Tag Archives: Forry Award

Jackson Accepts Forry Award

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Charles Lee Jackson II.

Charles Lee Jackson II.

Forry Award winner Charles Lee Jackson II, who received his plaque during ceremonies at Loscon on November 27, sent along his acceptance speech:

Forry Ackerman would have been pleased that I’ve received this. He and I were friends for nigh on to forty-five years; in the ‘sixties I was a fan of his publications, and in the ‘nineties he was a fan of mine.

I expect I am receiving this not for the depth but for the breadth of my contributions to science fiction: the cartoons, comic books, short stories, novels, magazine articles, convention appearances, and work around the LASFS.

I consider this as both an honor and a challenge: I don’t want someone fifty years from now looking at the list of Forry laureates and saying, “I know Bradbury, and Heinlein… but who’s this pretentious  jerk?” So I’ve got ten more books lined up for next year.

Thank you, Matthew, and my thanks to the LASFS, and to all of you for that fine round of applause.

Jackson’s books and stories are available on Amazon. To find out more about the fannish CLJII Empire of Entertainment, click here.

This year’s Forry Award was a tie between Jackson and Spider Robinson.

Spider Robinson

Spider Robinson

Robinson earlier posted his acceptance statement on his website:

I am grattered and flatified to be able to report that I have tied with Charles Lee Jackson II for this year’s Forry Award, given out in memory of the late great Forrest J. Ackerman since 1966 by the members of LASFS, the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society.

It’s a lifetime-achievement honour, and the list of previous winners is so impressive I can’t resist reproducing it here… [Click for list.]

I have to say I’m in some damn fine company. Most of the gods of my personal pantheon are there. My only regret is that Jeanne can’t be here to share this with me.

My profound, sincere thanks to the members of LASFS. I look forward with great eagerness to receiving the plaque that I have read comes with the award, and I hope one day I’ll have an opportunity to view the special plaque in LASFS HQ on which I understand my name will now be inscribed with those above.

Ellison Added to SF Hall of Fame

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For Harlan Ellison it never rains but it pours. Lucky for him it’s raining honors this week.

He learned from the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle that he’ll be inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame this June.

His editor at IDW greeted him with the news that his hardcover graphic book Phoenix Without Ashes entered the New York Times Bestseller List at #6 in its first week of publication – Harlan’s first-ever appearance on that list.

And the Encyclopaedia Britannica has created an entry about him. According to Harlan, “I am right next to Ralph Ellison, just following Ellis Island. What a wonderful thing.” Call it a story of requited love. Harlan has been irresistibly attracted to the encyclopedia since he was a kid.

When he accepted the 1970 Forry Award Harlan told those of us at the banquet about his times as a young fan in Cleveland. Harlan joined the first local sf club (Andre Norton was also a member). He started collecting. Then… “I went into the phase I called ‘liberating’ volumes from my high school library. I stole the first 23 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. They never suspected a thing. But then I got greedy, and they finally caught me when I tried to stuff both the Index and the World Gazetteer under my jacket…” So now the circle has closed in a way his high school librarian would not have predicted. It’s a well-deserved accolade.

Locus reports that the full list of 2011 inductees to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame includes Ellison, Vincent Di Fate, Moebius, and Gardner Dozois.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame was founded in 1996 by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society (KCSFFS) in conjunction with the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas. Four individuals are added each year, chosen on the basis of their continued excellence and long-time contribution to the science fiction field.