine might have sent you across a couple of dimensions as well! In this one, the proposal isn’t intending to name the award after any author, recent or otherwise, regardless of your – sorry, “the future’s” – opinions about their importance to the genre.

    I myself am sending this from 9926, where using a cute “bit” to present one’s opinions as objective fact is now punishable by a stern public talking to from the robot council…

  11. Agree that the name should remain “Lodestar” at this point.

    Kinda hate the assertion that naming a YA prize after Le Guin would be an insufficient honor. What, people might not realize she wrote real books, too? Good books, too? Important books, too? Brilliant, insightful, finely crafted books . . .too?

  12. @Arifel: “the proposal isn’t intending to name the award after any author, recent or otherwise”

    Even looking into the future from 1052, I am aware of that, and will remain so until my consciousness is subsumed during some five-digit year.

  13. @Hope
    I don’t think it’s that a YA award is a lesser honor. It’s that this award was already conceived and named. So trying to put her name on it now feels slap-dash. She deserves something specifically created and designed to honor her. And her legacy is more about being a woman pioneer, writing with feminist themes (both in adult and YA), and encouraging other women.

  14. Not happy about this proposal, but as it will be shot down anyhow, the worst that will happen is the waste of 15-20 minutes of peoples time. I can’t really be that upset over something like that.

  15. @Laura
    I’ve seen a lot of good reasons given to not change the name of the award. But I read the earlier discussions of this proposal and I have also seen a distressing lack of respect for books written for children and young adults. If someone had named an adult prize after her I don’t believe you would seen anyone complaining that her books for children weren’t being recognized. But because the award was for young adults all kinds of people had to jump in to remind us that she wrote for adults, too. If there were a Le Guin prize for the best first novel by a woman I would be absolutely gobsmacked if an author of children’s book ever won it.

  16. @Hope:

    Kinda hate the assertion that naming a YA prize after Le Guin would be an insufficient honor. What, people might not realize she wrote real books, too? Good books, too? Important books, too? Brilliant, insightful, finely crafted books . . .too?

    I’m caught in a periodic market dystopia here in 7184 (dynastic year) where Le Guin’s stock, as it were, is at an all-time low. She’s thought of as a Bad Economic Citizen Unit because she didn’t write ToMarket (prosperity be unto it). The sentiments expressed in her video above can’t even be expressed in early eighth millennium Econospeak.

  17. Mr. Barkley: How about if you work to get a school in your area named after Ursula K. Le Guin? Seriously. I can’t think of a better way to honor her. It would engage the local community with her life and all her work. Good things would come of it.

  18. I have never quite agreed with the objection that Le Guin’s name would be inappropriate for a YA award because she wasn’t predominantly known for YA fiction. She was known in part for YA fiction and respected for it. And John W. Campbell wasn’t known predominantly for publishing new writers either, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

    That said, the other arguments against the proposal make sense to me. And the weight of opinion is clearly against it, so regardless of what I might personally think, it ain’t gonna happen.

    Similarly, I don’t much like the name Lodestar, but it’s what got chosen. So big deal, it’s done.

    I’d say let’s move on. But that’s a choice everyone gets to make for themselves, so I expect some just won’t be interested in that. Still, it seems like there’s significant support for sticking with what we’ve got, here, and no real wellspring of support for making such a change.

  19. There’s an aspect of branding that is relevant, here: Many well-chosen and ultimately successful brand names sound lame and odd, at first. But over time they develop what is called ‘secondary meaning‘, associations in the listener’s mind. When Jobs and Woz presented their prototype Apple I at the Homebrew Computer Club and said they were naming it after a fruit, we all[1] thought that was mighty eccentric, but over the years their brand has developed its own (annoying hipster) identity.

    Lodestar seems odd. Five years from now, perceptions may be totally different because it’d then be The Lodestar, man.

    (Have to run. I need to go to the grocery store to buy a few newberries.)

    [1] Hey, I was a high school kid, OK? Sheesh, I’ll freely admit I’m old, but not Lee Felsenstein-type old.

    ETA: YA committee members including but not limited to Katie Rask did heroic work, and I really think we should respect that and give their results a chance.

