The finalists for this year’s Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for best short science fiction story published in 2008) have just been announced. The Awards will be presented during the Campbell Conference Awards Banquet. This year’s Campbell Conference will be held 9-12 July, as always, at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
The finalists are:
“The Gambler” by Paolo Bacigalupi (originally published in Fast Forward 2)
“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (Eclipse 2)
“True Names” by Cory Doctorow & Benjamin Rosenbaum (Fast Forward 2)
“The Political Prisoner” by Charles Coleman Finlay (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 2008)
“The Ray Gun: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner (Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 2008)
“Memory Dog” by Kathleen Ann Goonan (Asimov’s, April/May 2008)
“The Tear” by Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
“Special Economics” by Maureen McHugh (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
“His Master’s Voice” by Hannu Rajaniemi (Interzone #218)
“From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s, February 2008)
In addition, Kij Johnson’s “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” made the list, but it was withdrawn by Johnson, who is also a juror for the award.
The winner will be chosen from the nominees by the Sturgeon Award Jury, consisting of James Gunn, Kij Johnson, Frederik Pohl, Noel Sturgeon (one of Theodore Sturgeon’s children), and George Zebrowski.
Nominations are accepted from editors and short sf reviewers, and this year came from Lou Anders, Rebecca Bates, Andy Cox, Ellen Datlow, Aliette de Bodard, Wendy S. Delmater, Gardner Dozois, L. Timmel Duchamp, Eugie Foster, Kelly Green, Eileen Gunn, Anthony Hildebrand, Andrew Hook, Jim Kelly, Mark R. Kelly, Chris McKitterick, Mike Payne, Eric Reynolds, Stanley Schmidt, Larry Taylor, Lois Tilton, Dave Truesdale, Fran Van Cleave, Gordon Van Gelder, and Sheila Williams.