The 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award—including the £2011 prize—will be handed out on 27 April as part of the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival. In a twist this year, the announcement of the books making the short list was posted on the Festival’s web site, but not on the award’s own site.
The short-listed books for this year’s award are:
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz)
Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Generosity by Richard Powers (Atlantic Books)
Declare by Tim Powers (Corvus)
Lightborn by Tricia Sullivan (Orbit)
The annual award is “presented for the best science fiction novel of the year, and selected from a shortlist of novels whose UK first edition was published in the previous calendar year.” It was originally established by a grant from Sir Arthur C. Clarke with the aim of promoting science fiction in Britain.
The winner is judged by a jury panel and selected from the shortlist of six eligible novels. The panel of judges is made up of a voluntary body of distinguished writers, critics, and fans with the panel line-up changing every year. This year’s judging panel includes Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Martin Lewis of the British Science Fiction Association, Phil Nanson and Liz Williams of the Science Fiction Foundation, and Paul Skevington of SFCrowsnest.com. Paul Billinger represents the Arthur C. Clarke Award as the Chair of Judges.
Award Administrator Tom Hunter said “The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Arthur C. Clarke Award was always going to be a landmark year, and we couldn’t have asked for a more fascinating and exciting shortlist to get the celebrations started.
“Fifty-four eligible books is one of the highest submission years we’ve ever had, and when you look at all of the reviews, debate and online commentary that’s surrounded many of these titles you can see just how hard the judges’ deliberations were this year.
“For me this list is a great indication of just how deep, rich and complex the literature of science fiction can be. I think this list is a definite keeper, as they say, and my hope is that twenty-five years from now people will still be coming back to it as a representation of everything that’s best about the diversity and strength of our genre.”