2012 Dick Award Shortlist

The seven finalists for the 2012 Philip K. Dick Award are:

  • Blueprints of the Afterlife by Ryan Boudinot (Black Cat)
  • Harmony by Keith Brooke (Solaris)
  • Helix Wars by Eric Brown (Solaris)
  • The Not Yet by Moira Crone (UNO Press)
  • Fountains of Age by Nancy Kress (Small Beer Press)
  • Lovestar by Andri Snær Magnason (Seven Stories Press)
  • Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery (Tor Books)

The conceit of dating an award by the eligibility year is always confusing, and in this case the Dick Award’s publicists are among the confused. The eligibility year is 2012 and the official press release has been given a consistent headline, “2012 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced”. However, visitors to the award website find the release about last year’s winner was captioned “2012 Philip K. Dick Award Winner Announced”, leaving the impression that someone has put the cart before the horse.  

The annual award goes to a distinguished science fiction paperback original published in the United States. It is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust

The 2012 judges are Bruce Bethke, Sydney Duncan, Daryl Gregory, Bridget McKenna, and Paul Witcover (chair).

This year’s winner will be announced on March 29 at Norwescon in SeaTac, Washington.

View PK Dick Award Ceremony Online

Norwescon 35 will air the Philip K. Dick Award Ceremony live on Friday, April 6 beginning at 6:55 p.m. over the P.K. Dick Awards USTREAM channel.

The Philip K. Dick award is presented annually to a science fiction book published in paperback for the first time in the U.S. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust.

This year’s nominees for the award are:

A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson (Ace Books)
After the Apocalypse by Maureen F. McHugh (Small BeerPress)
Deadline by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
The Other by Matthew Hughes (Underland Press)
The Postmortal by Drew Magary (Penguin Books)
The Samuil Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden (Orbit)

The full press release follows the jump.

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Ray Mariella (1919-2010)

Dr. Raymond Peel Mariella Sr., co-founder of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, passed away March 17 reports the P.S.F.S. News.

Mariella and Milton Rothman formed the eleventh chapter of the Science Fiction League in 1934. The following year they combined with the stronger Boy’s SF Club, of which Robert A. Madle was a member, and adopted a new name — the Philadelphia SF Society.

Mariella enjoyed a distinguished career at Loyola University of Chicago where he chaired the Chemistry Department and later served as Dean of the Graduate Schools. He was a gifted teacher of the future doctors and nurses at his university, and also the general public as host of a program for school-age children called “Fun With Chemistry” on a local Chicago station, then as moderator of a regional weekly series for CBS called “Science Unlimited,” interviewing scientists and discussing the latest discoveries.

Michael Swanwick’s Fiction Hugo Record

Michael Swanwick will be the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society’s guest speaker on Friday, April 11. “He has received a Hugo Award for fiction five out of six years” adds the PSFS News, reminding us about Swanwick’s extraordinary run of award-winning stories between 1999 and 2004.

I was curious how many other Hugo winners came close to matching his record, remembering any number of sf writers who began their careers with a string of great stories that earned a lot of award nominations.

On a percentage basis, Swanwick’s wins in 5 out of 6 years equals 83%. Harlan Ellison comes nearest with 75%. He won 3 fiction Hugos in 4 years (1966-1969) for some of his greatest short stories: “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,” and “Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World.” During the same 3-year stretch Ellison also won a Best Dramatic Hugo for his “City on the Edge of Forever” Star Trek script (1968). And he turned down a Best Fan Writer nomination (also 1968; hard to imagine him losing that Hugo if he’d accepted.)

Three writers have claimed 4 fiction Hugos in a 6-year period, 67%: Lois McMaster Bujold (1990-1995), Ursula K. LeGuin (1970-1975) and Larry Niven (1971-1976).

Connie Willis enjoyed a run of 5 fiction Hugos in 8 years, 63%, beginning in 1993 with Doomsday Book and ending in 2000 with “The Winds of Marble Arch.”

Harlan Ellison enjoyed another run of 3 out of 5 years (1974-1978), 60%. Poul Anderson did the same, 3 out of 5 (1969-1973), one of those Hugos awarded to his great novella “Queen of Air and Darkness” in 1972.