The Ursa Major Award is presented annually for “excellence in the furry arts.”
The recipients were decided by a public vote for 1,047 fans – complete voting statistics are at the link.
The wonderfully animated presentation video can be viewed at the end of the post.
The 2020 Winners
Best Motion Picture — Live-action or animated feature-length movies.
• Wolfwalkers (Directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart; October 26)
Best Dramatic Short Work — One-shots, advertisements or short videos.
• Zoophobia – “Bad Luck Jack” (Directed by Vivienne Medrano; September 30)
Best Dramatic Series — TV or YouTube series videos.
• Beastars (Directed by Shinichi Matsumi ;Season 1 Epsiode 1 to 12 USA Release English Dub)
Best Novel — Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.
• The City That Barks and Roars, by J.T. Bird (9781838047917, August 1)
Best Short Fiction — Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.
• What Makes a Witch, by Linnea Capps (Weasel Press, August 18)
Best Other Literary Work — Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.
• Difursity: Stories by Furries of Color, edited by Weasel (Thurston Howl productions, anthology, August 10)
Non-Fiction Work
• The Fandom: A Furry Documentary, directed by Ash Kreis & Eric Risher (You Tube, video, July 3)
Best Graphic Story — Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
• Beastars, by Paru Itagaki (Viz Media and Weekly Shonen Champion, Volume 4 to 8)
Best Comic Strip — Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
• Housepets!, by Rick Griffin (Internet, January 1 to December 30)
Best Magazine — Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.
• Pocari Roo, YouTube videos (January 11 to December 25)
Best Published Illustration — Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.
• Lofi, Cheers (Furaffinity, January 24)
Best Game — Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Developer and Publisher: Nintendo; March 20)
Best Website — Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.
• Fur Affinity, Furry art and stories
Anthropomorphic Costume (Fursuit)
• Zigc the Khajiit, Maker: Inerri Creatures, Owner/Wearer: Zigc The Khagiit, Displayed online July 3.
The nominations for the 2020 Ursa Major Awards have been finalized. The Ursa Major Award is presented annually for “excellence in the furry arts.” Anyone may nominate and vote for candidates for the Awards. The 2020 Ursa Major Awards final ballot will be open for voting from March 1 to March 31 on the UMA website.
The 2020 Nominees
Best Motion Picture Live-action or animated feature-length movies.
• Hayop Ka! (You Animal!) (Directed by Avid Liongoren, October 29) Mature Audiences. • Onward (Directed by Dan Scanlon, March 6) • Sonic the Hedgehog (Directed by Jeff Fowler; January 25) • Soul (Directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers; December 25) • Wolfwalkers (Directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart; October 26)
Best Dramatic Short Work One-shots, advertisements or short videos.
• Burrow (Directed by Madeline Sharafian; December 25) • Mystery Skulls Animated – The Future (Directed by Ben Mangum; October 31) • The Humiliation of Jinjur Maiham by The Home Guardsmen (Created by K Garrison; December 30) • Trick Moon (Directed/Storyboarded by Geneva Hodgson, July 21) • Zoophobia – “Bad Luck Jack” (Directed by Vivienne Medrano; September 30)
Best Dramatic Series TV or YouTube series videos.
• Aggretsuko (Directed by Rarecho, Season 3 episode 1, August 27) • Beastars (Directed by Shinichi Matsumi ;Season 1 Epsiode 1 to 12 USA Release English Dub) • BNA – Brand New Animal (Directed by Yoh Yoshinari; Season 1 Episode 1 to 12) • Helluva Boss (Directed by Vivienne Medrano; Episodes “Murder Family” and “Loo Loo Land”, Oct 31 – Dec 9) • Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts (Created by Radford Sechrist; January 14 – October 12)
Best Novel Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.
• Disbanded, by Frances Pauli. (Goal Publications; February 2020) • Entanglement Bound, (The Entangled Universe Book 1) by Mary E. Lowd (Aethon Books, December) • On The Mark, by Bernard Doove and Jeff Hartt (Self; October 23) • Spin the Bottle, by Dajan Tafari (Fenris Publishing) Strong adult material • The City That Barks and Roars, by J.T. Bird (9781838047917, August 1)
Best Short Fiction Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.
• Familiar, by Linnea Capps (in Dog Pile, Bound Tales Press) • Summer Strawberries, by Mary E. Lowd (in The Voice of Dog, April 23 ) • The Glow, by Linnea Capps (in The Electric Sewer, Bound Tales Press) • Tittilating Trivia, by Linnea Capps (in Sensory De-tails, Bound Tales Press) • What Makes a Witch, by Linnea Capps (Weasel Press, August 18)
Best Other Literary Work Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.
• Blacksad: The Collected Stories, by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (Dark Horse, graphic collection, July 14) • Bush Heroes, by Bush Heroes (many artists). (SFW Sexy Firefighters, art album, March 1) • Difursity: Stories by Furries of Color, edited by Weasel (Thurston Howl productions, anthology, August 10) • Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements, Vol. 1, edited by KC Alpinus (Goal Publications, anthology, August 31) • Tales of Hayven Celestia, edited by Rick Griffin and Gre7g Luterman (Self, anthology, January 4)
Non-Fiction Work
• From Paw To Print: Essays About Writing in the Furry Fandom, compiled by Thurston Howl. (Thurston Howl productions, essay compilation, June 1) • Furries Among Us 3, compiled by Thurston Howl. (Thurston Howl Publications, furry essays, 2020) • The BEST and WORST Anthro Movies Tier List, by Saberspark (YouTube, video, June 26) • The Fandom: A Furry Documentary, directed by Ash Kreis & Eric Risher (You Tube, video, July 3) • The Last Bronycon: A Fandom Autopsy, by Jenny Nicholson (YouTube, video, July 21)
Best Graphic Story Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
• A&H Club, by Rick Griffin (Internet, January 24 to December 12) • Beastars, by Paru Itagaki (Viz Media and Weekly Shonen Champion, Volume 4 to 8) • Found, by Toddlergirl (Fur Affinity, September 18 to December 30) • Oren’s Forge, by Tegan Gavet (Tapas, pages 112 to 161) • Shine, by Babystar (Fur Affinity, January 4 to December 28) adult material
Best Comic Strip Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (Internet, January 1 to December 31) • Doc Rat, by Jenner (Internet, January 6 to December 31) • Freefall, by Mark Stanley (Internet, January 1 to December 30) • Housepets!, by Rick Griffin (Internet, January 1 to December 30) • The Whiteboard, by Doc N. (Internet, January 1 to December 24)
Best Magazine Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.
• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat (January 6 to December 31) • Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon (Internet; January 1 to December 31) • Furry Writers’ Guild, edited by Literalgrill. (Internet, January to December ) (Monthly publication of the FWG, sponsors of the COYOTL awards) • Pocari Roo, YouTube videos (January 11 to December 25) • Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd (Internet; Issue 6 – 9)
Best Published Illustration Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.
• A_Blue_Deer, A Night At The Fair (FurAffinity, October 10) • Ashley A Adams, Sir Monty, The Good Boy (Artstation, August 11) • Bubblewolf, Paintwork (Furaffinity, August 4) • Foxer421, “TAKE OFF YOUR HEADSET!!” (Twitter, November 28) • Lofi, Cheers (Furaffinity, January 24)
Best Game Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Developer and Publisher: Nintendo; March 20) • Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (Developer: Toys for Bob, Publisher: Activision; October 2) • Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Developer and Publisher: Moon Studios; March 11) • Spiritfarer (Developer and Publisher: Thunder Lotus Games; August 17) • Them’s Fightin’ Herds (Developer: Mane6, Publisher: Humble Games; April 30)
Best Website Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.
• Fur Affinity, Furry art and stories • Furry Life Online, Furry online community • Loona Moonlight_howling_666, Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss character. • SoFurry, Furry art • Stolas daddy_hoothoot, Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss character.
Anthropomorphic Costume (Fursuit)
• Cassidy Civet, Maker: Blue Wolf Studios, Owner/Wearer: Cassidy Civet, Photographed at VancouFur 2020, March 7. • Inutami Luki the Saluki, Maker: Kotoori Works, Owner/Wearer: Inutami Luki, Displayed Online August 7. • Toriel, Maker/Owner/Wearer: Nautilus2000, Displayed online on September 12. • Xif, Maker/Owner/Wearer: lutamesta, Displayed on the Japan Fursuit Creators runway August 28. • Zigc the Khajiit, Maker: Inerri Creatures, Owner/Wearer: Zigc The Khagiit, Displayed online July 3.
…But in the hands of an author like Ursula Le Guin, science fiction ‘isn’t really about the future’, as she put it in The Last Interview. ‘It’s about the present.’ It changes one or two structuring facts about the world as it is and asks: ‘What would humans do if this and this were true?’ The questions Le Guin asked were big, and her answers to them were subtle. Half a century ago she wondered: ‘What if people were gender-neutral most of the time, but changed between male and female at random when they came on heat, so that you could write sentences like “The King was pregnant”?’ (as in her Left Hand of Darkness). Or, ‘what if a capitalist planet had a moon on which there was a society with no laws and no private ownership?’ (as in her Dispossessed). Alongside these large questions her fiction also poses less visible challenges to its readers. Are you so unconsciously racist that you didn’t notice this woman or this wizard was brown-skinned? Didn’t you realise that the person you thought was an alien is actually from Earth?
For Le Guin these questions almost always led back to one core idea about people. They get stuff wrong even when they want to get it right, and the more they think they’re in control the worse the mistakes they’re likely to make. In The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction (first published in 1988 and now reissued with a thoughtful introduction by Donna Haraway), she described her writing as a ‘great heavy sack of stuff, my carrier bag full of wimps and klutzes … full of beginnings without ends … full of space ships that get stuck, missions that fail and people who don’t understand’. Her modesty downplays how deeply her fiction gets inside the darker parts of the human mind….
Amazon.com and the “Big Five” publishers – Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster – have been accused of colluding to fix ebook prices, in a class action filed by the law firm that successfully sued Apple and the Big Five on the same charge 10 years ago.
The lawsuit, filed in district court in New York on Thursday by Seattle firm Hagens Berman, on behalf of consumers in several US states, names the retail giant as the sole defendant but labels the publishers “co-conspirators”. It alleges Amazon and the publishers use a clause known as “Most Favored Nations” (MFN) to keep ebook prices artificially high, by agreeing to price restraints that force consumers to pay more for ebooks purchased on retail platforms that are not Amazon.com.
The lawsuit claims that almost 90% of all ebooks sold in the US are sold on Amazon, in addition to over 50% of all print books. The suit alleges that ebook prices dropped in 2013 and 2014 after Apple and major publishers were successfully sued for conspiring to set ebook prices, but rose again after Amazon renegotiated their contracts in 2015….
(3) URSA MAJOR AWARDS. [Item by N.] The furries are at it again. No virus can hold them down. I mean this as a positive. Nominations for the 2020 Ursa Major Awards have opened and will continue until February 13. Click here to participate.
