Reporting from Readercon (and updating the article on 13 July 2009):
The Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award is given to “a science fiction or fantasy writer whose work displays unusual originality,ebodies the spirit of Cordwainer Smith’s fiction, and deserves renewed attention or ‘Rediscovery’.” The judges this year were Martin Harry Greenberg, Barry Malzberg, Mike Resnick, and Robert J. Sawyer. This year’s honoree, announced directly before the Friday night “Meet the Pros(e) Party,” is A. Merritt. Born Abraham Merritt on 20 January 1884, he died of a heart attack on 21 August 1943. He studied law and worked as a very successful journalist; his fiction writing was a sideline. His first fantasy story, “Through the Dragon Glass”, appeared in Argosy in 1917. Perhaps his best-remembered novel is The Ship of Ishtar (1924). At least two of his novels were the basis for films: Seven Footprints to Satan (1927) became a silent film with the same name in 1929, and Burn, Witch, Burn! (1932) became The Devil-Doll in 1936. His stories are also assumed to be the inspiration for the tv series Lost.

The Science Fiction Poetry Association‘s 2009 Rhysling awards for science fiction poetry were announced Saturday afternoon. The winner in the long poem category is “Search” by Geoffrey A. Landis (which was first published in Helix SF). Second place went to “Hungry: Some Ghost Stories” by Samantha Henderson (Lone Star Stories), and third place to “Damascus Divides the Lovers by Zero, or the City is Never Finished” by Amal El-Mohtar and Catherynne M. Valente (Lone Star Stories). In the short poem category, “Song for an Ancient City” by Amal El-Mohtar (Mythic Delirium). Second place goes to “Spell” by Samantha Henderson (Goblin Fruit), and third place to “The Future” by Billy Collins (The New Yorker). (For more on the nominees, see our earlier article.)
More than 80 people attended the ceremony, at which El-Mohtar and Valente performed their collaboration “Damascus Divides the Lovers by Zero, or the City is Never Finished,” standing back to back while reading alternating lines of the poem. Michael Bishop read his 1979 Rhysling Award winning long poem “For the Lady of a Physicist.” ReaderCon guest of honor Greer Gilman also read.

Finally, Sunday afternoon, the Shirley Jackson Awards—honoring the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic—were handed out. We detailed the nominees in this article. The winners, voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics (which included F. Brett Cox, John Langan, Sarah Langan, and Paul G. Tremblay), with input from a Board of Advisors (including Bill Congreve, Ellen Datlow, Jack M. Haringa, S.T. Joshi, Mike O’Driscoll, Stewart O’Nan, and Ann VanderMeer), are:
Novel: The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford (published by William Morrow)
Novella: Disquiet by Julia Leigh (Penguin)
Novelette: “Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
Short Story: “The Pile” by Michael Bishop (Subterranean Online)
Collection: The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa (Picador)
Anthology: The New Uncanny edited by Sarah Eyre and Ra Page (Comma Press)