BSFA shortlist
Jan. 23rd, 2008 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceOkay, I'm told the press release has gone out, which meant it must be officially disembargoed, even if no one's actually published it yet: the shortlist has been announced for the British Science Fiction Association awards, and wow. My short story "Terminal" is still there. Officially shortlisted. Yay!
I haven't actually seen the list yet, so I don't entirely know who else is there and I don't want to pre-empt their own announcements, but - well, big SF names are there. With mine.
You know how people say that being shortlisted is the real victory? Well, in this case I think they're right. In the same way that SF is not really about the rocketships, it's about human interaction, so too awards are not really about the rocketship-shaped statuettes. They're about validation, other people saying "yes, Chaz, you are too a genuine SF writer, see?"
Which is not to say, of course, that I do not want to win rocketship-shaped statuettes (or whatever the BSFA awards actually are, which I do not know, and their website is not telling me). Of course I want to win it! The fact that I feel like I've won it already, that's utterly irrelevant. Soon you will have a new voting opportunity - any member of the BSFA, that is, and anyone going to Eastercon - and I will encourage you to use it. Many times, probably.
Thank you for nominating me, those of you who did: your efforts were not wasted. Now, onward and upward! One more heave! And other inspirational tracts.
Also, I can at least tell you this much: that Bryan Talbot's "Alice in Sunderland" is shortlisted in the novel category. Personally I think of it as non-fiction, but hey. I'll vote for it, wherever they choose to list it. I have a duty, and a unique position: being the only shortlisted author also to appear as a character in another shortlisted work. Yay!!
ETA: SF Awards Watch has the full shortlists. Of course. They're quick, them...
I haven't actually seen the list yet, so I don't entirely know who else is there and I don't want to pre-empt their own announcements, but - well, big SF names are there. With mine.
You know how people say that being shortlisted is the real victory? Well, in this case I think they're right. In the same way that SF is not really about the rocketships, it's about human interaction, so too awards are not really about the rocketship-shaped statuettes. They're about validation, other people saying "yes, Chaz, you are too a genuine SF writer, see?"
Which is not to say, of course, that I do not want to win rocketship-shaped statuettes (or whatever the BSFA awards actually are, which I do not know, and their website is not telling me). Of course I want to win it! The fact that I feel like I've won it already, that's utterly irrelevant. Soon you will have a new voting opportunity - any member of the BSFA, that is, and anyone going to Eastercon - and I will encourage you to use it. Many times, probably.
Thank you for nominating me, those of you who did: your efforts were not wasted. Now, onward and upward! One more heave! And other inspirational tracts.
Also, I can at least tell you this much: that Bryan Talbot's "Alice in Sunderland" is shortlisted in the novel category. Personally I think of it as non-fiction, but hey. I'll vote for it, wherever they choose to list it. I have a duty, and a unique position: being the only shortlisted author also to appear as a character in another shortlisted work. Yay!!
ETA: SF Awards Watch has the full shortlists. Of course. They're quick, them...