  20. The first thing I thought when I saw this proposal, way back when, was that the attempt to put Le Guin into a box had already started. Here’s an author who wrote fantasy, science fiction, poetry, essays, literary fiction, and yes, young adult novels, who spoke out bravely against hatred and oppression and for women and the natural world, who had inspired countless people, who, in a fair world, would have won the Nobel Prize — and already people are trying contain her, to lock her into a category. Yes, it’s an important category, but writing young adult novels was just a fraction of the things she’d accomplished.

    And I couldn’t help but think that part of this was because she was a woman. Some people didn’t know what to do with a woman who was so hugely talented, and so they had to shut her up in one category, to ignore all her other accomplishments. As other people are saying, if you’re going to name anything after her, it should be something that reflects her importance to all of fantasy and science fiction, or even all of literature.

  21. For a lot of us, Earthsea was our first introduction to LeGuin, so I’ve never objected on that basis. And had it not been for The Left Hand of Darkness, I might not have survived adolescence as a queer teenager, which is a definite niche that YA fills today.

    I also wonder how her family will feel when this measure fails.

    (Insert clever thing about the year 1166 here.)

  22. The first thing I thought when I saw this proposal, way back when, was that the attempt to put Le Guin into a box had already started.

    Out of curiosity, are there any examples of people whose reputation was significantly constrained to one thing by having an award named after them for that thing?

    As noted, John W. Campbell Jr. hasn’t been put “into a box” and thought of only in connection with new writers. Edgar Allan Poe, despite the long history of the Edgar Award, is not thought of only in relation to mystery writing. The Ray Bradbury Award has failed to put Bradbury in a “screenwriting only” box.

    I don’t support the name change, as I’ve said before. But the idea that to have an award named after you is to have your reputation limited to the subject of the award doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

    Is there any evidence out there that this is something that actually happens?

  23. Cheryl S. I also wonder how her family will feel when this measure fails.

    I will feel bad for them, too — but that’s on the person who took it upon himself to contact them with the request without first gauging the level of support for it, not on the WSFS members who shouldn’t feel guilt-tripped into going along with it (something which was deliberately intended by the proposer, I suspect, and which is the sort of manipulative behavior I really despise).

  24. Andrew Porter on August 4, 2018 at 8:07 am said:
    I see Glyer is still paying you by the word.

    Otherwise, this could have been shortened by several thousand words, keeping people from slogging through this enormous argument—if they bothered.

    Hear, hear. Man, apart from everything else you really need to learn the art of brevity because I have never seen anything more tl;dr than this post.

    And that’s before we get into the complete falsification that this post is.

  25. Out of curiosity, are there any examples of people whose reputation was significantly constrained to one thing by having an award named after them for that thing?

    As noted, John W. Campbell Jr. hasn’t been put “into a box” and thought of only in connection with new writers. Edgar Allan Poe, despite the long history of the Edgar Award, is not thought of only in relation to mystery writing. The Ray Bradbury Award has failed to put Bradbury in a “screenwriting only” box.

    I don’t support the name change, as I’ve said before. But the idea that to have an award named after you is to have your reputation limited to the subject of the award doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

    Is there any evidence out there that this is something that actually happens?

    But none of them were women. And women writers are far more likely to be put into boxes than male writers. In fact, it’s one of the strategies that Joanna Russ outlines in How To Suppress Women’s Writing.

  26. Hope on August 4, 2018 at 11:35 am said:

    I have also seen a distressing lack of respect for books written for children and young adults.

    Yes, similar to romance, urban fantasy, and (double-whammy!) paranormal romance — or “soft” science fiction like Le Guin — much of it written by women.

    It’s not that naming a YA award after Le Guin would somehow belittle her legacy. The original Earthsea trilogy is a very important part of it for me — Ged is my Harry Potter. I think something honoring women would be a better fit, but you could also argue that she didn’t just write feminist themes.

    My main objection to this proposal is the attempted hijacking of an award that’s already named Lodestar. The only reason we’re not using the name now is due to the careful process and rules involved in choosing it. And the YA committee made a very convincing case for not naming this award after anyone. As Rick Moen said, it will be interesting to see the name Lodestar gain its own meaning based on what it’s awarded to.

