2018 Seiun Awards

The 2018 Seiun Award winners were announced July 21 by Duracon, the 57th Japanese national SF convention. The award has nine categories. Below are the categories for translated works, and a few other categories of international interest.

FOREIGN NOVEL

  • Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Translated by Chiori Sada

FOREIGN SHORT STORY

  • “Folding Beijing” by Jingfang Hao. Translated by Mayumi Otani

MEDIA DIVISION

  • Kemono Friends

ART CATEGORY

FREE CATEGORY

  • “Superhuman rock” birth 50 anniversary tribute project Young King’s Hours 2 – July issue Anthology “superhuman rock hero” publication,

Editor’s Note: I have followed the translations shown in the Wikipedia article for the first three categories. Note some translator names lack diacritical marks over some letters because WordPress turns them into question marks. The “Free Category” relies on Google Translate (beware!)

2018 Seiun Award Nominees

The 2018 Seiun Award nominees were announced April 15 by Duracon, the 57th Japanese national SF convention. The award has nine categories. Below are the categories for translated works, and a few other categories of international interest.

The awards will be presented July 21 in Minakami, Japan.

FOREIGN NOVEL

  • Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Translated by Chiori Sada
  • The Adjacent by Christopher Priest. Translated by Yoshimichi Furusawa and Yoko Miki
  • A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe. Translated by Akinobu Sakai
  • My Real Children by Jo Walton. Translated by Takeshi Mogi
  • Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Translated by Yutaka Oshima
  • The History of Soviet Fantastika by Roman Arbitman and Rustam Katz. Translated by Hiraoki Umemura
  • Jack Vance Treasury 3: Space Opera by Jack Vance. Translated by Hisashi Asakura and Ro Shiraishi

FOREIGN SHORT STORY

  • “The New Guys Always Work Overtime” by David Erik Nelson. Translated by Jun Suzuki
  • “Folding Beijing” by Jingfang Hao. Translated by Mayumi ?tani
  • “An Advanced Reader’s Picture Book of Comparative Cognition” by Ken Liu. Translated by Izumi Ichida
  • “Healing Benjamin” by Dennis Danvers. Translated by Makoto Yamagishi
  • “Travel Diary” by Alfred Bester. Translated by Akinobu Sakai
  • “Knotting Grass, Holding Ring” by Ken Liu. Translated by Yoshimichi Furusawa

MEDIA DIVISION

  • Arrival
  • Blade Runner 2049
  • ID-0
  • Kado: The Right Answer
  • Re:Creators
  • Kubo and the Two Strings
  • Passengers
  • Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
  • Kemono Friends

ART CATEGORY

FREE CATEGORY

  • 1 I / 2017 U 1 Parrot Amua — Celestial body with the highest orbital eccentricity, the first interstellar small celestial body in observation history.
  • “Superhuman rock” birth 50 anniversary tribute project – Young King’s Hours 2 – July issue Anthology “superhuman rock hero” publication,
  • Cassini explorer Saturn’s atmosphere entrance – Launch on October 15, 1997, September 15, 2017 rushed into the atmosphere of Saturn and operation was terminated. Over the course of 20 years we have observed planets (mainly Saturn) and Saturn’s satellites. Discovering the possibility that there is a large underground ocean of liquid water in Saturn’s satellite Enceladus, “Saturn discovers the satellites of the new Saturn” and “Discover the appearance of a vortex like the hurricane at Saturn’s North Pole” “It is a satellite that has repeated many new discoveries and challenges such as” traveling between Saturn and the ring for the first time as a human explorer “and praising this achievement, I would like it to receive the award of the Nebula Award Free Section.
  • Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition released – All RPG founder Dungeons & Dragons, the first time in nine years a new system version released.
  • Tivanian – The “Chiba Era” was born in the earth history. First geological age name in Japan.
  • National Association “Rem Collection” – Against the fact that over the years we have completed the difficult business of communicating the whole picture of REM work to Japanese readers through direct translation from Polish
  • Nozomu Omori, Sannou Kinoshita edition “Annual Japanese SF Masterpiece Selection” – For the valuable work of editing an annual SF masterpiece for 10 years
  • NHK E TEL “100 min de masterpiece Stanislaw Remororasu Assuming Understanding” – To one that was introduced as one of the masterpieces at the NHK program. Minami role: Yuji Numano

Editor’s Note: I have followed the translations shown in the Wikipedia article for the first three categories. Note some translator names lack diacritical marks over some letters because WordPress turns them into question marks. Thanks to Count Zero for the “Kado: The Right Answer” translation. The “Free Category” relies on Google Translate (beware!)

