2020 DeepSouthCon Awards

Winners of three traditional DeepSouthCon awards were announced November 21 during the virtual 2020 DSC/SFC CONference put on by the CONtraflow committee.

Les Johnson

The Phoenix Award is given to the professional (writer, editor or artist) who has done the most for Southern Fandom. This year’s honoree is Les Johnson, physicist, author, and NASA technologist. His books include the 2018 novel, Mission to Methone, and the 2018 nonfiction book, co-authored with Joe Meany, Graphene: The Superstrong, Superthin, and Superversatile Material That Will Revolutionize the World. His latest anthology, Stellaris: People of the Stars, coedited with Robert Hampson, was published in 2019. He is a Principal Investigator of two interplanetary solar sail space missions for NASA.

The Rebel Award is awarded to the fan who has done the most for Southern Fandom. This year it went to a trio of winners: Raymond Boudreau, Jessica Styons, and Rebecca Smith

The facetious Rubble Award, given to the individual who has done the most TO Southern Fandom, went to COVID-19.

[Thanks to Randy Boyd Cleary for the story.]

2018 Phoenix and Rebel Awards

Winners of three traditional DeepSouthCon awards were announced in Bowling Green, KY on February 24 during Concave 39, host of DSC 56.

The Phoenix Award is given to the professional (writer, editor or artist) who has done the most for Southern fandom. This year’s honoree is Joseph Green. His son-in-law, Guy H. Lillian III, summed up Green’s career: “Author of 7 published SF novels and 2 volumes of short stories, host for Apollo launches during the moon landing days, [and] founder of Greenhouse Scribes.”

The Rebel Award is awarded to the fan who has done the most for southern fandom. The 2018 winner is Rick Norwood, who is also the con’s Fan Guest of Honor.

The winner of the facetious Rubble Award, given to the individual who has done the most TO the Southern Fandom, was worthy of the name — it went to the broken sidewalk responsible for Claude Mills’ (the con chair) broken leg.

[Thanks to Rich Lynch for the story.]

2017 Phoenix and Rebel Awards

Winners of three traditional DeepSouthCon awards were announced in High Point, NC on July 15 during ConGregate 4, host of DSC 55.

The Phoenix Award is given to the professional (writer, editor or artist) who has done the most for Southern fandom. The two honorees are authors Simon Hawke and Aaron Allston.

The Rebel Award is awarded to the fan who has done the most for southern fandom. This year’s recipients were Bob Ellis and Mike Pederson.

The winner of the facetious Rubble Award, given to the individual who has done the most TO the Southern Fandom, was the Chattanooga Choo-choo Hotel, for closing down.

[Via Guy Lillian III and George Wells.]

Rebel, Rubble, and Fleur de Fan Award Winners

The Phoenix and Rebel, two traditonal Southern fandom awards, were presented at Contraflow V/DeepSouthCon 53 in New Orleans this weekend. The Phoenix is for pros and the Rebel is for fans.

Phoenix Award

  • Diana Rowland
  • the late Robert Asprin (accepted by Darlene B)

Rebel Award

  • Frank Sciotta, for being an instrumental volunteer at many conventions
  • Michael Scott, founder of CoastCon

Also presented was the facetious Rubble Award, given by Gary Robe to “The Force of Gravity for taking away Ned Brooks so recently.” The Rubble is decided by previous winners who give it to someone who has done much to Southern fandom.

Contraflow inaugurated its own Fleur de Fan Awards at the same ceremony.

Toni Weisskopf, right, receives Fleur de Fan.

Toni Weisskopf, right, receives Fleur de Fan.

Pro Fleur de Fan

  • Toni Weisskopf, for her support of ContraFlow

Fan Fleur de Fan

  • Area 51 for amazing room parties
  • Walter M. Scott, local fan and volunteer

[Via SF Site News and Jennifer Liang.]

DeepSouthCon 52 Awards

Three traditional Southern fan awards were presented at Contrails, DeepSouthCon 52, in Bristol, VA on May 17.

Rebel Award: Judy Bemis

Phoenix Award: Steve Jackson

Rubble Award: Gary Robe, for screwing up the SFPA ego boo poll

Congratulations to all — and a hat tip to Guy Lillian III for pointing out that this is the third time that Robe, founder of the satirical Rubble Award, has won his own creation….

[Via Warren Buff. Thanks to Judy Bemis for the story.]

Update 05/18/2014: Fixed the headline — from 51 to 52. How bizarre. I spent 10 minutes vetting the convention number on Google to end up with the right number in the text and by then forgot I had the wrong one in the headline. My proofing skills are never good at any time, but seem to disappear altogether as midnight approaches. Bet there is a fantasy novel in this. (One containing many typos.)

2013 DeepSouthCon Awards

The Phoenix and Rebel, two traditonal Southern fandom awards, were presented at DeepSouthCon 51 in Atlanta, GA on April 20. The Phoenix is for pros and the Rebel is for fans.

Harriet McDougal accepted the Phoenix Award on behalf of her late husband, James Oliver Rigney, Jr. after all of his aliases were read off — the one everyone knows being Robert Jordan. The winner of the award was selected by the current year’s DSC committee. When you know DSC 51 was also JordanCon 5 the preference is easy to explain.

The Rebel Award was won by Regina Kirby and M. Lee Rogers.

Also presented was the facetious Rubble Award, which went to Pat Gibbs who often runs the DSC’s traditional Hearts competition. The Rubble is decided by previous winners who give it to someone who has done much to Southern fandom.