  27. For several days, I was pilloried and flamed on every social network platform. Or, that’s what friends reported back to me because I did neither read nor reacted to any way of the negative commentary thrown my way. If I had, I’d still be fighting and responding to EVERY SINGLE REPLY.

    Did you at least read *some* of the responses to your proposal? Because it seems to me that you have severely misread the mood of the people with a vested interest in the WSFS/Worldcon/Hugo Awards. And continuing on as you are without taking that feedback into consideration is not helping your cause.

  28. But none of them were women.

    Okay, are there any examples of women whose reputation was significantly constrained to one thing by having an award named after them for that thing?

    I’m not claiming it doesn’t happen, I’m simply unaware of any instances of it happening, so I’m unsure why it’s coming up as a danger to be avoided.

    There are a couple of different Indira Gandhi Awards, each with a specific focus, but I don’t think either has put her reputation in a box defined by either focus.

    There’s a golf award half-named for Diana Powell — I have no idea whether it put her in any kind of box, but I gather she’s still best known (to the extent she is) as an actress rather than as a golf supporter.

    Similarly, there’s a Portuguese cinema award named for Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, who seems to have done a lot more than film and is best known as a poet, but I don’t know for sure whether the award has boxed her in.

    So I’m not sure that there’s much evidence than awards named for women are particularly constraining in a way that awards named for men aren’t.

    Mainly, it seems like there aren’t enough awards named for women, whether they’re about that woman’s wheelhouse or merely about one of her significant accomplishments. And maybe the solution to that is to name more awards for women rather than assuming that if the award isn’t for a comprehensive picture of all the many things that woman did, it should be avoided. Not this particular award, of course, but maybe in general.

    But unless there’s some track record of award nomenclature putting women’s reputation in boxes, why assume it?

  29. I will echo Laura in being unclear as to how this would not constitute a greater change.

    From the 2017 minutes:

    Dr. Lurie made a parliamentary enquiry: if the amendment were adopted with the name Lodestar this year, could next year’s Business Meeting propose a different name when the amendment is ratified? Or would it require an additional year of ratification? The Chair ruled that it would require an additional year of ratification.

    I don’t see what parliamentary tricks would apply to get around this, as ultimately the change being proposed constitutes a significantly different name from the award as passed on from the 2017 business meeting? (I recognize that this ruling is not strictly binding on the 2018 BM but it seems clearly correct to me.)

    Unless what is actually being proposed here is to instead amend sections 3.7.3, 3.10.2, and 3.3.18 after the ratification of the current A.4, which would as I understand it name the award the “Lodestar Award” in 2019 and then the “Ursula K. Le Guin Lodestar Award” in 2020? That’s not what I got from the OP but it would certainly have been an option.

    I don’t have particularly strong feelings as to the merits here but I would personally prefer either the “Lodestar Award” or “Ursula K. Le Guin Award” to a hybrid of the two names.

    (Here in 1848, Gen. Robert is an 11-year-old who hasn’t written anything to provide guidance on this question.)

  30. A clarification: the Young Adult committee didn’t decide it was a bad idea to name a (non-living) individual. There were arguments presented on both sides. Among the (to me persuasive) arguments for it that were presented are:

    – A person’s name recalls the history of SFF literature
    – The Hugo/Campbell Awards are themselves named after editors
    – Celebrates professionals who influenced current Worldcon readers/writers
    – Avoiding author names in order to prevent offensiveness can border on discrimination or erasure

    I found the most striking argument was that that’s what most people wanted.

    – 52% of the respondents said they would prefer the award to be named after a person when asked to choose a category of naming type

    Beyond Hugo and Campbell there is lots of other precedent from other genre awards too. The Andre Norton award is little more than a decade old. She didn’t write exclusively for young adults either. Nor did Hugo (Gernsback) publish primarily science fiction, come to think of it.

    I think both Octavia Butler and Ursula Le Guin are terrific choices – the latter is more widely read, but the former name also does a great job of recalling the history of the genre and its power for YA readers.

