100 Year Starship (100YSS) has announced the winners of the inaugural 2015 Canopus Award honoring excellence in interstellar writing.

Previously Published Long-Form Fiction 

• InterstellarNet: Enigma, Edward M. Lerner (Published by FoxAcre)

Previously Published Short-Form Fiction 

• “The Waves,” Ken Liu (Originally published in Asimov’s December 2012)

Original Fiction

• “Everett’s Awakening,” Robert Buckalew writing as Ry Yelcho

Original Non-Fiction

• “Finding Earth 2.0 from the Focus of the Solar Gravitational Lens,” Louis D. Friedman & Slava G. Turyshev

The winners were announced during Science Fiction Stories Night at 100YSS’s fourth annual public symposium in Santa Clara, CA.

Award judges included writer and 100YSS Creative and Editorial director Jason Batt; author and former Wall Street Journal reporter August Cole; Founder of International Speechwriting Associates Kathleen Colgan; teacher at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Education and Leadership, Janet DeVigne; editor Jaym Gates; 100YSS Principal and former astronaut Mae Jemison, M.D.; Chapman University creative writing student Alec Medén; Rutgers University Professor Ronke Olabisi, Ph.D.; faculty and advisor to the Singularity University David Orban; Georgia high school freshman Bailey Stanley; writer and anthropologist Juliette Wade, Ph.D.; Aeronautical and Astronautical engineer Paul Webber; journalist Sofia Webber;astrobiologist and creator of Yuri’s Night Loretta Whitesides; and,Major General Ken Wisian.

The full press release follows the jump.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

100 YEAR STARSHIP NAMES WINNERS OF FIRST ANNUAL CANOPUS AWARDSä FOR EXCELLENCE IN INTERSTELLAR WRITING

 

HOUSTON/SANTA CLARA, Calif., October 30, 2015 – 100 Year Starship (100YSS) this evening announced the winners of the inaugural 2015 Canopus Award honoring excellence in interstellar writing.  Prizes were given in four categories — Previously Published Long-Form and Short-Form Fiction, and Original Fiction and Non-Fiction — to works that contribute to the excitement, knowledge, and understanding of interstellar space exploration and travel.

The winners are:

Previously Published Long-Form Fiction 

InterstellarNet: Enigma, Edward M. Lerner (Published by FoxAcre)

 

Previously Published Short-Form Fiction 

“The Waves,” Ken Liu (Originally published in Asimov’s December 2012)

 

Original Fiction

“Everett’s Awakening,” Robert Buckalew writing as Ry Yelcho

 

Original Non-Fiction

“Finding Earth 2.0 from the Focus of the Solar Gravitational Lens,” Louis D. Friedman & Slava G. Turyshev

 

100YSS is the independent, long-term global initiative led by former astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison to ensure the capabilities for human travel beyond our solar system exist within the next 100 years and the advances are applied to enhance life here on Earth every step of the way.

The award is named for the second brightest star in the night sky, Canopus, which connects humanity’s past, present and future through fact and fantasy.  Over the millennia Canopus not only heralded planting seasons in the Rift Valley, but was a major navigation star for everyone from the Bedouin of the Sinai and the Maori of New Zealand to deep space probes like Voyager. Just as Canopus has helped explorers find their way for centuries, great writing —telling a story well ––is a guidepost for current and future interstellar achievement.

The winners were announced during Science Fiction Stories Night at 100YSS’s fourth annual public symposium held this year in the heart of Silicon Valley, at the Santa Clara Marriott in Santa Clara, Calif., October 29-November 1.

The judges include writer and 100YSS Creative and Editorial director Jason Batt; author and former Wall Street Journal reporter August Cole; Founder of International Speechwriting Associates Kathleen Colgan; teacher at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Education and Leadership, Janet DeVigne; editor Jaym Gates; 100YSS Principal and former astronaut Mae Jemison, M.D.; Chapman University creative writing student Alec Medén; Rutgers University Professor Ronke Olabisi, Ph.D.; faculty and advisor to the Singularity University David Orban; Georgia high school freshman Bailey Stanley; writer and anthropologist Juliette Wade, Ph.D.; Aeronautical and Astronautical engineer Paul Webber; journalist Sofia Webber;astrobiologist and creator of Yuri’s Night Loretta Whitesides; and,Major General Ken Wisian.

For more information about the Canopus Award, visit http://100yss.org/initiatives/canopusaward.

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 ABOUT100YEAR STARSHIP

100YearStarship (100YSS) isanindependent, non-governmental,long-terminitiative to ensure the capabilities for human interstellar flight exist as soon as possible, and definitely within the next 100 years.  100YSS was started in 2012 with seed-funding through a competitive grant from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) for the purpose of fostering the type of explosive innovation and technology and social advances born from addressing such an incredible challenge.  To foster such innovation, 100YSS engages in collaborative international programs and projects in research and innovation, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) capacity building, entrepreneurship and education projects with and between organizations, companies, universities and individuals.  Based in Houston, TX, 100YSS recently opened an affiliate in Brussels, 100YSS@EU and is in the process of developing affiliates in Africa and Asia.

