Award Administrator Sam Scheiner has announced that the Washington Science Fiction Association is once again holding its annual Small Press Award competition, “to honor the work done by small presses in promoting and preserving science fiction. The award is for original short fiction works (20,000 words or fewer) of imaginative literature (e.g., science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative fiction or like literature) published by a small press.”
WSFA defines small press as “a hard copy print or web publication house releasing from 3 to 25 titles per year. Eligible paper periodicals are those with a circulation of fewer than 10,000 in the year that the story is published. Eligible web periodicals are those with fewer than 10,000 subscriptions in the year that the story is published. Periodicals must pay all authors in cash. Any story published in a periodical owned by a major publishing house or media producer is not eligible for this award.”
They’re asking authors and small press publishers to nominate stories for them to consider (authors may nominate one story; publishers up to three) by 1 March 2008. There’s a complete write-up describing how to nominate stories on this page.
The award will be presented at WSFA’s annual convention, Capclave in October in the Washington, DC, area.
Last year’s winner, as we announced in this article was “El Regalo” by Peter S. Beagle.