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 2002, to be presented July 11 at the University of Kansas.

The July 11 through 13 conference is the concluding event of the Writers Workshop in Science Fiction and the beginning of the Intensive English Institute on the Teaching of Science Fiction, all part of the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction summer programs at KU.

The 2003 conference will offer a free-form discussion Saturday morning around the topic "Science Fiction and History." Participants and audience members will discuss how science fiction as a genre has been shaped by historical forces, how writers have used history and alternate history as a subject, and how concepts of history have influenced science fiction writers' speculations about the future. Following the discussion, Matthew Jacobson and Kevin Willmott, both assistant professors of theatre and film, will screen their film, "CSA: The Confederate States of America," a feature-length speculative documentary about an alternate present in a world where the South won the Civil War. This private screening in Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union is free for registered conference attendees.

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 Friday, July 11, at a banquet in a small dining room of the Ekdahl Dining Commons, 1532 Engel Road. The winners and other writers present will have an opportunity to discuss their methods and current projects at an informal session Sunday morning. Registration for all conference events is required and may be completed online at www.ku.edu/~sfcenter/enrlform.htm.

Finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of 2002 are listed by title, author, publisher and publication month (when available):

 • "Bronte's Egg" by Richard Chwedyk, Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, August
 • "Liking What You See: A Documentary" by Ted Chiang in "Stories of Your Life and Others," Tor Books
 • "Singleton" by Greg Egan, Interzone magazine, February
 • "A Year in the Linear City" by Paul di Filippo, PS Publishing
 • "Madonna of the Maquiladora" by Gregory Frost, Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, May
 • "Stories for Men" by John Kessel, Asimov's, October
 • "The Seasons of the Ansarac" by Ursula K. LeGuin, Infinite Matrix, June
 • "The Wild Girls" by Ursula K. LeGuin, Asimov's, March
 • "Breathmoss" by Ian R. MacLeod, Asimov's, May
 • "Coelacanths" by Robert Reed, F&SF, March
 • "Over Yonder" by Lucius Shepard, SciFiction, January
 • "In Paradise" by Bruce Sterling, F&SF, September
 • "Halo" by Charles Stross, Asimov's, June

The center does not announce finalists for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science-fiction novel of the year before the awards banquet.

More information about stories nominated and the selection process is available online at http://www.ku.edu/~sfcenter/sturgeon.htm. To learn about the conference, visit http://www.ku.edu/~sfcenter/campbell-conference.htm. For more information about the center's educational programs, see http://www.ku.edu/~sfcenter/courses.htm.