  31. @Kurt Busiek: You’re missing the point. Lisa Goldstein wrote that this looked like an attempt to put Le Guin into a box. (Emphasis added) You’re asking where’s the evidence of awards that are already putting women in boxes. That’s a different thing. It has no bearing on Lisa’s point.

    However, to answer your question, there has been a long history of ignoring women’s contributions to science fiction and fantasy. The first major science fiction award named after a woman is the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award. Kind of ironic.

    I’d also like to respond to your earlier point about Le Guin and Campbell. John W. Campbell is renowned for publishing new writers who went on to become greats in the field. Naming the award for best new writer after him is an honor that makes sense. Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for a large body of mature, challenging and elegant writing, with much of it winning the top awards in the field. Putting her name on a YA fiction award is the epitome of a backhanded compliment. If we want to truly honor her legacy by putting her name on an award, either the Nebula or the World Fantasy Award would be suitable.

  32. A probably incomplete list of literary awards named after women:
    The Agatha Awards for cozy mysteries, named after Agatha Christie
    The Elgin Awards for speculative poetry, named after Suzette Haden Elgin
    The Rita Awards for romance, named after Rita Clay Estrada.
    The Tiptree Awards for gender bending speculative fiction, named after James Tiptree Jr.
    The Ngaio Marsh Awards for New Zealand crime fiction, named after Ngaio Marsh
    The Astrid Lindgren Award for children’s and YA literature
    The Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for mystery writers of colour, named after Eleanor Taylor Bland

    Agatha Christie was not just a cozy mystery writer and indeed most of her novels wouldn’t qualify as cozies by modern standards. Suzette Haden Elgin was not just a poet, but also wrote SF novels. Rita Clay Estrada writes romances, is a pioneer of the paranormal romance subgenre and co-founded the RWA. James Tiptree Jr. a.k.a. Alice Sheldon was not just a woman writing under a male pen name that fooled a lot of people. Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand author of crime fiction, though the vast majority of her mysteries are actually set in England. Astrid Lindgren is really best remembered for her children’s books, though she did much more. Eleanor Taylor Bland was an African American crime fiction writer whose novels featured an African American detective.

  33. You’re missing the point. Lisa Goldstein wrote that this looked like an attempt to put Le Guin into a box. (Emphasis added)

    Yes. I’m questioning why it looks like such a thing.

    If there were evidence that naming awards after women reduced their reputation to the field of the award, that would support the claim.

    However, to answer your question, there has been a long history of ignoring women’s contributions to science fiction and fantasy. The first major science fiction award named after a woman is the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award. Kind of ironic.

    I’m not really sure that naming awards after someone is a way to ignore their contribution, but I think that goes to my point about there generally not being enough awards named after women.

    I’d also like to respond to your earlier point about Le Guin and Campbell. John W. Campbell is renowned for publishing new writers who went on to become greats in the field. Naming the award for best new writer after him is an honor that makes sense.

    But it’s not all he did, and isn’t even what he’s most famous for, which is the argument being used against the idea of renaming the Lodestar after Le Guin.

    Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for a large body of mature, challenging and elegant writing, with much of it winning the top awards in the field. Putting her name on a YA fiction award is the epitome of a backhanded compliment. If we want to truly honor her legacy by putting her name on an award, either the Nebula or the World Fantasy Award would be suitable.

    But she didn’t just write fantasy.

    Essentially, you’re saying that YA as a category isn’t good enough, while fantasy as a category is, even though neither is fully encompassing of Le Guin’s achievements.

    I agree with you that renaming the Nebula for Le Guin would be a fine honor (albeit one that isn’t going to happen, any more than renaming the Lodestar is going to happen). I don’t agree that naming a YA award for her would be insulting.

  34. @Kurt Busiek: I think that goes to my point about there generally not being enough awards named after women. OK. I agree about that. But if we’re going to name awards after women, let’s do it with high standards, in order to honor them appropriately. This proposal to rename the Lodestar smacks of “something must be done, this is something, therefore it must be done.”

    But she didn’t just write fantasy.

    The World Fantasy Award has an expansive definition of fantasy.

    I don’t agree that naming a YA award for her would be insulting.