[Via Guy H. Lillian III and SF Site News.]

Update 04/23/2013: Corrected location of con to Atlanta.

2012 Rebel, Phoenix Given

Traditonal Southern fandom awards were presented at DeepSouthCon 50 in Huntsville, AL on June 17.

Phoenix Award: John Ringo

Rebel Award: Shelby Vick; and The Zielke Clan: Robert & Becky Zielke and Bill & Linda Zielke

Also this satirical award:

Rubble “Award”: SFPA OE Bob Jennings

The Rebel and Phoenix Awards are given by the con committee of each DSC, (in 2012, a supercommittee of Toni Weisskopf and Julie Wall) for the fan and pro who have contibuted a great deal to Southern fandom. The Rubble is decided by a survey of previous Rubble winners administered by its founder, Gary Robe, and is for a person or entity (corporatiions have won) who has done much to Southern fandom.

[Thanks to Guy H. Lillian III for the story.]

Silver: 2011 Rebel and Phoenix Winners

By Steven H Silver: The Rebel and Phoenix Awards were presented Saturday night at Fencon VIII and DeepSouthCon.  I presented the Rebel Award to Brad W. Foster for his work as a fan artist.  Toni Weiskopf presented the Phoenix Award to Selina Rosen for her work on Yard Dog Press and with up and coming authors. Gary Robe presented the Rubble Award to Bill Parker for bringing the Worldcon (and two years of work) to Southern fandom.

Khen Moore Has Passed Away

Ken Moore, long time Nashville fan and founder and chairman of Kubla Khan, passed away June 30 after a long illness. He was 66.

Khen — as his name was fannishly spelled — always seemed bigger than life to me, a Dionysian figure. He was the soul of a good time and known for his friendliness to new fans.

Nashville fandom owes its origins to Khen Moore, John Hollis, and Dan Caldwell, who collected other Nashvillians they met at Worldcons and DeepSouthCons. Their Kubla Khan was reputed to have the best movie event of any convention in the South, with Khen at the projector. Such efforts as these helped Khen win DSC’s Rebel Award in 1974.

The locals became a big, teasing family, remembers Kathleen David:

When Jeanna Tidwell was three or four, John Hollis taught her the names of various Nashville fans – “Who’s that, Jeanna?” “Unca Dan [Caldwell]!”, “Who’s that?” “Aunty Fran [Bray]!”, etc., until it came time to point to Khen Moore and say “Who’s that, Jeanna?” “Unca Nickelnose!”

Khen was a dynamic extrovert among fandom’s many introverts. Usually literally — at one Midwestcon he and Cliff Amos appeared in bikini bathing suits complete with dress cummerbunds in the middle of the Holidome. But pretty much every other time Ken went around in short shorts, no matter the weather, the reason he also won DSC’S Rubble Award (1991) “for having the ugliest knees in fandom.”

He and Lou, then his wife, ran the art shows for the 1978 Worldcon and 1979 NASFiC.

Janice Gelb says her first convention volunteer work came as the result of bringing a slinky dress to Phoenix to help beat the heat: “Art Show head Khen Moore saw it and immediately requested that I wear it the next day to run art for the art show auction. Jobs based more on intellectual qualifications soon followed.”

In the late Seventies Khen and Nashville fandom reached their fanpolitical zenith. Ken Keller published a “Nashville is Neat in 100 Degree Heat” ad in a 1975 MidAmeriCon progress report, a practical joke on Khen. But in fandom, jokes can easily turn into serious bids. Khen became ambitious to run a Nashville Worldcon and investigated potential facilities. However, this was before the Opryland Hotel was a factor and the city wasn’t a viable site. Soon this energy was channeled into a successful Louisville bid for the 1979 NASFiC (a con chaired by Cliff Amos.)

In addition to fandom, Khen loved aviation and was a pilot. He was retired from AVCO Aircraft where he worked as an Aircraft Engineer and Quality Control Inspector.

If you’d like to toast Khen’s memory with a concoction of his own devising, here’s his recipe for Swill, which he served at many a room party:

“Take a clean wastebasket, add a gallon of real orange juice. Real Krogers orange juice that’s got the pulp in it that you have to shake up. A quart of ReaLemon juice. A quart of Welch’s Grape Juice. A half a gallon of cheap vodka. Stir it all up. Take a blender, fill it half full with the mixture, go all the way to the top with ice. Two tablespoons of sugar in the top of the blender. Put the lid on the blender and let it run for about 45 seconds, then enjoy. “

Khen’s obituary appeared in The Tennessean on July 4. A photo of him is in the Fan Gallery.

[Thanks to Joel Zakem and Andrew Porter for the links.]

2009 Phoenix and Rebel Award Winners

The 2009 Phoenix and Rebel Awards were presented at Hypericon 5/DeepSouthCon 47, in Nashville, Tennessee , on May 6.

The Phoenix Award was won by horror writer Robert “Rick” McCammon of Birmingham AL.

The Rebel Award was presented to Randy B. Cleary of Huntsville, AL. Cleary’s accomplishments over the years include being president of the Southern Fandom Confederation and editing the SFC Bulletin, creating fan art, running convention art shows, and serving as Director-at-Large for ASFA.

Also presented was the Rubble Award, a faux award created by Gary Robe. This year its humor was a darker shade than usual, as it was given to the Chattacon Registration Department for consecutive years of hours-long registration lines. 

[Via Mike Kennedy.]