WFSA Award Short Fiction Nominees Announced

Finalists for the 2010 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction are these stories from 2009:

  • “each thing i show you is a piece of my death” by Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer, published in Clockwork Phoenix 2, edited by Mike Allen, Norilana Books (July 2009).
  • “Images of Anna” by Nancy Kress, published in Fantasy Magazine, edited by Cat Rambo (September 2009).
  • “James and the Dark Grimoire” by Kevin Lauderdale, published in Cthulhu Unbound, edited by Thomas Brannan and John Sunseri, Permuted Press, (March 2009).
  • “Race to the Moon” by Kyell Gold, published in New Fables, Summer 2009, edited by Tim Susman, Sofawolf Press (July 2009).
  • “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster, published in Interzone (January 2009) / Apex Magazine (August 2009), edited by Andy Cox (Interzone,) / Catherynne M. Valente (Apex).
  • “Siren Beat” by Tansy Rayner Roberts, published in Twelfth Planet Press, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (October 2009).
  • “The Pirate Captain’s Daughter” by Yoon Ha Lee, published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies issue #27, 10/08/2009, edited Scott H. Andrews.
  • “The Very Difficult Diwali of Sub-Inspector Gurushankar Rajaram” by Jeff Soesbe, published in DayBreak Magazine, edited by Jetse de Vries (October 2009).

The winner is chosen by the members of the Washington Science Fiction Association, all voting done using texts with the identity of the author and publisher stripped. They hope this improves the chances of the winner being picked solely for reasons of its quality, and they’re probably right.

But who creates the pool of nominees? It’s tautological that a work can’t win unless it makes the ballot. Any room for bias to gum the works there?

Not really. According to The Rules, nominations come through a wide-open process. “Small press publishers and periodicals may nominate up to three (3) stories, published by themselves or others. A writer may nominate one (1) story, published by herself/himself or others. A WSFA member may nominate one (1) story.” Then five members of WSFA screen the submissions and produce the list of finalists.

The award will be presented at Capclave over the October 22-24 weekend.

[This is part of a continuing series titled, “It’s probably still news to someone.” Thanks to Michael Walsh for the link.]