The finalists for this year’s Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for best short science fiction story published in 2009) have just been announced. The Awards will be presented during the Campbell Conference Awards Banquet. This year’s Campbell Conference will be held 16-18 July, as always, at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
The finalists are:
“Things Undone” by John Barnes (originally published in Jim Baen’s Universe)
“This Wind Blowing, and This Tide” by Damien Broderick (Asimov’s Science Fiction)
“As Women Fight” by Sara Genge (Asimov’s)
“Blood Dauber” by Ted Kosmatka and Michael Poore (Asimov’s)
“Cockatrice” by Tanith Lee (Fantasy Magazine)
“Shambling Towards Hiroshima” by James Morrow (published by Tachyon Publications as a stand-alone novella)
“Her Voice in a Bottle” by Tim Pratt (Subterranean)
“True Fame” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s)
“The Death of Che Guevara” by Lewis Shiner (Subterranean)
“Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com)
“The Island” by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2)
For the second year in a row, Kij Johnson placed a story among the finalists, but withdrew it because she’s also a juror for the award. This year, her finalist-worthy story was “Spar” (originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine).
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 John Joseph Adams, Ellen Datlow, Scott Edelman, Rich Horton, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Chris McKitterick, Stanley Schmidt, Larry Taylor, Lois Tilton, Gordon Van Gelder, Sheila Williams, and George Zebrowski.