A press release from Loncon 3:
Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”) taking place at the ExCeL in London 14-18 August, is pleased to announce that the Retro Hugo Awards ceremony will be co-hosted by Mary Robinette Kowal and Robert Shearman. They will be joined on stage by the Brideshead Ballroom Stompers for an awards evening full of music, celebration and surprises. The ceremony will take place at 8 pm on Thursday 14 August in the ICC Auditorium at ExCeL; it will also be streamed live on Ustream.
The Retro Hugo Awards celebrate the science fiction that attendees would have known at the time of the very first Worldcon, which was held in New York 75 years before Loncon 3. The Retro Hugos use the same rules and categories as the current awards, with parallel voting processes. If you can vote for the 2014 awards, you can vote for the 1939 awards.
Loncon 3 co-chairs Steve Cooper and Alice Lawson said: “We are thrilled to announce that Mary Robinette Kowal and Robert Shearman will be our co-hosts for the Retro Hugo Awards ceremony. They are both outstanding professionals in science fiction and fantasy and sought-after performers and dramatists, so this ceremony will be a must-see event for the more than 5,000 people who have already bought attending memberships for Loncon 3.”
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the Glamourist Histories series of historical fantasy novels. In 2008 she received the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and in 2011, her short story “For Want of a Nail” won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story. Her work has been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. Her stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Clarkesworld Magazine, and several “year’s best” anthologies. Mary is also a professional puppeteer who has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, and Jim Henson Pictures, and is the founder of Other Hand Productions. She also performs as a voice actor, recording fiction for authors such as Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow, and John Scalzi.
Robert Shearman has written four short story collections, which have won the World Fantasy Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Edge Hill Readers Prize, and three British Fantasy Awards. His background is in the theatre, and he is the resident dramatist at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, and a regular writer for Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. His plays have won the Sunday Times Playwriting Award, the Sophie Winter Memorial Trust Award, and the Guinness Award in association with the Royal National Theatre. He has won two Sony Awards for his interactive radio series The Chain Gang, and is well known for reintroducing the Daleks to the BAFTA-winning first season of the revived Doctor Who, in an episode that was a finalist for the Hugo Award.
Full details of the Retro Hugo Awards history and voting processes are available on the Loncon 3 web site at http://www.loncon3.org/1939_retro_hugos.php
Full details of how to become a member of Loncon 3 are available at http://www.loncon3.org/memberships/