SFWA President Michael Capobianco issued the following statement (corrected for typos) on 28 February 2008:
The Board of Directors of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. is pleased to announce that writer and editor Michael Moorcock has been named Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2008. The Grand Master represents SFWA’s highest accolade and recognizes excellence for a lifetime of contributions to the genres of science fiction and fantasy.
Mr. Moorcock is the twenty-fifth writer recognized by SFWA as a Grand Master. He joins Robert A. Heinlein (1974), Jack Williamson (1975), Clifford D. Simak (1976), L. Sprague de Camp (1978), Fritz Leiber (1981), Andre Norton (1983), Arthur C. Clarke (1985), Isaac Asimov (1986), Alfred Bester (1987), Ray Bradbury (1988), Lester del Rey (1990), Frederik Pohl (1992), Damon Knight (1994), A.E. van Vogt (1995), Jack Vance (1996), Poul Anderson (1997), Hal Clement (1998), Brian Aldiss (1999), Philip Jose Farmer (2000), Ursula K. Le Guin (2003), Robert Silverberg (2004), Anne McCaffrey (2005), Harlan Ellison (2006), and James Gunn (2007).
The presentation of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award will take place at the SFWA Nebula Awards Weekend, April 25-27 at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown, Austin, TX.
Moorcock may be best known as the creator of the Elric of Melniboné series. He received the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000; was inducted into the SF Hall of Fame in 2002; and received the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Individual work awards he has won include:
the 1968 Nebula Award for best novella for “Behold the Man”
the 1972 British Fantasy Award for best novel for The Knight of Swords
the 1973 British Fantasy Award for best novel for The King of Swords
the 1975 British Fantasy Award for best novel for Ancient Shadows
the 1976 British Fantasy Award for best novel for The End of All Songs
the 1979 World Fantasy Award for best novel for Gloriana
the 1986 Seiun for best foreign novel for The Elric Saga