Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature: Ghoulish Song, William Alexander (McElderry); Doll Bones, Holly Black (McElderry); Killer of Enemies, Joseph Bruchac (Tu Books); Conjured, Sara Beth Durst (Walker); Shadows, Robin McKinley (Paulsen).
Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies: There and Back Again: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Origins of the Hobbit, Mark Atherton (I.B. Tauris); C.S. Lewis and the Middle Ages, Robert Boenig (Kent State University Press); Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays, Jason Fisher, ed. (McFarland); C.S. Lewis – A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet, Alister McGrath (Tyndale House); Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Corey Olsen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies: The Book of Legendary Lands, Umberto Eco, translated by Alastair McEwan (Rizzoli Ex Libris); Dancing the Tao: Le Guin and Moral Development, Sandra J. Lindow (Cambridge Scholars); Tree of Salvation: Yggdrasil and the Cross in the North, G. Ronald Murphy (Oxford University Press); As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality, Michael Saler (Oxford University Press); Critical Discourses of the Fantastic, 1712-1831, David Sandner (Ashgate).
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AWARDS NEWS
The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced the winners for the 26th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, celebrating excellence in LGBT literature in a wide variety of categories. Death by Silver, Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold (Lethe) won in the SF/Fantasy/Horror category. The awards were presented at the 26th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony on June 2, 2014, in New York City. For a list of winners and nominees in all categories, see the Lambda Literary Awards site:
The winners of the 2014 Chronos Awards, honoring excellence in SF, fantasy, and horror published in the Australian state of Victoria, have been announced. Best Long Fiction: Gamers’ Rebellion, George Ivanoff (Ford Street). Best Short Fiction: No Award. Best Artwork: Rules of Summer, Shaun Tan (Hachette Australia). Best Fan Publication in any Medium: SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie, ed. Best Achievement: Gamers’ Rebellion book trailer by Henry Gibbens. The award ceremony was held at Continuum 10, June 6-9, 2014, in Melbourne Australia, in conjunction with the Ditmar Awards.
The Bi Writers Association (BWA) has announced the winners for the Second Annual Bisexual Book Awards, honoring works of bisexual literature in a wide variety of categories, including SF/F/H. Bisexual Fiction: The City of Devi, Manil Suri (W. W. Norton & Company). Bisexual Speculative Fiction (Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror): Pantomime, Laura Lam (Strange Chemistry). Bisexual Teen/Young Adult Fiction: Inheritance, Malinda Lo (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers). Bisexual Book Publisher of the Year (tie): Circlet Press; Riverdale Avenue Books. The awards were presented at the Second Annual Bisexual Book Awards on May 31, 2014, in New York City.
The Audio Publishers Association has announced the 2014 Audie Awards winners, recognizing excellence in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment in a variety of categories. Winners of genre interest follow. Fiction: Doctor Sleep, Stephen King, read by Will Patton (Simon & Schuster Audio). Science Fiction: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold, read by Grover Gardner (Blackstone). Paranormal: Reviver, Seth Patrick, read by Ari Fliakos (Macmillan Audio). Fantasy: Wisp of a Thing, Alex Bledsoe, read by Stefan Rudnicki (Blackstone). Package Design: Clockwork Angels: The Watchmaker’s Edition, Kevin J. Anderson, read by Neil Peart (Brilliance). Children’s Titles for Ages 8-12: Matilda, Roald Dahl, read by Kate Winslet (Penguin Audio). Multi-Voiced Performance: World War Z: The Complete Edition, Max Brooks, read by Max Brooks and a full cast (Random House Audio). The winners were announced at the Audies Gala, held May 29, 2014, at The New York Academy of Medicine in New York City.
The 2014 Kurd Lasswitz Award winners have been announced, recognizing exceptional German science fiction works and translations from 2013. Best German SF Novel: Dschiheads, Wolfgang Jeschke (Heyne). Best German SF Short Story: ‘‘Coen Sloterdykes Diametral Levitierendes Chronoversum’’, Michael Marrak (Nova 05/13). Best Foreign SF Work Published in German: In Einer Anderen Welt [Among Others], Jo Walton (Golkonda). Best SF Translation into German: James Tiptree Jr. – Das Doppelleben der Alice B. Sheldon [James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon], Julie Phillips, translated by Margo Jane Warnken (Septime). Best German SF Graphical Art 2013: Pierangelo Boog for the cover of Exodus 30. Special Achievement Award for Longtime Activities: Martin Kempf and his team of Fandom Observer for publishing 300 issues in 25 years. For more information, including a list of all the nominations, see the Kurd Lasswitz Award website (in German).