[Hat tip to Locus Online.]

2017 Seiun Awards

The winners of the 48th Seiun Awards were announced on July 22.

The Seiun Award Ceremony will be held on August 26th at Donburacon LL, the 56th Japan SF Convention in Shizuoka, Japan.

Best Japanese Long Story

  • ULTRAMAN F by Yasumi Kobayashi (Hayakawa Publishing, Inc.)

Best Japanese Short Story

  • “Last and First Idol” by Gengen Kusano (Hayakawa Publishing, Inc.)

Best Translated Long Story

  • United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas / tr. Naoya Nakahara (Hayakawa Publishing, Inc.)

Best Tranlated Short Story

(2 winners)

  • “Backward, Turn Backward” by James Tiptree, Jr. / tr. Kazuko Onoda (Hayakawa Publishing, Inc.)

and

  • “Simulacrum” by Ken Liu / tr. Furusawa Yoshimichi (Hayakawa Publishing, Inc.)

Best Dramatic Presentation

  • Shin Godzilla

Best Comic

  • KOCHIRA KATSUSHIKAKU KAMEARIKOENMAE HASHUTSUJYO by Akimoto Osamu (Shueisha, Inc.)

Best Artist

  • Naoyuki Katoh

Best Non-fiction

  • “SF” IS “SUTEKI FICTION” by Haruna Ikezawa (Hayakawa Publishing, Inc.)

Free Section

  • The 113th element was named Nihonium.

by Element 113 Research Group led by Group Director Kosuke Morita of the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science Research Group for Superheavy Element

[Thanks to Hirohide (Jack R.) Hirai for the story.]

2017 Seiun Award Nominees

The nominees for the 2017 Seiun Award were announced April 11 by the 56th Japan Science Fiction Convention. The members of “Donburacon” will vote on the winners, which will be announced in July.

The award has nine categories. Here are the categories for translated works, and a few other categories of international interest.

FOREIGN NOVEL

  • United States of Japan, Peter Tieryas, translated by Naoya Nakahara
  • Jack Vance Treasury 1 (Magnus Ridolph), Jack Vance, translated by Hisashi Asakura and Akinobu Sakai
  • The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu, translated by Yoshimichi Furusawa
  • Roderick, John Sladek, translated by Kiichiro Yanashita
  • The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North, translated by Hiromi Amagai
  • Imperial Radch trilogy, Anne Leckie, translated by Hideko Akao
  • Enchanted Night, Steven Millhauser, translated by Motoyuki Shibata

FOREIGN SHORT STORY

  • “Seventh Sight”, Greg Egan, translated by Makoto Yamagishi
  • “The Day the World Turned Upside Down”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated by Jun Suzuki
  • “Backward, Turn Backward”, James Tiptree, Jr., translated by Kazuko Onoda
  • “The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz”, Dan Simmons, translated by Akinobu Sakai
  • “The Deathbird”, Harlan Ellison, translated by Norio It?
  • “Simulacrum”, Ken Liu, translated by Yoshimichi Furusawa

MEDIA CATEGORY

COMIC CATEGORY

  • Osamu Akimoto’s Kochira Katsushika-ku Kamearikouen-mae Hashutsujo (all 200 volumes)
  • Tsubana’s Dainana Jyoshikai Houkou (all 10 volumes)
  • Satoshi Mizukami’s Spirit Circle (all 6 volumes)
  • Yumiko Shirai’s Wombs (all 5 volumes)
  • Kei Sanbe’s Erased (all 9 volumes)
  • Izumi Takemoto’s Natsu ni Sekirannun Made

FREE CATEGORY

  • The movement launched by Zegapain ADP and tie-ins
  • The Pokémon Go craze
  • The official naming of the chemical element Nihonium
  • The world’s first detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
  • The visual book Gear Another Day Go-iro no Rinbu
  • SF writer and musician Hiroyuki Nanba’s “Nanba Hiroyuki Kenban Seikatsu 40 Sh?nen Kinen Live ~Issh? Kenmei~” event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the musician’s activities.

