The voting season for most awards has come to an end, but in Canada we’re just getting started. Nominations for the Aurora Award opened up on April 1st and close on May 7th.
Nominating is open members of the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association. Membership is $10 per year. It’s a nice, easy way of getting the Aurora nominees packet, which always includes a lot of great work.
I am eligible for my short story “Where Roots and Rivers Run as Veins”, which was published in Kelsi Morris and Kaitlin Tremblay’s anthology Those Who Make Us: Canadian Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories. The story received a nice mention in Publishers Weekly, and it was longlisted for the Carter V. Cooper $15,000 Short Story contest.
In the Best Related Work category, both my anthologies are eligible: The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales (Saga Press) and Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction (Exile Editions). I am very passionate about both projects.
Amal El-Mohtar’s “Seasons of Glass and Iron” from The Starlit Wood is eligible for the Aurora. The story is on the Locus Recommended Reading List, has been nominated for the Nebula and the Hugo Award, and has been reprinted in two Year’s Best anthologies. Other stories from The Starlit Wood have also garnered award nominations, as well as reprints in Year’s Best anthos. The anthology as a whole is on the Locus Recommended Reading List and the Barnes & Noble Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Collections and Anthologies of 2016.
On the other hand, Clockwork Canada has a full roster of Canadian contributors. The book received great reviews from Lightspeed, Tor.com, Quill & Quire, Broken Pencil, and many other venues. Any one of these stories can be nominated for the Aurora:
- “La Clochemar” by Charlotte Ashley
- “East Wind in Carrall Street” by Holly Schofield
- “The Harpoonist” by Brent Nichols
- “Crew 255” by Claire Humphrey
- “The Curlicue Seahorse” by Chantal Boudreau
- “Strange Things Done” by Michal Wojcik
- “Buffalo Gals” by Colleen Anderson
- “Our Chymical Séance” by Tony Pi
- “The Seven O’Clock Man” by Kate Heartfield
- “The Tunnels of Madness” by Harold R. Thompson
- “Let Slip the Sluicegates of War, Hydro-Girl” by Terri Favro
- “Equus” by Kate Story
- “Gold Mountain” by Karin Lowachee
- “Komagata Maru” by Rati Mehrotra
- “Bones of Bronze, Limbs like Iron” by Rhea Rose
I’ve already mentioned that I had a story in the Those Who Make Us anthology, and I highly recommend considering it for the Best Related Work category. I particularly enjoyed Andrew F. Sullivan’s “The Shuck” and Rati Mehrotra’s “Vetala”. Other projects I think are worth your attention are Strangers Among Us ed. by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law, The Kissing Booth Girl by A.C. Wise, and Lackington’s ed. by Ranylt Richildis. There are a few other books that will probably make my ballot, but I’m still making my way through them.
I’m still catching up on my readings for the Novel category, but so far some books I think are worth serious consideration include The Devourers by Indra Das, Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, Company Town by Madeline Ashby, and The Nature of a Pirate by A.M. Dellamonica.
For Fan Writing/Publication and Fan Related Work, Derek Newman-Stille’s Speculating Canada (website and radio show) are very much my choices.
Dominik Parisien 