Albedo One announced the winners of this year’s Aeon Award for short fiction at the European Science Fiction Convention, in Copenhagen, Denmark. The winner of the €1000 Aeon Award (2006-2007) is “Angelus” by English author Nina Allan. The story will appear in issue 34 of the magazine. Ian Watson, who was the grand judge, said that the story was “beautifully written and paced and enigmatic yet in an entirely lucid way.”
The second and third place finishers, which will also appear in issue 34 of Albedo One, are “Isle of Beauty” by Larry Taylor and “The White Knight” by Devon Code-McNeil.
Frank Ludlow said “The Award is all about promoting new writers of speculative fiction. This year we had stories submitted from countries as diverse as Chile, India, Finland, Swedan, the Netherlands, the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK, amongst many others. This highlights the international nature of the Award and the interest short fiction in the speculative genres holds for writers of so many different nationalities.” Commenting on the entries, he said “We at Albedo One and the Aeon Award have come away with a definite belief in the strength of the speculative genres, be it horror, fantasy, science fiction or anything in between. It was a privilege to read the work of so many fine authors who will be taking speculative fiction into the future.”
Watson chose the winners from the top six shortlisted stories. The others on the short list were: “Partial Recall” by Sean Day, “The Dreamy Sloth” by Jennifer Glyn, and “A Giant in the House” by Daniel Pearlman.
The identities of all the other finalists have been announced on Albedo One‘s web site (the authors names were kept hidden for judging).
They expect to launch the third Aeon Award on 1 January 2008, and “introduce a cash prize for second and third place.”