    It’s failing to honor the vast majority of her work that was not YA. There also is a problematic aspect, that women have been shunted off into the world of home and children. For goodness sake, if we’re going to put her name on an award given by the World Science Fiction Society, how about if it’s for one of the categories where she won Hugos?

  35. Oh, now you’ve done it, Tom. You’ve made people think about naming all the individual categories after different writers. Or maybe we could sell naming rights!

  36. OK. I agree about that. But if we’re going to name awards after women, let’s do it with high standards, in order to honor them appropriately. This proposal to rename the Lodestar smacks of “something must be done, this is something, therefore it must be done.”

    As noted, I don’t support the proposal.

    The World Fantasy Award has an expansive definition of fantasy.

    Yeah, they include horror, but they lean away from SF, even though the dividing line is impossible to pin down. At least, that’s my understanding.

    It’s failing to honor the vast majority of her work that was not YA.

    I don’t think “failing” is the right word. It’s honoring her for great achievements, even if not all of her achievements, just as a World Fantasy Award wouldn’t cover all her achievements either.

    I don’t find that insulting, just as I don’t find the Campbell award insulting to Campbell for not honoring the vast majority of his work that wasn’t with new authors.

    There also is a problematic aspect, that women have been shunted off into the world of home and children.

    So don’t name a YA award after any woman because it implies motherhood, housekeeping and child-caring? I don’t think that makes much sense; Le Guin did, after all, write YA fiction (and children’s fiction and adult fiction and nonfiction and poetry). It’s not an insult to honor that any more than it’s an insult to honor her poetry or her essays or her adult fiction — even if the others aren’t all packed in somehow.

    I mean, if there was a YA award named after J.K. Rowling, we wouldn’t be talking about YA fiction being somehow motherly, because it’s smack in her wheelhouse, even though she writes adult mysteries too. In Le Guin’s case, it’s one of her wheelhouses — she’s very well known for YA fiction, and also very well known for other things.

    For goodness sake, if we’re going to put her name on an award given by the World Science Fiction Society, how about if it’s for one of the categories where she won Hugos?

    As noted, I don’t support the proposal.

    So if a YA award were to be named for her, it ain’t gonna be this not-a-Hugo and ain’t likely to be awarded by the WSFS; the support clearly isn’t there for that. Plus, the awards for the categories in which she did win already have a name: Hugo awards. I don’t think anyone’s interested in changing that name either.

    It’s the idea that it’s somehow diminishing her to name an award honoring one of the types of book she’s famous for that I’m addressing, not that WSFS should rename the Lodestar.

    But I think I’ve probably spent at least 150% too many pixels on it so far, and rather than outstay my welcome on the subject, I’ll stop. I haven’t found any of the reasons offered for why it’s insulting convincing, but it doesn’t matter in the long run — I don’t need to be convinced, and the renaming isn’t going to happen anyway.

  37. Jeff Smith: You’ve made people think about naming all the individual categories after different writers. Or maybe we could sell naming rights!

    Now here’s a game the whole family can play!

  38. Brian Z on August 4, 2018 at 6:29 pm said:

    A clarification: the Young Adult committee didn’t decide it was a bad idea to name a (non-living) individual. There were arguments presented on both sides.

    This makes me feel nostalgic, Brian is posting incomplete info which needs correcting – is this 2015 all over again?

    The YA committee report considered the arguments on both sides (and Brian quotes the ones on his side) and then didn’t put any people’s names on their shortlist. So although they didn’t declare an absolute bar against people’s names they weren’t prepared to recommend any either. Here’s the (much longer) set of arguments against from the report:

    Arguments against Using Personal Names
    – 48% voted that the award should be called something other than a person’s name
    – Award should celebrate SFF worlds and ideas, not individual people
    – Award designation shouldn’t be about “us” and what we liked, but instead about current
    and future teens
    – Better to have more universal name that can have meaning for each generation, rather
    than one that may become outdated and meaningless to later readers
    – Worldcon is an international community, but individual authors are inherently associated
    with specific nations and languages
    – Not the award’s job to “educate” the youth by naming the award after one particular
    author
    – Teens’ changing social expectations make the work of several of the suggested authors
    objectionable
    – Because early SFF YA was a didactic genre, most writers had agendas that will be
    unacceptable to people today
    – Naming an award after a person expresses approval for all the author’s books, including
    any that are unfitting
    – Ties the award too closely to the life of the named person, so that their baggage carries
    over to the award
    – Many people on public forums said emphatically that they were opposed to a person- name
    – Attempts to name award after person will lead to very heated and contentious debates,
    which will hurt the award

