2003 Campbell, Sturgeon science fiction award winners announced at KU

LAWRENCE -- Two unusual circumstances marked this year's Campbell and Sturgeon awards, presented July 11 at the University of Kansas, announced James Gunn, director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas.

The Theodore Sturgeon Award for the best short science fiction, or SF, of the year went to a story published on the Internet. Lucius Shepard's "Over Yonder" was published on the SciFiction section, edited by Ellen Datlow, of SciFi.com. Second place was awarded to "Bronte's Egg" by Richard Chwedyk, published in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine; and third place, to "Singleton" by Australian Greg Egan, published in the British Interzone magazine.

The other unusual circumstance: The John W. Campbell Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year for the first time went to a previous Sturgeon Award winner. Nancy Kress' "Probability Space" took first place (an earlier novel in the series, "Probability Sun," took third place last year). Moreover, Kress' husband, the late Charles Sheffield, won the Campbell Award a decade before. Kress and Sheffield are the first husband and wife to be so honored. Second place in the Campbell Awards went to David Brin's "Kiln People"; third place went to Robert J. Sawyer's "Hominids." All three novels were published by Tor Books.

Frederik Pohl, a member of the Sturgeon Award final jury, presented the award to Shepard; James Gunn read an acceptance letter from Shepard. Elizabeth Anne Hull, a member of the Campbell jury, presented the award to Kress, who was present to accept.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway made a surprise presentation to Frederik Pohl of a citation for his long years of service to science fiction and to KU and its science-fiction programs. Pohl has been a guest writer 26 of the past 28 summers.

Four writers or editors were inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society and the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at KU. The posthumous inductions went to Edgar Rice Burroughs and Damon Knight; living authors inducted were Kate Wilhelm, who is Knight's widow, and Wilson "Bob" Tucker. Wilhelm attended the induction dinner ceremonies.

The dinner was followed by the Campbell Conference July 12 and 13, at which "History and Science Fiction" was the topic for discussion, and the showing of a locally produced alternate-history documentary titled "CSA: The Confederate States of America."

The Sturgeon Award stories are nominated by a committee of some two dozen reviewers and editors chaired by writer Chris McKitterick, a lecturer in the KU English department. Pohl, James Gunn, and editor, author and publishing production manager Kij Johnson, with help from Noel Sturgeon, son of Theodore Sturgeon, chose the winners from a group of about a dozen finalists.

The Campbell Award novels are nominated by publishers and the winners selected by a committee of seven academics and authors chaired by Gunn and consisting of Gregory Benford, Paul A. Carter, Elizabeth Anne Hull, McKitterick, Pamela Sargent, T.A. Shippey and Ian Watson.