Editor’s Note: I have followed the translations by Petréa Mitchell in the Foreign Novel and Foreign Short Story categories, and those of the Anime News Network in the other categories.

2016 Seiun Awards

The 55th Japan Science Fiction Convention (Nihon SF Taikai) announced the 2016 Seiun Award winners on July 9 (linked site is in Japanese).

The winners were determined by a vote of attendees at “Iseshimacon” in Toba.

Reported here are the results in the Best Translated Novel, Best Translated Short Story, Best Dramatic Presentation, and Free Space categories.

The full list of winners is here, and brief descriptions of nominees in the categories composed of Japanese language works are available in this post at Anime News Network.

BEST TRANSLATED NOVEL

  • Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Tr. Hideko Akao

BEST TRANSLATED SHORT STORY

  • “Good Hunting” – Ken Liu, Tr. Yoshimichi Furusawa

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION

FREE SPACE

2016 Seiun Awards Shortlist

The 55th Japan Science Fiction Convention (Nihon SF Taikai) has posted the 2016 Seiun Awards nominees (linked site is in Japanese).

The winners will be determined by a vote of attendees at “Iseshimacon” in Toba and announced on July 9.

Reported here are the Best Translated Novel, Best Translated Short Story, and Best Dramatic Presentation. Interpretations of Japanese titles and translators’ names come from the Wikipedia or Google Translate.

The items in the Free Space category are rendered in English by Google Translate, more successfully in some cases than others.

Brief descriptions of nominees in the categories composed of Japanese language works are available in this post at Anime News Network.

BEST TRANSLATED NOVEL

  • Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Tr. Hideko Akao
  • Zendegi by Greg Egan, Tr. Makoto Yamagishi
  • Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell, Tr. Kazuyo Misumi
  • The Water Knife by Paola Bacigalupi, Tr. Naoya Nakahara
  • The Violent Century by Ravi Tidoha, Tr. Takeshi Mogi
  • Vulcan’s Hammer by Philip K. Dick, Tr. Tatsuo Sato

BEST TRANSLATED SHORT STORY

  • “Good Hunting” – Ken Liu, Tr. Yoshimichi Furusawa
  • “The Road of Needles” – Caitlyn R. Kiernan, Tr. Jun Suzuki
  • “White Sin, Now” – Tanith Lee, Tr. Izumi Ichida
  • “Mask” – Stanislaw Lem, Tr. Koichi Kuyama
  • “Relays and Roses” – Gene Wolfe, Tr. Takao Miyawaki
  • “Alfred’s Ark” – Jack Vance, Tr. Toru Nakamura
  • “Beautiful Boys” – Theodora Goss, Tr. Jun Suzuki

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION

FREE SPACE

Update 03/30/2016: Followed Petréa Mitchell’s recommendations for the names of several translators.

Seiun Award Winners in Translated Work Categories

Hirohide Hirai, Chairman of 54th Japan SF convention “Comecon,” and the international Liaison of the Federation of Science Fiction Fan Groups of Japan, has announced the 2015 Seiun Award winners in the two translation categories.

Translated Long Story

  • Title: The Martian
  • Author: Andy Weir
  • Translator: Kazuko Onoda (Ms.)
  • Hayakawa Publishing

Translated Short Story

  • Title: “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi”
  • Author: Pat Cadigan
  • Translator: Yooichi Shimada (Mr.)
  • SF Magazine Mar./2014, Hayakawa Publishing

He assures readers the spelling of Mr. Yooichi Shimada’s name is correct. It was copied from the translator’s business card.

All other Seiun Award winners will be announced at Comecon on August 29.

2015 Seiun Award Nominations

The committee of “Comecon,” the 54th Japan Science Fiction Convention, announced the 2015 Seiun Awards shortlist on April 18.

Seiuns are given in nine categories: Japanese Long Story, Japanese Short Story, Translated Long Story, Translated Short Story, Media, Comic, Art, Nonfiction, and a “Free” category.

The winners will be revealed at the convention on August 29.

The full list in Japanese is here.

The nominees in the two categories for fiction translated into Japanese follow. (The names of the translators have been interpreted with Google Translate.)

