[Press release.] The Washington Science Fiction Association is pleased to announce the winner of the 2008 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction: “The Wizard of Macatawa” by Tom Doyle published in issue 11 of Paradox magazine (www.paradoxmag.com), publisher and editor Christopher M. Cevasco. “The Wizard of Macatawa” tells the story of how the life of a young girl intersects with that of L. Frank Baum.

The award honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction. The award showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year. An unusual feature of the selection process is that all voting is done with the identity of the author hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story. The award consists of trophies for both the author and publisher and $250 for the author.

The other finalists were:

“Bufo Rex” by Erik Amundsen published in issue 347 of the magazine Weird Tales (http://weirdtales.net/wordpress/); publisher John Gregory Betancourt, fiction editor Ann VanderMeer,

“Orm the Beautiful” by Elizabeth Bear published in the January 2007 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/bear_01_07); publisher and editor Neil Clarke; senior editor Sean Wallace,

“Harry the Crow” by John Kratman published in issue 12 of the magazine Aeon Speculative Fiction (http://www.aeonmagazine.com/); editors Marti McKenna and Bridget McKenna,

“Mask of the Ferret” by Ken Pick and Alan Loewen published in the book Infinite Space, Infinite God by Twilight Times Books (http://www.isigsf.com); publisher Lida E. Quillen, Editors Karina Fabian and Robert Fabian, and

“The Third Bear” by Jeff VanderMeer published in the April 2007 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vandermeer_04_07); publisher and editor Neil Clarke; senior editor Sean Wallace.

The winner is chosen by the members of the Washington Science Fiction Association (www.wsfa.org) and is presented at their annual convention, Capclave (www.capclave.org), held this year on October 17-19 in Rockville, Maryland. Present to accept their awards were Tom Doyle and Chis Cevasco, the editor and publisher of Paradox. Also present to accept their Honorable Mention certificates were: Alan Loewen; Neil Clark, publisher of Clarkesworld, accepting on behalf of Elizabeth Bear and Jeff VanderMeer; and John Gregory Betancourt, publisher of Weird Tales, accepting on behalf of Erik Admundsen.