The Aurealis Awards are Australia’s juried speculative fiction awards (the popular award is the Ditmar). This year they were awarded in May, in Sydney – next year they move to Canberra. The organisation that runs them, however, is SpecFaction (which this year’s convenor gloriously malapropped as SpacFiction at one stage) in the proceedings). The awards night is a very glamorous occasion. It’s preceded by drinks and nibbles and there’s an anyone-can-attend party afterwards.
My category (I was one of three judges of Young Adult work) produced one of the two big surprises on the night: we awarded a shared prize. The other big surprise on the night wasn’t nearly as unexpected.
Margo Lanagan was kept very busy walking on and off stage to collect her various awards.
It must have been difficult to be standing against her, this year, for her writing is the best it’s ever been.
Scott Westerfeld might have officiated and Kate Eltham might have been given the prestigious award for excellence, but it was Margo’s night.
You can find more information about the awards themselves on the Aurealis website :
here: http://www.aurealisawards.com/index.htm
The results of this year’s awards are here: http://www.aurealisawards.com/AA-winners_2012_media-release.pdf
All the rest of my report is in pictures! (I hid amongst the awardees to get these shots.)
© Gillian Polack
The Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Only Australians are eligible for the award.
The Aurealis Award was established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis Magazine. Unlike the other major Australian speculative fiction award, the Ditmar Award, it divides work into sub-genre and age categories, and is judged as such. The Aurealis Awards are intended to complement the Annual Australian National Science Fiction Convention’s Ditmar Awards and the Australian Children’s Book Council Awards.
SpecFaction NSW (New South Wales), organisers of the 2012 Aurealis Awards, had announced the finalists for the 2012 Aurealis Awards.
2012 Aurealis Award Winners
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (Harper Collins)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY
Significant Dust by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape, Twelfth Planet Press)
BEST COLLECTION
That Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote by K. J. Bishop (self-published)
BEST ANTHOLOGY
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six
edited by Jonathan Strahan (Night Shade Books)
BEST FANTASY NOVEL
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)
BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY
Bajazzle by Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape, Twelfth Planet Press)
BEST HORROR SHORT STORY
Sky by Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls, Twelfth Planet Press)
BEST HORROR NOVEL
Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott (Xoum)
BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION (TOLD PRIMARILY THROUGH WORDS)
Brotherband: The Hunters by John Flanagan (Random House Australia)
BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION (TOLD PRIMARILY THROUGH PICTURES)
Little Elephants by Graeme Base (Viking Penguin)
BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY
The Wisdom of the Ants by Thoraiya Dyer (Clarkesworld)
BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
(Joint winners)
Dead, Actually by Kaz Delaney (Allen & Unwin)
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)
BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK / GRAPHIC NOVEL
Blue by Pat Grant (Top Shelf Comix)
PETER MCNAMARA CONVENORS’ AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Kate Eltham
KRIS HEMBURY ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD
Laura Goodin
Gillian Polack is an Europa SF’s contributor and correspondent for Australia and New Zealand.
Gillian is an Australian writer and editor working mainly in the field of speculative fiction. She has published two novels, numerous short stories and nonfiction articles, and is the creator of the New Ceres universe. She attended Melbourne University and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) in History, with the Margaret Kiddle and Felix Raab Prizes. She did her Master of Arts at the Centre for Medieval Studies (University of Toronto) and submitted her thesis for Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. She later took out teaching qualifications at the University of New England. She currently lives in Canberra, ACT, Australia.