About the 100YSS 2015 PUBLIC SYMPOSIUM

The 100YSS Public Symposium is a powerful four-day event of global, transdisciplinary experience of imagination, hands-on programs, thought-provoking discussions and action on the frontiers of science, civilization, space, technology, society, music, art and our present and future. The Symposium brings together experts, enthusiasts, students, celebrities, innovators, educators, and thought leaders from around the world.  2015 is the fourth Symposium and is themed around “Finding Earth 2.0”—how both the process to discover and the definitive identification of a planet outside our solar system capable of supporting Earth-based life will be game changing across the spectrum of human activities.

100YSS is part of the DorothyJemison Foundation for Excellence.  For more information, visit www.100yss.org.  To register for the 2015 Symposium, visit http://2015.symposium.100yss.org.

Find us on social media:

Facebook:            www.facebook.com/100YearStarship

Twitter:                 @100YSS

Contact:

Stephanie Hornback/Cynthia Carway

CarwayCommunications,Inc.

[email protected]

212-378-2020

@CarwayComms 

2015 Canopus Award Winners

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED LONG-FORM FICTION

InterstellarNet: Enigma, Edward M. Lerner (Published by FoxAcre)

Description of Work:

Humanity once feared that we might be alone in the universe. Now we know better. And we’ve learned there are worse things than being alone …  Joshua Matthews has the opportunity to write the definitive history of InterstellarNet. In that history he plans to focus attention on the improbability that an interstellar community even exists. Contact with other intelligent races in nearby star systems seemed to have answered the age-old question at the center of the Fermi Paradox: Where is everybody? But when Joshua Matthews lands a new job that will give him access to vast new troves of data on the subject, suddenly everything goes wrong for him. Someone is sabotaging his life. Finding out why leads in astonishing and dangerous directions. It is as if he has tugged on one thread, very gently — and caused everything humanity knows about its place in the universe to unravel.

About the Author:

A physicist and computer scientist, Edward M. Lerner worked in high tech for thirty years. He writes technothrillers and (sometimes in collaboration with NYT bestselling author Larry Niven) hard science fiction.

* * * *

 PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED SHORT-FORM FICTION

“The Waves,” Ken Liu (Originally published in Asimov’s December 2012)

Description of Work:

“The Waves” follows waves of humanity as they spread out from Earth, each succeeding wave overtaking the one before it. And so the biologically immortal are taken over by cyborgs, and mechanical post-humans are, in turn, taken over by beings of light and energy. Interwoven with the waves of humanity are also old creation myths, each of which is told in a way that echoes the particular transformation that humanity is undergoing in that section.

About the Author:

Ken’s fiction has appeared in F&SF, Asimov’s, Analog, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, andClarkesworld, among other places, and he has won the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards. He is also a frequent translator of fiction from Chinese to English, most notably The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.  Ken’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, the first in a fantasy series, was published by Saga Press, Simon & Schuster’s new genre fiction imprint, in April 2015. Saga will also publish a collection of his short stories, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, in March 2016. He lives near Boston with his family.

* * * *

ORIGINAL FICTION

“Everett’s Awakening,” Robert Buckalew writing as Ry Yelcho

Description of Work:

The first traveler to Earth 2.0 arrives and discovers humanity has already surpassed his original craft and settled the planet; humanity now is much different than the humanity that launched him.

* * * *

ORIGINAL NON-FICTION

“Finding Earth 2.0 from the Focus of the Solar Gravitational Lens,” Louis D. Friedman & Slava G. Turyshev

Description of Work:

Finding Earth 2.0 will require something more innovative than bigger propulsion or giant telescopes. The solar gravity lens focus may not just be our best chance, it may be our only chance for the foreseeable future.  It is a very powerful “instrument” that we have yet to explore. This would not be easy – but like the magnification factor, the engineering is a billion times less daunting than is interstellar flight and, if achieved, it would provide an Earth 2.0 for us on Earth 1.0.

About the Authors:

Dr. Friedman lectures in the U.S. and abroad about planetary missions and space exploration programs, has written many popular articles about planetary exploration and space policy as well as op-eds in major newspapers. He has frequently testified to the U.S. Congress about programs and policies in space exploration.  He has traveled on field expeditions to Kamchatka, the Arctic and Antarctic, tours to observe Halley’s Comet, Belize and to several places in the former Soviet Union.  Asteroid 3651 was named for Louis and Connie Friedman by its discoverer, Eleanor Helin. Recently he was co-leader of the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) Asteroid Retrieval Mission Study at Caltech.  He is also co-leader of a new KISS study: Science and Technology to Explore the Interstellar Medium.

Slava G. Turyshev is a physicist now working in the US at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He is known for his investigations of the Pioneer anomaly, affecting Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft, and for his attempt to recover early data of the Pioneer spacecraft to shed light on such a phenomenon.

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 Find us on social media

Facebook:            www.facebook.com/100YearStarship

Twitter:                 @100YSS

 

Contact:

Stephanie Hornback/Cynthia Carway

Carway Communications, Inc.

[email protected]

212-378-2020