Winners have been announced for the 2014 Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest. Grand Prize: ‘‘Low Arc’’, Sean Monaghan. 2nd Place: ‘‘Balance’’, Marina J. Lostetter. 3rd Place: ‘‘Wind Shear’’, Angus McIntyre. The winning story will be featured on the Baen Books website and paid professional publication rates. The contest is sponsored by Baen and the National Space Society, and honors stories which explore the promise of space exploration. The winner receives an award, membership to the 2014 International Space Development Conference and a year’s membership to the National Space Society, as well as Baen books and National Space Society products.
Leaving the Sea by Ben Marcus (Grant/Knopf) is one of six shortlisted titles for the 2014 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, given for the best book of previously uncollected stories appearing in English between July 2011 and June 2012. The winner, to be announced in July, will receive EURO25,000. There were numerous other works of genre interest on the award’s longlist, including The Vanishing Act, Prawin Adhikari (Rupa); Bones of an Inland Sea, Mary Akers (Press 53); Boundary Problems, Greg Bechtel (Freehand Books); One Hundred Apocalypses, Lucy Corin (McSweeney’s); Wikiworld, Paul Di Filippo (ChiZine); American Innovations, Rivka Galchen (Fourth Estate); Tell My Sorrows to the Stones, Christopher Golden (ChiZine); Electricity & Other Dreams, Micah Dean Hicks (New American Press); Irregular Verbs, Matthew Johnson (ChiZine); The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales, Kirsty Logan (Salt Publishing); Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail, Kelly Luce (A Strange Object); Moss Witch, Sara Maitland (Comma Press); Things Withered, Susie Moloney (ChiZine); Paradise Elsewhere, Kathy Page (Biblioasis); Dead Americans, Ben Peek (ChiZine); Celestial Inventories, Steve Rasnic Tem (ChiZine); The Old Priest, Anthony Wallace (University of Pittsburgh Press); and Phone Call from Hell and Other Tales of the Damned, Jonathan Woods (New Pulp). The award is presented in honor of Irish author Frank O’Connor.
The British Fantasy Society has announced the finalists for the 2013 British Fantasy Awards. Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award): The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Headline); Blood and Feathers: Rebellion, Lou Morgan (Solaris); Between Two Thorns, Emma Newman (Angry Robot); The Glass Republic, Tom Pollock (Jo Fletcher); A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer). Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award): The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes (HarperCollins); NOS4R2, Joe Hill (Gollancz); The Year of the Ladybird, Graham Joyce (Gollancz); Path of Needles, Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher); House of Small Shadows, Adam Nevill (Pan); Mayhem, Sarah Pinborough (Jo Fletcher). Best Novella: Spin, Nina Allan (TTA Press); ‘‘Vivian Guppy and the Brighton Belle’’, Nina Allan (Rustblind and Silverbright); Dogs With Their Eyes Shut, Paul Meloy (PS Publishing); Beauty, Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz); Whitstable, Stephen Volk (Spectral); Best Short Story: ‘‘Chalk’’, Pat Cadigan (This Is Horror); ‘‘Signs of the Times’’, Carole Johnstone (Black Static #33); ‘‘Golden Apple’’, Sophia McDougall (The Lowest Heaven); ‘‘Death Walks En Pointe’’, Thana Niveau (The Burning Circus); ‘‘Family Business’’, Adrian Tchaikovsky (The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic); ‘‘Moonstruck’’, Karin Tidbeck (Shadows & Tall Trees #5); ‘‘The Fox’’, Conrad Williams (This Is Horror); Best Collection: North American Lake Monsters, Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer); Holes for Faces, Ramsey Campbell (Dark Regions); For Those Who Dream Monsters, Anna Tabor
ska (Mortbury); Monsters in the Heart, Stephen Volk (Gray Friar). Best Anthology: The Tenth Black Book of Horror, Charles Black, ed. (Mortbury); Fearie Tales, Stephen Jones, ed. (Jo Fletcher); End of the Road, Jonathan Oliver, ed. (Solaris); Rustblind and Silverbright, David Rix, ed. (Eibonvale); Tales of Eve, Mhairi Simpson, ed. (Fox Spirit); Best Small Press (the PS Publishing Independent Press Award): The Alchemy Press (Peter Coleborn); Fox Spirit Books (Adele Wearing); NewCon Press (Ian Whates); Spectral Press (Simon Marshall-Jones). Best NonFiction: Fantasy Faction, Marc Aplin, ed.; Doors to Elsewhere, Mike Barrett (The Alchemy Press); ‘‘We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative’’, Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink 5/20/13); Speculative Fiction 2012, Justin Landon & Jared Shurin, eds. (Jurassic London); Gestalt Real-Time Reviews, D.F. Lewis. Best Magazine/Periodical: Clarkesworld, Neil Clarke & Sean Wallace, eds. (Wyrm); Black Static, Andy Cox, ed. (TTA Press); Interzone, Andy Cox, ed. (TTA Press); Shadows & Tall Trees, Michael Kelly, ed. (Undertow). Best Artist: Ben Baldwin; Vincent Chong; Joey Hi-Fi; Tula Lotay; Adam Oehlers; Daniele Serra. Best Comic/Graphic Novel: The Unwritten, Mike Carey & Peter Gross (Vertigo); Demeter, Becky Cloonan (Becky Cloonan); Rachel Rising, Terry Moore (Abstract Studio); Porcelain, Benjamin Read & Chris Wildgoose (Improper Books); Saga, Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples (Image Comics); Jennifer Wilde, Maura McHugh, Karen Mahoney & Stephen Downey (Atomic Diner Comics); Best Film/Television Episode: Game of Thrones: ‘‘The Rains of Castamere’’; Gravity; Doctor Who: ‘‘The Day of the Doctor’’; Iron Man 3; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Best Newcomer (the Sydney J. Bounds Award): Francis Knight, for Fade to Black (Orbit); Laura Lam, for Pantomime (Strange Chemistry); Ann Leckie, for Ancillary Justice (Orbit); Libby McGugan, for The Eidolon (Solaris); Emma Newman, for Between Two Thorns (Angry Robot); Samantha Shannon, for The Bone Season (Bloomsbury). Winners will be chosen by juries, and announced September 6 or 7, 2014 during an awards ceremony at FantasyCon in York, England.
