100 Year Starship presented the 2023 Canopus Awards for Excellence in Interstellar Writing in seven categories on February 2 during the 100YSS Nexus 2023 held in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Canopus Award recognizes the finest fiction and non-fiction works that engage broad audiences and enhance the understanding, excitement, and knowledge of interstellar space exploration and travel. This year’s theme was “Who Owns Space?” Writers were invited to explore the possible paths ahead in space, to help identify how various actions, technology focuses, policies, individuals, and communities, and even the stories we tell over the next ten years may indelibly fix space exploration objectives, gatekeepers, and benefits for decades into the future.

Published Long-Form Fiction

• Sentient by Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Hernandez Walta, 2019 (TKO)

Published Short-Form Fiction

• “The Hind” by Kevin J. Anderson and Rick Wilber, 2020, originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction

Published Long-Form Nonfiction

• A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars by Les Johnson, 2022 (Princeton University Press)

Published Short-Form Nonfiction

• “Language Development During Interstellar Travel” by Alex McKenzie and J. Punske, 2020, originally published in Acta Futura

Published Digital Presentation

• Ixion by Bulwark Studios, 2022, (Kasedo Games)

Original Short-Form Fiction

• “The Living Archaeologist” by Jamiella Brooks

Original Local Short-form Fiction

• “Gumbojena” by Chioniso Tsikisayi, Zimbabwe

[Thanks to Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki for the story.]