…We are primed for an genre mash-up of superheroes, sit-com pastiche and surreal horror. On the one hand, that is a bold move and on the other hand what we have is essentially a kind of “holodeck episode” in which familiar characters are placed in a contrasting genre for sci-fi or fantasy reasons. Your tolerance for holodeck episodes may vary but they can be fun — the bold choice here is making it the premise of the series and centring two characters who have limited time to develop their characters in the movie…
At some point in time we are going to either recast or totally CGI parts of actors if you ever want to see them younger or a prequel of a movie they were in or unfortunately great actors we have lost, maybe to ever see them again. In this specific video everyone voted to see who would play a good Princess Leia Organa in a possibly TV series/prequel in the Star Wars universe and you all picked Millie Bobby Brown from “Stranger Things” fame as well as being in “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and other things. What do you all think of her as playing the part?
Tread carefully with torch in hand, because there’s a new Dungeons & Dragons TV series reportedly around the corner — and it’s coming from a creative mind with a whiplash action pedigree.
John Wick creator and screenwriter Derek Kolstad is reportedly rolling the 20-sided dice as the newly-recruited writer for a live-action D&D series from Hasbro & eOne, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Kolstad, who helped propel Keanu Reeves to new levels of action stardom as the mind behind John Wick’s fast-paced brand of slick secret-society infighting, will reportedly write and develop a pitch for the as-yet unnamed D&D series.
(7) MISSING INGREDIENT. Don’t hold your breath expecting it to happen, but Tim Allen would still like to do the film. “Tim Allen Offers Update on Galaxy Quest 2” at ComicBook.com.
…”It’s a fabulous script,” Allen said in an interview with EW, “but it had a hiccup because the wonderful Alan Rickman passed. So it all got very sad and dark because [the script] was all about [Lazrus] and Taggart. It was all about their story. It doesn’t mean they can’t reboot the idea, and the underlying story was hysterical and fun….I haven’t reached out to anybody in the last week, but we talk about it all the time. There is constantly a little flicker of a butane torch that we could reboot it with. Without giving too much away, a member of Alan’s Galaxy Quest family could step in and the idea would still work.”
Allen also maintained that the years between the film and now, or five years from now, wouldn’t have any huge effect on their ability to make the sequel either, adding: “[The sequel] could happen now or in five years and it doesn’t matter at all because when you travel at light speed, when you come back it can be like only 20 minutes, but 20 years have passed, right? That part is wonderful for the sci-fi freak in me. But right now it’s in a holding pattern.”
(8) MEDIA ANNIVERSARY.
2001 — Twenty years ago, Greg Bear’s Darwin’s Radio wins the Nebula Award and would also win the Endeavour Award. It was nominated for the Locus and Campbell Awards as well the same year. It was followed by a sequel, Darwin’s Children which would receive nominations for the Arthur C. Clarke, Locus, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]
January 16, 1895 – Nat Schachner. Chemist, lawyer, author. President of American Rocket Society. Director of public relations, Nat’l Council of Jewish Women. History and historical fiction e.g. The Mediaeval Universities, biographies of Burr, Hamilton, Jefferson, The Wanderer about Dante and Beatrice. For us two novels, a hundred shorter stories. (Died 1955) [JH]
Born January 16, 1905 — Festus Pragnell. Ok, he’s here not because he had all that a distinguished a career as a writer or illustrator, but because of the charming story one fan left us of his encounter with him which you can read here. Festus himself wrote but three novels (The Green Man of Kilsona, The Green Man of Graypec, and The Terror from Timorkal), plus he wrote a series of stories about Don Hargreaves’ adventures on Mars. Be prepared to pay dearly if you want to read him as he’s not made it into the digital age and exists mostly in the original Amazing Stories only. (Died 1977.) (CE)
Born January 16, 1943 — Michael Atwell. He appeared in Doctor Who twice, first in a Second Doctor story, “The Ice Warriors”, and later in the in the Sixth Doctor story, “Attack of the Cybermen.” He also voiced Goblin in the Labyrinth film, and had a recurring role in Dinotopia. (Died 2006.) (CE)
Born January 16, 1945 – Russell Letson, age 76. Journalist and technical writer. Plays acoustic guitar, wrote about Hawaiian slack-key (Aloha Guitar, 2014). Taught English awhile. Book reviewer for Locus since 1990. Introduced the Gregg Press edition of Leiber’s Wanderer. Filer. [JH]
Born January 16, 1946 – Mike Horvat, age 75. Printer by trade. Co-founder of Slanapa (the Slanderous Amateur Press Ass’n). Donated his fanzine collection to Univ. Iowa, see here. Active in apas outside our field, a decades-longer tradition; founded the American Private Press Ass’n, was its Librarian until 2005. Also amateur radio, postage stamps. [JH]
Born January 16, 1948 — John Carpenter, 73. My favorite films by him? Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York. His gems include the Halloween franchise, The Thing, Starman (simply wonderful), The Philadelphia Experiment, Ghosts of Mars and many other films. What do you consider him to done that you like, or don’t like for that matter? I’m not fond of Escape from L.A. as I keep comparing to the stellar popcorn film that the previous Escape film is. (CE)
Born January 16, 1952 – Cy Chauvin, age 69. Fan Guest of Honor at Fan Fair III, at Lunacon 27, see here. Edited the Wayne Third Foundation’s clubzine. Co-founded MISHAP. Stippler. Reviewed for Amazing. Anthologies A Multitude of Visions (criticism), The Tale That Wags the God (Blish’s only). Letters, essays, fanart, in Algol, Janus, Matrix, NY Rev SF, Riverside Quarterly, SF Commentary, Vector. [JH]