The 2014 Sidewise Award Finalists for the best alternate history of 2013 have been announced. Short Form: ‘‘The Weight of the Sunrise’’, Vylar Kaftan (Asimov’s 2/13); ‘‘A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel’’, Ken Liu (F&SF 1/13); ‘‘Tollund’’, Adam Roberts (The Book of the Dead); ‘‘Uncertainty’’, Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Asimov’s 3/13); ‘‘Cayos in the Stream’’, Harry Turtledove (Tor.com 8/7/13); ‘‘Blair’s War’’, Ian Watson (Asimov’s 7/12). Long Form: 1920: America’s Great War, Robert Conroy (Baen); The Secret of Abdu el Yezdi, Mark Hodder (Pyr; Ebury); The Windsor Faction, D.J. Taylor (Pegasus; Chatto & Windus); Surrounded by Enemies: What If Kennedy Survived Dallas?, Bryce Zabel (Mill City). The winners will be announced at the 2014 Worldcon in London. For more information, see the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History website.
Finalists for the 14th annual Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic have been announced. Adult: Sister Mine, Nalo Hopkinson (Grand Central); River of Stars, Guy Gavriel Kay (Penguin Canada); This Strange Way of Dying, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Exile Editions); A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki (Penguin Canada); The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper (Simon & Schuster). Young Adult: Sorrow’s Knot, Erin Bow (Scholastic); The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, Charles de Lint (Little, Brown); Homeland, Cory Doctorow (Tor); The Path of Names, Ari Goelman (Scholastic); Urgle, Meaghan McIsaac (Cormorant). Honorable Mentions: The n-Body Problem, Tony Burgess (ChiZine); The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton (McClelland & Stewart); The Oathbreaker’s Shadow, Amy McCulloch (Doubleday Canada); Wild Fell, Michael Rowe (ChiZine); Beyond the Rift, Peter Watts (Tachyon). Winners will be announced in fall 2014, and each will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a hand-crafted medallion featuring a sunburst logo. Jurors for 2014 are Camille Alexa, Paul Glennon, Bob Knowlton, Nicole Luiken, and Derek Newman-Stille.
The Libertarian Futurist Society has released the finalists for the Prometheus Best Novel Award for pro-freedom works published in 2013 and the Hall of Fame Award for best classic fiction. Best Novel Award: Homeland, Cory Doctorow (Tor); A Few Good Men, Sarah Hoyt (Baen); Crux, Ramez Naam (Angry Robot); Nexus, Ramez Naam (Angry Robot); Brilliance, Marcus Sakey (Thomas & Mercer). Hall of Fame Award: ‘‘Sam Hall’’, Poul Anderson (1953); Falling Free, Lois McMaster Bujold (1988); ‘‘‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman’’, Harlan Ellison (1965); Courtship Rite, Donald M. Kingsbury (1982); ‘‘As Easy as A.B.C.’’, Rudyard Kipling (1912). This category honors novels, novellas, stories, graphic novels, anthologies, films, TV shows/series, plays, poems, music recordings and other works of fiction first published or broadcast more than five years ago. All members of the Libertarian Futurist Society are eligible to vote. The award will be presented in a ceremony during the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in London, England, August 14-18, 2014.