    One of the most common nomination trends was that people suggested authors they read when
    they were a young. Personal experience (and thus age) greatly influenced the name suggestions.
    There was a clear link between the age of the voters and which author they suggested, since they usually picked an author that chronologically coincided with their teens.
    Because expectations change, several early SFF favorites may not appeal to teens today and in
    the future. Popular writers who were suggested in the name collection polls included those whose works exhibit problematic representations of girls and women, a penchant for “fat shaming” or negative commentary on appearance, questionable portrayals of diverse sexualities and racial stereotypes, use of fiction as a vehicle for evangelical or religious messages, and inappropriate teen-adult sexual relations.
    While historical contexts at the time an author wrote may have been different than they are now, teens today and tomorrow experience these works differently. Some committee members felt that
    we should highlight SFF history by honoring authors, while others felt that we should ensure teens view the award in a positive light, by being aware of their ever-changing reading experiences.

  39. I’m thinking Chick-fil-A could sponsor the Campbell Award, even though they use “chick” just as a shortened version of “chicken,” and not actually as a young/new chick. Also, the Hugos are awarded on Sunday, which might give them pause.

    The Charmin Hugo for Best Fanzine would have worked better when fanzines were actually printed on paper.

    And the Yugo Hugo in any category would have been great if that car were still being manufactured.

  40. Jeff Smith: The Charmin Hugo for Best Fanzine would have worked better when fanzines were actually printed on paper.

    Right for the jugular! (And in a way that deters anyone from correcting you that some still are.)

  41. Soon Lee: Did you at least read *some* of the responses to your proposal? Because it seems to me that you have severely misread the mood of the people with a vested interest in the WSFS/Worldcon/Hugo Awards. And continuing on as you are without taking that feedback into consideration is not helping your cause.

    Yes, while I was reading that proud proclamation of ignorance, I got the strong impression of a little kid sticking his fingers into ears and saying “la la la la I CAN’T HEAR YOU la la la la”.

    It really gives a very bad impression of the proposer as well as the proposal.

  42. Nah, on Page 1 they told us the exact reason why they didn’t suggest Ursula Le Guin. She was alive. I suppose if the day comes when Le Guin’s literary legacy has become meaningless, outdated, objectionable, didactic baggage, on that day I’ll eat my hat.

  43. JJ – … not on the WSFS members who shouldn’t feel guilt-tripped into going along with it.

    Oh, I’m still voting against it, but I’m going to feel terrible about the family, who won’t understand that it’s not a vote against LeGuin and her central importance to literature.

    ETA – He’s been clear that he doesn’t read comments. That explains a lot, actually, because nothing interferes with the echo chamber.

  44. Putting aside the right/wrong/WTF of this whole thing, did you really think this level of shenanigans would succeed at a business meeting?

    Honestly?

  45. Mike: I really thought I had typed “most fanzines”; I was surprised to see that I hadn’t.

    I never had any illusions/delusions about winning a Hugo for my own fanzines back in the 70s, but I still regret that I could never get that fifth spot on the ballot. No Charmin for me!

  46. Mike Glyer: Right for the jugular!

    That’s what your copy of Absorbing Science Fiction is for.

  47. @Kurt: The point that YA-specific recognition is in no way lesser, limiting, or demeaning is well taken.

    What I would say is that the facade of urgency here is what makes it more demeaning; that gives it a sense of trying to put Le Guin in a box. The fervent insistence that we cannot possibly found a YA award without naming it after Le Guin, and simultaneously that how could we possibly honor Le Guin in any way other than naming this specific award after her, is pretty easy to read as having the effect (probably unintentionally) of roping her legacy into YA specifically.

    That being said, M. Barkley’s insistence on the sheer, urgent necessity of his proposal is pretty self-explanatory, and offputting enough on its own, even before we discuss long-term implications and nuances 😛

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