Born January 16, 1958 – Marla Frazee, age 63. Illustrated It Takes a Village, three dozen more including eight Borrowers, wrote some of them. Two Caldecott Honors, Boston Globe – Horn Book Award. “Study the genre and the best books of the time. Read all the time. Read everything you can. Be passionate and honest about what you are doing and why you are doing it.” Has a little Free Library in her front yard. Here is The Planetoid of Amazement. Here is Bed-Knob and Broomstick. Here is The Farmer and the Monkey. [JH]
Born January 16, 1961 – Karen McQuestion, age 60. Eight novels for us, a dozen others, sold a million copies. “I believe in almost everything, which makes the world seem both miraculous & terrifying.” Her home-office has a mahogany desk, a recliner, bookcases, framed prints from one of her illustrators, and an electric fireplace “which some of my family think is tacky, but I don’t care.” [JH]
Born January 16, 1968 – Rebecca Stead, age 53. Lawyer, married another; spent a few years as a public defender. Vassar woman (as was my grandmother). Newbery Medal; The Guardian prize (first winner outside the Commonwealth). For us, four novels including both of those prizewinners, one shorter story. [JH]
Born January 16, 1970 — Garth Ennis, 51. Comic writer who’s no doubt best known for Preacher which he did with illustrator Steve Dillon, and his stellar nine-year run on the Punisher franchise. I’m very fond of his work on Judge Dredd which is extensive, and his time spent scripting Etrigan the Demon For DC back in the mid Nineties. What by him should I be reading? (CE)
Born January 16, 1974 — Kate Moss, 47. Yes, she’s done SF. To be precise Black Adder which we discussed a bit earlier. She played Maid Marian in “Blackadder Back & Forth” in which as IMDB puts it “At a New Millennium Eve party, Blackadder and Baldrick test their new time machine and ping pong through history encountering famous characters and changing events rather alarmingly.” You can watch it here. (CE)
Born January 16, 1976 — Eva Habermann, 45. She is best known for playing the role of Zev Bellringer on Lexx. She was succeeded in her role by Xenia Seeberg. Ok, I’ll confess that I’ve never seen the series which I know exists in both R and not so R versions. Who here has seen it in either form? She was also Ens. Johanna Pressler in Star Command, a pilot that wasn’t to be a series that was written by Melinda Snodgrass. And she had a role in the Code Name: Eternity series as Dr. Rosalind Steiner. (CE)
Editor’s note: This advisory was updated Jan. 16 to update the window for the hot fire test, as well as start time for NASA TV coverage. Because test preparation is running ahead of schedule, NASA TV coverage will begin at 3:20 p.m. EST for a test start time of 4 p.m.
NASA is targeting a two-hour test window that opens at 4 p.m. EST Saturday, Jan. 16, for the hot fire test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Live coverage will begin at 3:20 p.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website, followed by a post-test briefing approximately two hours after the test concludes.
(11) JEOPARDY! John King Tarpinian proudly snapped this while watching Jeopardy! on Friday night.
(12) LOCAL CHOW. BBC Sounds has audio of The Food Chain episode “The arctic eating adventure”. Andrew Porter urges everyone to listen to the show and watch the linked video.
When the only road into her town was blocked by a landslide, documentary filmmaker Suzanne Crocker was shocked by how quickly supermarket shelves went bare. It set her mind racing; would her remote Canadian town – just 300km from the Arctic circle – be capable of sustaining itself? She decided to undertake a radical experiment: an entire year of eating 100% local.
Emily Thomas hears how she grew, hunted, foraged and negotiated her way through the seasons with a cupboard bare of salt, sugar and caffeine. How did she persuade three hungry teenagers to come on board, and what did a year of eating local do to family dynamics?
Suzanne’s film about the experience is available on FirstWeEat.ca until February 1.
Rob Wolf: The book opens with a heat wave in the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh. We see it unfold through the eyes of a Western aid worker, Frank May. Could you talk about what happens, what this disaster is and how it sets the story in motion?
Kim Stanley Robinson: I began to read about wet-bulb temperatures, which is a heat index that combines heat and humidity. Everybody who watches weather channels is already familiar with heat indexes, and everybody who lives in humid areas knows about the heat and humidity in combination. There’s been discussion amongst a certain portion of the people trying to think about climate change that maybe we just have to adapt to higher global average temperatures. They aren’t so worried about crossing the 2-degree centigrade Celsius rise in global average temperature and all that. We’ll go to three. We’ll go to four. We’ll just adapt.
But the problem is this wet-bulb 35 is only about 95 degrees Fahrenheit, plus 100 percent humidity, and human bodies can’t deal. They die. You would have to be in air conditioning. And in heat waves like that, power systems and grids often fail, in which case there would be mass deaths. There’s been a wet-bulb 34s all over the tropics and even in the Chicago area, and a few wet-bulb 35s have already been seen for an hour or two across the globe. They’re going to be more and more common.
What it suggested to me was that we can’t actually adapt to a three- or four-degree average rise because we’ll be getting these heat waves that will be deadly and power grids will fail and millions will die. So I thought, well, okay, let’s follow that thought into a novel where one of these happens and everything gets radicalized, everything goes crazy. What would that look like? And can I start from that and actually thirty years later come to a better place?
(14) TROLL BRIDGE ‘CAUSE WE’RE COMIN’ TO A TOWN. Snowgum Films has posted their 2019 Pratchett tribute Troll Bridge: The Moving Pictureon YouTube.
Cohen the Barbarian was angry. Angry that he never died in battle, angry that the world had forgotten him, and angry that his knees were starting to play up in the cold. He was also angry that his faithful mount had been gifted the ability of magical speech. The horse was insisting that they had made a wrong turn back at Slice. He was also angry that the horse was probably right. This was not how it was supposed to end for the barbarian. This was not how the Discworld’s greatest hero imagined it at all.
