Yet more early news on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America‘s Nebula Awards Weekend: Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Janis Ian will be the Toastmistress for the 24-26 April 2009 event in Los Angeles, California. Ian started a second career as a sf writer several years ago, and co-edited an anthology with Mike Resnick titled Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian. Her autobiography, Society’s Child, was published in 2008.
“I will tell you that to be asked to host the Nebulas is right up there with being nominated for a Grammy, in my book. Or books,” Ian said. “I was raised on the ABC’s—Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke. My father spent long hours telling me stories of robots that sang, dwarfs who rescued princesses (only to be abandoned by them for a handsome, though toadishly-minded, prince), and other worlds filled with incredible beings who, I was quite sure, were my ‘real family.’ I used to sit in front of my open bedroom window and look up at the stars, wondering when they would come and rescue me.” Ian wrote and recorded her first hit record in 1965 at the age of 15, and hit number one on the singles charts with “Society’s Child” two years later. That year Ian received her first Grammy nomination for her self-titled debut album. Her 1975 album, Between the Lines, earned five Grammy nominations, winning two, including best pop female performance. She won another Grammy for the children’s record In Harmony 2.
“I believe that science fiction, like jazz, like folk music, like the music I do, is an outsider genre,” Ian said. “Those of us who practice in those genres know what it is to spend our lives with our noses pressed up against the glass, watching everyone else dancing at the ball while our own feet beat out a solitary rhythm no one else can hear.
“I’ve lived my life as an artist influenced by everything from Kirinyaga to Ender’s Game, from The Ship Who Sang to Bob Silverberg’s brilliant Science Fiction 101 and Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, two books that have taught me and sustained me since they first appeared,” she said.
Previous early announcements were the announcement of Harry Harrison’s Grand Master award and the naming of M.J. Engh as Author Emerita.