2017 Ditmar Winners Announced

Over the Queen’s Birthday weekend, spec fic fans gathered for Continuum 13: Triskaidekaphilia. Continuum is always a great convention, and this year it was also the Aussie Natcon so it was also the host of the annual Ditmar Awards (the Australian popular vote awards for spec fic).

It was a great list of nominees, who all would have been deserving winners…the only problem being that not everyone can win! I was very happy to see a number of friends pick up an award, and especially thrilled that the 2016 Australian SF Snapshot won the Best Fan Publication in any Medium (a particularly competitive category).

Photo thanks to the awesomely fingernailed @thiefofcamorr Another lovely design from Kathleen Jennings

I’d been pretty sick in the week leading up to the convention, and didn’t see much of it at all. And, I didn’t expect to get pushed up front to say anything when we accepted the award! I doubt I made sense, but the gist of it was that it’s always an honour to be even a small part of something like the Snapshot. A lot of people put in a huge amount of their time and effort, and the result is something significant–a celebration of the incredible range of talent present in the Aussie scene.

Not at my best!

Congrats to all the winners!

Best Novel: The Grief Hole, Kaaron Warren, IFWG Publishing Australia.
Best Novella or Novelette:  “Did We Break the End of the World?”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Defying Doomsday, Twelfth Planet Press.
Best Short Story: “No Fat Chicks”, Cat Sparks, in In Your Face, FableCroft Publishing.
Best Collected Work: (tie) Defying Doomsday, Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, Twelfth Planet Press & Dreaming in the Dark, Jack Dann, PS Publishing.
Best Artwork: illustration, Shauna O’Meara, for Lackington’s 12.
Best Fan Publication in Any Medium: 2016 Australian SF Snapshot, Greg Chapman, Tehani Croft, Tsana Dolichva, Marisol Dunham, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Stephanie Gunn, Ju Landéesse, David McDonald, Belle McQuattie, Matthew Morrison, Alex Pierce, Rivqa Rafael, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Helen Stubbs, Katharine Stubbs and Matthew Summers.
Best Fan Writer: Foz Meadows, for body of work.
Best New Talent:Marlee Jane Ward
William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review: Kate Forsyth, for The Rebirth of Rapunzel: a mythic biography of the maiden in the tower, FableCroft Publishing.
(No award was given out for Best Fan Artist as the only nominee, Kathleen Jennings, withdrew.)

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