(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. In “Godzilla–The Soul of Japan” on YouTube, Kaptain Kristian says the original Japanese version of Godzilla was a powerful anti-nuclear allegory (Godzilla’s head is shaped like a mushroom cloud, and he has no scales so his skin looks like radiation burns) but the film was re-shot and censored for its substantially different American release.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, N., Danny Sichel, Nina Shepardson, John Hertz, JJ, Mike Kennedy, Cat Eldridge, Martin Morse Wooster, Andrew Porter, and Michael Toman for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jack Lint.]
The 2019 Ursa Major Awards winners were announced May 23 (in a video that confusingly labels them the 2020 awards.)
More than 1100 fans nominated and voted this year.
Best Motion Picture Live-action or animated feature-length movies.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Directed by Rob Letterman; May 3)
Best Dramatic Series or Short Work TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.
Beastars (Directed by Shinichi Matsumi) Episode 1, October 8, 2019 (Japan)
Best Novel Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.
Fair Trade, by Gre7g Luterman
Best Short Fiction Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.
This Dog For Hire, by Mary E. Lowd, in Jove Deadly’s Lunar Detective Agency
Best Other Literary Work Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.
Fang 10, edited by Kyell Gold and Sparf
Best Graphic Story Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
Beastars: Volume 12-16, by Itagaki Paru
Best Comic Strip Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
Housepets!, by Rick Griffin
Best Magazine Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.
Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat
Best Published Illustration Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.
Moth Monarch, Furnal Equinox 2019 T-shirt design
Best Game Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
Untitled Goose Game
Best Website Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.
Fur Affinity
Because there were insufficient qualifying nominations, there was no Non-Fiction Work or Fursuit category this year.
The 2019 Ursa Major Awards final ballot is open for voting from
March 1 to March 31 on the UMA website.
The 2019 Nominees
Best Motion Picture Live-action or animated feature-length movies.
Avengers: Endgame (Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo; April 26)
Frozen 2 (Directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck; November 22)
Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Directed by Rob Letterman; May 3)
Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling (Directed by Joe Murray and Cosmo Serguson; August 9)
Toy Story 4 (Directed by Josh Cooley; June 21)
Best Dramatic Series or Short Work TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.
Aggretsuko, Season 2 (Directed by Rarecho)
Amphibia (Directed by Bert Youn and Derek Kirk Kim)
Beastars (Directed by Shinichi Matsumi) Episode 1, October 8, 2019 (Japan)
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart (Written and Storyboarded by Phil Ahn, Allison Craig, Nathanael H. Jones, Griffith Kimmins, Alexandria Kwan, Nora Meek, Michael Moloney, Emily Oetzell, Parker Simmons, and Chris Ybarra)
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Season 9 (Directed by Denny Lu, Mike Myhre, and Gillian Comerford)
Best Novel Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for
the year that the final chapter is published.
Darwin-sensei, Kemono Musume-tachi ga Gakuen de Omochi desu!, by Daisaburo Nonoue
Fair Trade, by Gre7g Luterman
Nexus Nine, by Mary E. Lowd
Off The Mark, by Bernard Doove and Jeff Hartt
Red Skies, by GS Cole and NC Shapero
Best Short Fiction Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.
Black Out In Space, by Mary E. Lowd
Bourbon Jack, by Linnea Capps
Ecto-Cafe, by Mary E. Lowd
The Move, by Kristi Brooks
This Dog For Hire, by Mary E. Lowd, in Jove Deadly’s Lunar Detective Agency
Best Other Literary Work Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and
serialized online stories.
Fang 10, edited by Kyell Gold and Sparf
Heat 16, edited by Alopex and Dark End
Jove Deadly’s Lunar Detective Agency, by Garrett Marco and Mary E. Lowd
ROAR Volume 10, edited by Mary E. Lowd
The Rabbit Dies First, edited by Ryan Campbell
Tri-Galactic Trek, edited by Mary E. Lowd
Best Graphic Story Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
Beastars: Volume 12-16, by Itagaki Paru
The Dreamkeepers, by David & Liz Lillie
Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler
Shine, by Babystar
Slightly Damned, by Chu
Best Comic Strip Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg
Doc Rat, by Jenner
Freefall, by Mark Stanley
Friends You Are Stuck With, by Gabe Bold
Housepets!, by Rick Griffin
Best Magazine Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people,
professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or
audio-visual form.
Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat
Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon
Up Fur Review, podcast by Jaden Drackus, TJ Minde, and Mog K. Moogle
Virginity Clan, YouTube videos
Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd
Best Published Illustration Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for
such, coffee-table portfolios.
Idess, Jove Deadly’s Lunar Detective Agency book cover
Moth Monarch, Furnal Equinox 2019 T-shirt design
Moth Monarch, Surf Pacific Anthrocon 2019 banner and conbook art
Silfoe, Off The Mark book cover
Teagan Gavet, Tri-Galactic Trek book cover
Best Game Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
Blacksad: Under The Skin
Kingdom Hearts III
Pokémon: Sword and Shield
Untitled Goose Game
Winds of Change
Best Website Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational
works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal
sites.
e621.net
Fur Affinity
Inkbunny
Newgrounds
WikiFur
Because there were insufficient qualifying nominations, there will
not be a Non-Fiction Work or Fursuit category this year.
Best
Motion Picture Live-action or animated feature-length movies.
Isle of Dogs (Directed by Wes
Anderson; April 13)
Best
Dramatic Series or Short Work TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.
Aggretsuko (Directed by Rarecho,
episodes 1-10)
Best
Novel Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify
only for the year that the final chapter is published.
Small World, by Gre7g Luterman.
(Thurston Howl Publications; April 23)
Best
Short Fiction Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written
works.
Uri’s Bitterweet Story, by
Uranium 235. (CrossTime Cafe; December 9)
Best
Other Literary Work Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction
works, and serialized online stories.