Nominees for the 2014 Anthony Awards, honoring the best mystery works in a variety of categories published in 2013, have been announced. Works of genre interest include The Big Reap, Chris F. Holm (Angry Robot) and Joyland, Stephen King (Hard Case Crime) in the Best Paperback Original category; ‘‘The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Deposity’’, John Connolly (Bibliomysteries) in Best Short Story; The Testing, Joelle Charbonneau (Houghton Mifflin) in Best Children’s or Young Adult Novel; and The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith, narrated by Robert Glenister (Hachette Audio) in Best Audio Book. Winners will be announced at Bouchercon, November 13–16, 2014 in Long Beach CA. For more, and for a complete list of nominees:
Kirkus Reviews has announced the creation of three new literary awards. Each prize is worth $50,000 and will recognize exemplary works in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and young-adult literature. Only titles with a starred review in Kirkus will be eligible to win. The jurors for each category will consist of a writer, a bookseller or librarian, and a Kirkus critic. Jurors will receive $1,000 for their service. Finalists for each category will be announced September 30, 2014, with winners scheduled to be announced October 23, 2014 in Austin TX.
FINANCIAL NEWS
US Census Bureau preliminary figures for April show bookstore sales of $684 million, down 1% from $693 million in April 2013. Year-to-date sales were down 8% at $3.60 billion. All retail was up 6% for the month, and up 3% YTD.
First-quarter results for five trade publishers showed sales generally down compared to the same period in 2013. The notable exception was HarperCollins, with sales up 13.8% at $354 million, and earnings (EBITDA) of $53 million, up 82.8%; they credited much of the sales on Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, which sold eight million units in the quarter. E-books sales of $92 million were 26% of revenue, up from 21%. Harlequin noted sales of C$99.2 million, down 3.2%, with an operating profit fo C$12.8 million, down 14.1%; digital sales were 25.1% of revenue, up from 23.4%, but not up enough to offset declining print sales. Courier Corp.’s publishing division (including Dover Publications) reported sales of $8.9 million, down 3.9%, with an operating loss of $1.2 million, up 217.0% from $0.3 million; sales at Dover were down. Simon & Schuster’s sales of $153.0 million were down 10.5%, due in part to a 14% drop in e-book sales, but operating income was actually up 10% to $11.0 million. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s trade division reported sales of $32.0 million, down 20.0%, with a $1.0 million loss in adjusted earnings, compared to a $7.0 million profit in 2013. Much of the drop in sales was due to strong sales in 2013 for The Hobbit and The Life of Pi, which benefitted from movie adaptations.
Amazon reported continued growth for the first quarter, with net income up at $108 million, an almost 32% increase over the same period in 2013. Revenue was $19.74 billion, up 23%, but operating income was down 19.3% at $146 million.
Books-a-Million reported sales up for their first quarter (ending May 3), with total sales of $103.8 million, a $200,000 improvement. Same-store sales fell 2.5%, and they ended with a net loss of $5.6 million. Teen books did well, thanks in large part to Veronica Roth’s Divergent series. BAM informed the SEC that they would buy back all s
hares of common stock held by investor Harsha Gowda, who as of February had a 5.9% stake in the company.
Canadian bookstore chain Indigo reported sales up for their fiscal third quarter (ending December 28, 2013). Sales were C$332.4 million, up 3%. Net earnings of $8.5 million were down from C$22 million the year before. Same-store sales at superstores were up 2.6%; smaller stores were up only 0.5%. Online sales hit a record C$41.5 million, up from C$34.8 million.
INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS
Polish rights to The Left Hand of Darkness, City of Illusions, Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, The Word for World Is Forest, and The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin sold to Proszynski via Graal on behalf of Jonathan Lyons and Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown.
Finnish rights to The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe sold to Gummerus via Lennart Sane of Lennart Sane Agency on behalf of Christine Cohen of Virginia Kidd Literary Agency.
German e-book rights to Robert Sheckley’s Immortality, Inc., The Status Civilization, Mindswap, and Options went to Heyne via Kathrin Nehm of Thomas Schlueck Agency in association with Cameron McClure of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.
Polish rights to Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens sold to Proszynski via Agata Zabowska of ANAW Literary Agency on behalf of Maja Nikolic of Writers House.
Greek rights to The Husband by Dean Koontz sold to Harlenic Hellas, Russian rights to The City to Eksmo, and Japanese rights to Lightning to Bungeishunju, all via Lennart Sane at Lennart Sane Agency.
Czech rights to Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart, Firefight, Calamity, and Words of Radiance sold to Talpress via Kristin Olson of Kristin Olson Literary Agency; Russian rights to Steelheart went to Azbooka-Atticus via Alex Korzhenevski of Alexander Korzhenevski Agency; Spanish rights to Words of Radiance sold to Ediciones B via Montse Yanez of Julio F-Yanez; and French rights to Words of Radiance went to Calmann-Levy via Anne Lenclud, all on behalf of Krystyna Lopez of JABberwocky Literary Agency.
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