June 18, 2001

Contact: James Gunn, KU Center for the Study of Science Fiction, (785) 864-3380.

KU science fiction center announces award finalists

LAWRENCE -- Finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of the year were announced today by James Gunn, director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas.

Frederik Pohl, Kij Johnson and Gunn will select the winner from the twelve stories that emerged from a process of nomination and balloting by a group of two-dozen reviewers and editors familiar with current short-story publication. The committee was chaired by Christopher McKitterick.

Andros Sturgeon, Theodore Sturgeon's son, represented the Sturgeon family in selecting four stories added to the final group.

The Sturgeon Award, a bronze trophy in the shape of a Q with an arrow through it (for Sturgeon's favorite admonition: ask the next question), will be presented to the winning author at an award dinner July 6 at KU.

Also presented at that dinner are the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year and four inductions into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, the latter in partnership with the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society. Alfred Bester, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance and Ursula K. Le Guin will be inducted this year.

The dinner occurs between a two-week Writers Workshop in Science Fiction and a two-week Intensive English Institute on the Teaching of Science Fiction. The dinner is followed, on July 7 and 8, by the Campbell Conference, which focuses on a single topic. The topic this year will be "Science Fiction in the Electronic Era."

The finalists for the Sturgeon Award, listed by title, author, magazine or book title, and publication date or publisher:

 •"Antibodies," Charles Stross. Interzone, July.
 • "The Birthday of the World," Ursula K. Le Guin. Fantasy & Science Fiction, June.
 • "Heart of Glass," William Barton. Asimov's, January.
 • "The Juniper Tree," John Kessell. Science Fiction Age, January.
 • "Milo and Sylvie," Eliot Fintushel. Asimov's, March.
 • "On the Orion Line," Stephen Baxter. Asimov's, October/November.
 • "Radiant Green Star," Lucius Shepard. Asimov's, August.
 • "Reef," Paul McAuley. "Skylife," Harcourt.
 • "Saviour," Nancy Kress. Asimov's, June.
 • "Seventy-Two Letters," Ted Chiang. "Vanishing Acts," Tor Books.
 • "Sheena 5," Stephen Baxter. Analog, May.
 • "Tendeleo's Story," Ian McDonald. PS Publishing chapbook.