What the Fox!, edited by Fred Patten.
(Thurston Howl Publications; March 6) both trade paperback and deluxe editions
Best
Non-Fiction Work Includes documentaries, opinion pieces, and news articles.
Furries | Down the Rabbit Hole
(Created by Fredrik Knudsen, August 13)
Best
Graphic Story Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler
(internet; Lackadaisy Liaison to Lackadaisy Overdrive)
Best
Comic Strip Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
Carry On, by Kathy Garrison
Kellogg (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
Best
Magazine Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by
various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in
written, pictorial or audio-visual form.
Culturally F’d
(YouTube videos, Sonic OC Rusty Knucklesfur to Fursuit History Part 5: Cosplay)
Best
Published Illustration Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books,
cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.
Caraid, Pirates!, website header for Furry
Weekend Atlanta 2019, April 12
Best
Game Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
Deltarune: Chapter 1
(Developer: Toby Fox, October 31)
Best
Website Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or
informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs,
and personal sites.
e621.net (art, discussions, etc.)
Best
Fursuit Anthropomorphic costumes.
SonicFox, worn at Esports Award.
Costume by Yamishizen/Fursuit Enterprise.
The 2018 Ursa Major
Awards final ballot is open for voting from March 1 to March 31 on the UMA website.
The winners will be
announced at a presentation ceremony at AnthrOhio,
to be held in Columbus, OH from May 23-26.
The 2018 Nominees
Best
Motion Picture Live-action or animated feature-length movies.
Avengers: Infinity War (Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo; April 27)
Isle of Dogs (Directed by Wes Anderson; April 13)
Mary Poppins Returns (Directed by Rob Marshall; December 19)
Peter Rabbit (Directed by Will Gluck; February 9)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman; December 14)
Best
Dramatic Series or Short Work TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.
Aggretsuko (Directed by Rarecho, episodes 1-10)
Bojack Horseman (Directed by John Aoshima, Dana Terrace; Season 1, August 12 to December 2)
Brush: A Fox Tale (Directed by Willi Anton and Faustina Arriola; May 12)
DuckTales (Directed by John Aoshima, Matthew Humphreys, and Dana Terrace, Episode 10 to 30)
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by Denny Lu and Mike Myhre, Season 8 Episode 1 to My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever)
Best
Novel Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for
the year that the final chapter is published.
Cosmic Lotus, by Bernard Doove (CreateSpace; June 26)
Once A Dog, by Shaune Lafferty Webb. (Jaffa Books; May 7)
Small World, by Gre7g Luterman. (Thurston Howl Publications; April 23)
The Snake’s Song, by Mary E. Lowd. (ShadowSpinners Press; March 13)
Voyage of the Dogs, by Greg van Eekhout. (HarperCollins; September)
Best
Short Fiction Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.
The Beating of Wild Hooves, by Dwale. (In CLAW, volume 1, July) Mature Audiences
Come To Todor!, by Fred Patten. (In Exploring New Places, FurPlanet Productions; July 5)
A Legend in His Own Time, by Fred Patten. (In What the Fox?!, Thurston Howl Publications; March 6)
Of Starwhals and Spaceships, by Mary E. Lowd. (In Daily Science Fiction; January 31)
Uri’s Bitterweet Story, by Uranium 235. (CrossTime Cafe; December 9)
Best
Other Literary Work Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and
serialized online stories.
CLAW Volume 1, edited by K.C. Alpinus. (FurPlanet Productions, July 5)
Heat 15, produced by Dark End, Teagan Gavet. (Sofawolf Press, July 5) Mature Audiences
ROAR 9, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions, July)
Tales From the Guild: World Tour, edited by Ocean Tigrox. (FurPlanet Productions, story anthology, July)
What the Fox!, edited by Fred Patten. (Thurston Howl Publications; March 6) both trade paperback and deluxe editions
Best
Non-Fiction Work Includes documentaries, opinion pieces, and news articles.
The Day the Fandom Died – November 12th, 2018 – Loss of a creator and a super fan (Rooview, November 25)
Furries Assist, help lead to arrest of Levi “SnakeThing” Simmons (Rooview, October 28)
Furries | Down the Rabbit Hole (Created by Fredrik Knudsen, August 13)
Fursuit History (Culturally F’d, videos; parts 1 to 5, February 16 to December 11)
This is Life with Lisa Ling: Furry Nation (CNN, video; November 18)
Best
Graphic Story Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
The Dreamkeepers, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 5 [#386] to December 15 [#432])
DreamKeepers Prelude, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 5 [#394] to December 15 [#428])
Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler (internet; Lackadaisy Liaison to Lackadaisy Overdrive)
Rising Sand, by Ty Dunitz and Jenn Lee (internet; March 7 [RS057] to September 12 [RS083])
Scurry, by Mac Smith. (Internet; January 4 to December 31)
Best
Comic Strip Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
Doc Rat, by Jenner (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
Freefall, by Mark Stanley. (Internet; #3065 to 3221)
Part Time Dragons, by Spike Parra and Donna Vu (Internet; March 28 to December 30)
The Whiteboard, by Doc Nickel. (Internet, January to December)
Best
Magazine Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people,
professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or
audio-visual form.
Culturally F’d (YouTube videos, Sonic OC Rusty Knucklesfur to Fursuit History Part 5: Cosplay)
Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat. (Internet; January 2 to December 31)
Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon. (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
Moms of Furries (YouTube videos, Moms of Furries Our First Con to How Do You Tell Them Start With the Art)
South Afrifur Pawdcast (You Tube videos, January to December)
Best
Published Illustration Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for
such, coffee-table portfolios.
