Finalists for Sturgeon science fiction writing award announced at KU

LAWRENCE -- Officials for the annual Campbell Conference on science fiction writing have announced the finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of 2001 to be presented July 5 as part of the annual conference in the Kansas Union at the University of Kansas.

The July 5 to 7 conference is part of KU's J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction summer programs that begin with a writers workshop June 17 to July 4 and conclude with an intensive science fiction course July 8 to 19.

The 2002 conference will offer a free-form discussion around a single topic: "Where Do We Go from Here? How Did the Future Depart from the Science-Fiction Vision and What Can We Do About It?"

"SF anticipated terrorism, for instance, but how will it respond to it?" asked James E. Gunn, director of the conference and of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at KU. "Has reality caught up with science fiction? Will recent events accelerate the escape to fantasy?"

The conference, which has taken place regularly at KU since 1979, provides a setting for the presentation of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year. Since 1987, the conference also has been the site for presentation of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of the year and, since 1996, for the Hall of Fame induction.

Awards will be presented at a banquet in a small dining room of the Ekdahl Dining Commons, 1532 Engel Road, on Friday, July 5, and the winners and other writers present will have an opportunity to discuss their methods and current projects at an informal session Sunday morning.

Finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of 2001 are listed by title, author, publisher and publication month (when available):

 • "The Cat's Pajamas" by James Morrow, F&SF, October
 • "The Chief Designer" by Andy Duncan, Asimov's, June
 • "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" by Michael Swanwick, Asimov's, October
 • "Eternity and Afterward" by Lucius Shepard, F&SF, March
 • "Have Not Have" by Geoff Ryman, F&SF, April
 • "Hell Is the Absence of God" by Ted Chiang, Starlight 3
 • "Interview: On Any Given Day" by Maureen F. McHugh, Starlight 3
 • "Isabel of the Fall" by Ian R. MacLeod, Interzone, July
 • "Lobsters" by Charles Stross, Asimov's, June
 • "The Measure of All Things," by Richard Chwedyk, F&SF, January
 • "New Light on the Drake Equation" by Ian R. MacLeod, scifi.com
 • "Undone" by James Patrick Kelly, Asimov's, June

More information about books nominated and the selection process is available online at www.sff.net/people/mckitterick/2002Sturgeons.htm. For more information about the workshops and conference, visit falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~sfcenter/courses.htm.