BEST TRANSLATED LONG STORY

  • The Martian by Andy Weir, translated by Kazuko Onoda
  • Among Others by Jo Walton, translated by Takeshi Mogi
  • Redshirts by John Scalzi, translated by Masayuki Uchida
  • The Dervish House by Ian McDonald, translated by Masaya Shimokusu
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, translated by Makiko Ikeda
  • Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card, translated by Naoya Nakahara

BEST TRANSLATED SHORT STORY

  • “The Negation” by Christopher Priest, translated by Yoshimichi Furusawa
  • “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” by Pat Cadigan, translated by Youichi Shimada
  • “Hunter Come Home” by Richard McKenna, translated by Touru Nakamura
  • “Water” by Ramez Naam, translated by Naoya Nakahara
  • “For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal, translated by Fumiyo Harashima
  • “Year of the Rat” by Stanley Chen (Chen Chu fan), translated by Naoya Nakahara
  • “War 3.01” by Keith Brooke, translated by Masato Naruniwa

Also, friends of the late Takumi Shibano will be pleased to hear that Takumi Shibano SF critic Collection, edited by Maki Makoto Tsukasa, is a Seiun nominee in the Nonfiction category.

Update 04/22/2015: Revised translator names for novel and short story categories to follow Petrea Mitchell’s recommendation. Corrected spelling of Cline and Naam. Update 06/13/2015: Changed a name to Naruniwa per comments.

2014 Seiun Awards

The winners of the 2014 Seiun Awards were announced this past weekend at Nutscon, the 53rd Japanese National SF convention, in Tsukuba, Japan.

Here are the results as listed in a post with English translations.

Best Japanese Long Story

  • From Mt.Kororogi, From Jupiter Trojan by issui ogawa (Hayakawa Publishing, Inc.)

Best Japanese Short Story

  • Ima Shuugouteki Muishikio by Kosyu Tani (Kawade Shobo Shinsha,Publishers)

Best Translated Long Story

  • Blindsight by Peter Watts, translated by Yoichi Shimada (Tokyo Sogensha)

Best Translated Short Story

  • “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu, translated by Furusawa Yoshimi-dori (Hayakawa 1/13)

Best Dramatic Presentation

  • Pacific Rim, Director: Guillermo del Toro

Best Comic

  • The World of Narue by Marukawa Tomohiro. Edited by Kadokawa Shoten. First published in Japan by Kadokawa Corporation, Tokyo

Best Artist

  • Naoyuki Katoh

Best Nonfiction

  • DIY Liquid Fuel Rocket by Summer Rocket team, Asari Yoshitoh (Gakken Education Publishing Co., Ltd.)

Non Section (or Freedom)

  • Nova SF, edited by Nozomi Ohmori (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Publishers)

Some examples of the winning artist’s work are collected here.

2014 Seiun Award Nominees

The 2014 Seiun Award shortlist has been announced by the Japanese national convention committee. The full list, in Japanese, is here. (A Microsoft page translation is here.)

The works nominated in the translation categories are:

Best Translated Novel

  • Incandescence, Greg Egan, translated by Yamagishi Shin (Hayakawa)
  • Serpent’s Egg, R.A. Lafferty, translated by Inoue Hisashi (Seishinsha)
  • Embassytown, China Miéville, translated by Masayuki Uchida (Hayakawa)
  • Kraken,China Miéville, translated by Masamichi Higurashi (Hayakawa)
  • The Islanders, Christopher Priest, translated by Furusawa Yoshimi-dori (Hayakawa)
  • Blindsight, Peter Watts, translated by Yoichi Shimada (Tokyo Somoto-sha)
  • Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis, translated by N. Omori (Hayakawa)

Best Translated Story

  • “Final Exam”, Megan Akenberg, translated by Jun Suzuki (Hayakawa SF 9/13)
  • “Vacuum Lad”, Stephen Baxter, translated by Yagauchi Satoru (Hayakawa SF 9/13)
  • “Christopher Raven”, Theodora Goss, translated by Jun Suzuki (Hayakawa SF 12/12)
  • “The Man Who Bridged the Mist”, Kij Johnson, translated by Misumi Kazuyo (Hayakawa SF 1/13)
  • “The Paper Menagerie”, Ken Liu, translated by Furusawa Yoshimi-dori (Hayakawa 1/13)
  • “Palimpsest”, Charles Stross, translated by Hiroshi Kaneko (Hayakawa SF 9/13)

[Via Locus Online.]