Ashley Ash, Will You Be My Valentine February 14
Tracy Butler, Murder in Surfer’s Paradise, cover of FurDU 2018 convention souvenir book, May 6
Caraid, Pirates!, website header for Furry Weekend Atlanta 2019, April 12
Demicoeur, cover for Exploring New Places edited by Fred Patten, FurPlanet Productions, July 5
Teagan Gavet, cover for CLAW Volume 1, edited by K.C. Alpinus,FurPlanet Productions, July 5
Best
Game Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
Deltarune: Chapter 1 (Developer: Toby Fox, October 31)
Detective Pikachu (English release) (Developer: Creatures, Publisher: Nintendo and The Pokémon Company; March 23)
Ghost of a Tale (Developer and Publisher: SeithCG; March 13)
Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! (Developer: Game Freak, Publisher(s): The Pokémon Company and Nintendo, November 16)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Developer, Toys for Bob, Publisher, Activision, November 13)
Best
Website Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational
works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal
sites.
e621.net (art, discussions, etc.)
Furry Writers’ Guild (Supporting, informing, elevating, and promoting quality anthropomorphic fiction and its creators)
Inkbunny (furry art community)
Lackadaisy.com
WikiFur (furry fandom encyclopedia)
Best
Fursuit Anthropomorphic costumes.
Penelope, made by Dludnerad (AKA Tamara Carmichael) and Paul Kidd, owner Paul Kidd.
Ravtrag, made by Suit-a-dile.
SonicFox, worn at Esports Award. Costume by Yamishizen/Fursuit Enterprise.
Zabivaka, FIFA World Cup Mascot 2018
Note: Kyell Gold withdrew from
consideration for the Novel and Short Story categories. He wrote on his blog Fur Affinity:
…There is precedent in other awards for frequent winners stepping back. One of the people on the Ursa Major committee told me that in a musical award, when someone wins three years in a row, they are retired from that category by the award. That’s not how the Ursas work: they have been very hands-off and admirably resistant to public opinion. When Stan Sakai won the Best Comic award multiple years running, they assured people that in time, other comics would win, and they were right. In response to my multiple wins, they have assured people that, in time, other authors will win. I have no doubt that they are correct, given the profusion of talent in the fandom. In fact, each of the last two years I have been convinced I would not win one of the two awards (perhaps neither). But I have also observed that it would probably be better for the writing scene if that day comes sooner rather than later.
Ultimately, what it comes down to is this: I’ve won a dozen awards over seven years. I know you guys love me and my books. 🙂 But I’d like to help the fandom’s literary scene mature, and part of that is showcasing more of the authors that are doing really good work. My name’s already up there in the lists; let’s see some of the other people….
The 2017 Ursa Major Awards were announced at FurDU 2018 at Gold Coast City, Queensland, Australia on May 4-6.
Best Motion Picture Live-action or animated feature-length movies.
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (Directed by James Gunn; May 5)
Best Dramatic Series or Short Work TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.
Duck Tales [2017 reboot] (Directed by John Aoshima, Dana Terrace; Season 1, August 12 to December 2)
Best Novel Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.
The Wayward Astronomer, by Geoffrey Thomas (Corvus Publishing; May 9)
Best Short Fiction Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.
Lieutenant Kruger and the Mistress Jade Trophy Game, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (in The Cross Time Cafe; October 5)
Best Other Literary Work Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.
Dogs of War, edited by Fred Patten (anthology; FurPlanet Productions; January 12)
Best Non-Fiction Work Includes documentaries, opinion pieces, and news articles.
Furry Nation, by Joe Strike (Cleis Press; October 10)
Best Graphic Story Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
DreamKeepers, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 2 [#340] to December 18 [#385])
Best Comic Strip Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
Housepets!, by Rick Griffin (Internet; January 2 to December 29)
Best Magazine Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.
Dogpatch Press, ed. by Patch Packrat (Internet; January 5 to December 25)
Best Published Illustration Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.
David Lillie, cover for The Wayward Astronomer, by Geoffrey Thomas (Corvus Publishing; May 9)
Best Game Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
Night in the Woods (Developer: Infinite Fall, Publisher: Finji; February 21)
Best Website Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.
The 2017 Ursa Major Awards final ballot is open for voting from March 1 to March 31 on the UMA website.
The winners will be announced at a presentation ceremony at FurDU 2018 at Gold Coast City, Queensland, Australia on May 4-6.
Best Motion Picture Live-action or animated feature-length movies.
Ferdinand (Directed by Carlos Saldanha; December 15)
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (Directed by James Gunn; May 5)
My Little Pony: The Movie (Directed by Jayson Thiessen; October 6)
Rock Dog (Directed by Ash Brannon; February 24)
War for the Planet of the Apes (Directed by Matt Reeves; July 14)
Best Dramatic Series or Short Work TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.
Doodle Toons (Directed by Jack C; Pilot episode to “Deleted Scene: Fast Food Follies”)
Duck Tales [2017 reboot] (Directed by John Aoshima, Dana Terrace; Season 1, August 12 to December 2)
Here’s the Plan (Directed by Fernanda Frick; April 27)
Kouka and Bibi (by Dan Variano; January 8)
Mascot Fur Life (Directed by Jens Wernstedt; December 23)
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by Jim Miller, Tim Stuby, Denny Lu, Mike Myhre; Season 7, episodes 1 to 26)
OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes (Directed by Hwang Ki-hoo, Chang-woo Shin, Sunjae Lee, Byungjae Oh, Eunyung Byun, Sunhung Kim; Season 1 Episode 1 to 42)
Best Novel Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.
