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Awards roundup

It's been a busy summer for SF/F prizes

Awards roundup
Image: Andrew Liptak

Summertime is the big awards season for the larger SF/F community, and the last couple of weeks have seen the release of a whole bunch of finalist lists (and one award), which turn out to be some excellent reading lists.

Here's the latest:

The Arthur C. Clarke Award

Back in May, the folks behind the Arthur C. Clarke award announced the finalists for this year's prize. They just announced the winner from those finalists: In Ascension by Martin MacInnes.

The novel is about a microbiologist investigating the life in the ocean's depths. When she discovers a new trench in the Atlantic, she's hoping to discover new forms of life that might yield some insight into how life evolved on Earth. According to Dr Andrew M. Butler, Chair of Judges, “In Ascension shows us, in the words of one judge, 'vistas between the cellular and the cosmic.' It’s an intense trip and for once it’s a winner that is in the tradition of Clarke’s own novels.”

Here are the finalists for the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke award
Some of the best works of science fiction from 2023
Transfer OrbitAndrew Liptak

2024 Ignyte Award Finalists

The Ignyte Award was founded alongside FIYAHCON in 2020, and were designed to honor BIPOC contributions to the SF/F genres. The awards have announced this year's shortlist, which includes an excellent range of authors.

Outstanding Novel: Adult

  • To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
  • The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
  • The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang
  • Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi
  • We are the Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull

Outstanding Novella

  • Sordidez by E.G. Condé
  • Off-Time Jive by A.Z. Louise
  • Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris
  • The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
  • The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi

You can see and vote for the rest of the finalists here.

2024 Theodore A. Sturgeon Award Finalists

The Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas has announced its annual slate of finalists for the Theodore A. Sturgeon Memorial Award. Named for noted author Theodore Sturgeon, this award has been handed out since 1987 and honors the best short fiction published in the prior year.

Here are the finalists:

This year's winner will be announced this summer. They'll win a cash prize and will be named the guest of honor at the third annual Sturgeon Symposium, which will be held between October 24-25, 2024.

2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize

A couple of years ago, Ursula K. Le Guin's literary estate announced a new award: the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize, which seeks to honor the late author by recognizing an author for their work of "imaginative fiction". The winner of the award receives a $25,000 cash prize.

The first winner of the award in 2022 was Khadija Abdalla Bajaber for her book The House of Rust, while Rebecca Campbell earned the award in 2023 for her novel Arboreality. This year's selection panel includes Margaret Atwood, Omar El Akkad, Megan Giddings, Ken Liu, and Carmen Maria Machado. The winner will be announced October 21, 2024.

Here are this year's finalists:

  • The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
  • The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher
  • It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken
  • Orbital by Samantha Harvey
  • Sift by Alissa Hattman
  • Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson
  • The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson
  • The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed
  • Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
  • Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

Finally, this year's World Science Fiction Convention is being held next weekend in Glasgow, Scotland, where we'll see this year's Hugo Awards announced. Hopefully, there'll be less fuss than last time around. Here are this year's finalists.