‘Tis the Season – for Award Nominations!

Right now, nominations are open for two of the Australian awards in speculative fiction, the Chronos Awards and the Ditmar Awards.

Ditmar Nominations Open

Nominations for the 2014 Australian SF (“Ditmar”) awards are now open and will remain open until one minute before midnight Melbourne time on Sunday, 20th of March, 2014 (ie. 11.59pm, GMT+10). Likewise, postal nominations must be postmarked no later than Sumday, 20th March, 2014.

The current rules, including Award categories can be found at:

http://wiki.sf.org.au/Ditmar_rules

You must include your name with any nomination. Nominations will be accepted only from natural persons active in fandom, or from full or supporting members of Continuum 10, the 2014 Australian National SF Convention. Where a nominator may not be known to the Ditmar subcommittee, the nominator should provide the name of someone known to the subcommittee who can vouch for the nominator’s eligibility.

While online nominations are preferred, nominations can be made in a number of ways:

1. online, via this form:

http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2014/nominations.html

2. via email to ditmars@sf.org.au; or

3. by post to:

Ditmars
6 Florence Road
NEDLANDS WA 6009
AUSTRALIA

So, basically if you are someone who is active in the Aussie spec fic community, you are eligible to nominate. And, you should! Why? Because, even more so than with the international awards, the more people involved in the awards process, from nomination to voting, the greater the legitimacy they possess. I have only been around a few years, but even in that short time I have seen the Ditmars cop what I consider unfair criticism. The more people who participate in the process the less ammunition there is for critics.

A very comprehensive (but by no means exhaustive) list of eligible works can be found here

Also open are the Chronos Awards – the Victorian version of the Ditmars.

The Chronos Awards celebrate excellence in Victorian Science Fiction, and will be presented this year at Continuum 9. Nominations will be accepted now in all categories – just email your nominations to awards@continuum.org.au. For more information about the awards (including categories and key dates) please see the website, or email awards@continuum.org.au with any queries. Nominations close Sunday, 16th of March.

Another very comprehensive (but by no means exhaustive) list of eligible works can be found here and, again, if you are eligible to nominate or vote, please do so! It really does make a difference.

Obviously I have eligible works in both sets of awards, but I don’t expect anyone to nominate, or vote for, me. If you do that’s wonderful, of course! But, you can stop reading here and just take away the core message of this post -nominate and vote the works you believe deserve it! The reason I say this is because the more people who nominate and vote, the more credibility these awards have, which can only be good for the Australian speculative fiction scene as a whole.

However, if you are interested in seeing what I have in the mix then read on:

DITMAR AWARDS

Best Novella or Novelette

“Set Your Face Towards the Darkness”, David McDonald, in Tales of Australia: Great Southern Land, Satalyte Publishing

Best Short Story

“Homecoming”, David McDonald, in ReDeus: Native Lands, Crazy 8 Press.
“In Foreign Fields”, David McDonald, in ReDeus: Beyond Borders, Crazy 8 Press.
“Shadows from the East”, David McDonald in The Shadow of Judex, Black Coat Press.
“The Lesser of Two Evils”, David McDonald in Tales of the Shadowmen 10: Esprit De Corps, Black Coat Press.

Best Fan Publication in any Medium

Galactic Chat Podcast, Sean Wright, Alex Pierce, Helen Stubbs, David McDonald, Mark Webb and Sarah Parker

William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review

David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely for the Reviewing New Who series.

CHRONOS AWARDS

Short Stories

“Homecoming”, David McDonald, in ReDeus: Native Lands, Crazy 8 Press.
“In Foreign Fields”, David McDonald, in ReDeus: Beyond Borders, Crazy 8 Press.
“The Lesser of Two Evils”, David McDonald in Tales of the Shadowmen 10: Esprit De Corps, Black Coat Press.
“Shadows from the East”, David McDonald in The Shadow of Judex, Black Coat Press.
“Set Your Face Towards the Darkness”, David McDonald, in Tales of Australia: Great Southern Land, Satalyte Publishing

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