Always Gray in Winter, by Mark J. Engels (Thurston Howl Publications; August 10)
Black Friday, by Jan Stryvant (CreateSpace; September 8)
Kismet, by Watts Martin (Argyll Productions, FurPlanet Productions; January 12)
Otters in Space III: Octopus Ascending, by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions; June 30)
The Wayward Astronomer, by Geoffrey Thomas (Corvus Publishing; May 9)
Best Short Fiction Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.
Behesht, by Dwale (in ROAR volume 8; June 30)
Beyond the Great Divide, by S. H. Mansouri (in Cirsova Heroic Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine #5; Spring 2017)
Lieutenant Kruger and the Mistress Jade Trophy Game, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (in The Cross Time Cafe; October 5)
The Moon Like an Unhatched Egg, by Mary E. Lowd (in Symbol of a Nation; June 30)
Rickety V, by Rechan (in Intimate Little Secrets; March 24)
Best Other Literary Work Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.
Arcana: A Tarot Anthology, edited by Madison Scott-Clary (anthology; Thurston Howl Publications; November 9)
Dogs of War, edited by Fred Patten (anthology; FurPlanet Productions; January 12)
Intimate Little Secrets, by Rechan (collection; FurPlanet Productions; March 24)
ROAR volume 8, edited by Mary E. Lowd (anthology; Bad Dog Books; June 30)
Symbol of a Nation, edited by Fred Patten (anthology; GoAL Publications; June 30)
Best Non-Fiction Work Includes documentaries, opinion pieces, and news articles.
Furries Among Us 2; More Essays On Furries By Furries, edited by Thurston Howl (Thurston Howl Productions; August 18)
Furry Fandom Conventions, 1989-2015, by Fred Patten (McFarland & Co.; January 3))
Furry Nation, by Joe Strike (Cleis Press; October 10)
The Shocking Furry Fandom Conversation. Yes, Really! (on YouTube, featuring Stefan Molyneux; October 16)
3 Ursa Major-ly Painful Victories, by Rooview (on YouTube; April 23)
Best Graphic Story Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
A&H Club, by Rick Griffin (Internet; January 7 to November 25)
DreamKeepers, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 2 [#340] to December 18 [#385])
Endtown, by Aaron Neathery (Internet; January 2 to December 25)
Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler (internet; Lackadaisy Gimmickry to Lackadaisy Deliria)
TwoKinds, by Tom Fischbach (internet; January 5 to December 28)
Best Comic Strip Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (Internet; January 1 to December 29)
Doc Rat, by Jenner (Internet; January 4 to December 29)
DreamKeepers Prelude, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 6 [#350] to December 28 [#393])
Freefall, by Mark Stanley (Internet; January 2 to December 29)
Housepets!, by Rick Griffin (Internet; January 2 to December 29)
Best Magazine Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.
Dogpatch Press, ed. by Patch Packrat (Internet; January 5 to December 25)
Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon (Internet; January 1 to December 30)
FurryFandom.es, edited by Mike Retriever (Internet; February 19 to October 9)
InFurNation, ed. by Rod O’Riley (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
Typewriter Emergencies: A Journal of Furry Lit, edited by Weasel (Weasel Press; May)
Best Published Illustration Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.
Bone, cover for Always Gray in Winter by Mark J. Engels (Thurston Howl Publications; August 10)
Baron Engel, Prepare to Engage the Enemy, cover for A Different Perspective by Bernard Doove (June 8)
Ashley Foy, Valentine’s Gifts (February 14)
Teagan Gavet, cover for Dogs of War, edited by Fred Patten (FurPlanet Productions; January 12)
Teagan Gavet, cover for ROAR vol, 8, edited by Mary E. Lowd (Bad Dog Books; June 30)
Idess, cover for Otters in Space III: Octopus Ascending, by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions; June 30)
David Lillie, cover for The Wayward Astronomer, by Geoffrey Thomas (Corvus Publishing; May 9)
Best Game Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
Cuphead (Developer and Publisher: StudioMDHR Entertainment; September 29)
Night in the Woods (Developer: Infinite Fall, Publisher: Finji; February 21)
Sonic Mania (Developer: PagodaWest Games and Headcannon, Publisher: Sega; August 15)
Star Fox 2 (Developer: Nintendo and Argonaut Games, Publisher: Nintendo; September 29)
Yooka – Laylee (Developers: Playtonic Games; April 11)
Best Website Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.
The Cross Time Cafe (forum for comic discussions, including many on the Recommended List)
e621.com (art, discussions, etc.))
Furry Writers’ Guild (Supporting, informing, elevating, and promoting quality anthropomorphic fiction and its creators)
Nominations for the 2017 Ursa Major Awards have begun and will continue until February 15. Click here to participate.
To be eligible, a work must include a non-human being given human attributes (anthropomorphic), which can be mental and/or physical (for example the intelligent rabbits in Watership Down for the former, and Bugs Bunny for the latter.) Simply including an animal character is not sufficient to qualify. Non-animal characters such as Wall-E are also anthropomorphic.
The awards are selected by a two-stage process of nominating and voting. Members of the public send in up to five nominations in each of the categories. The top five nominees in each category (more in case of a tie) are then presented on a final ballot for a public vote.
The twelve categories are: Motion Picture, Dramatic Short Work or Series, Novel, Short Fiction, Other Literary Work, Graphic Novel, Comic Strip, Magazine, Nonfiction, Published Illustration, Website, and Game.
Many nominations are likely to come from the 2017 Recommended Anthropomorphic Reading List, which has been built up through prior recommendations. However, inclusion on the List is not necessary for nomination if a work is otherwise eligible; first published during January to December 2017.
The final ballot will be announced on March 1 and voting will take place until the end of March.
The ballots will be counted, the trophies made, and the results will be announced at the award presentations in Surfer’s Paradise, Queensland, at FurDU 2018, scheduled for May 4-6.
