Category Archives: Awards

Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

February 2024 CSFFA Newsletter: Aurora 2024 Updates

An update regarding the Aurora Awards, received from the CSFFA

Winter is almost over (we hope) and with it the first stage of 2024’s Aurora Awards process. Please see below for specific updates.

In this newsletter:

  1. Aurora Award Updates for February 2024
  2. An Aurora Awards History Tidbit

Aurora Awards Updates for February 2024Eligibility Lists Close Soon

Depending on when you read this, the lists for this year’s works eligible to be nominated for the 2024 Aurora Awards closes soon.  The lists will be closed at 11:59 pm EST on Saturday, February 24th.

Over the following week our eligibility team of volunteers will review all works that are still pending.  If you see something that was missed, please email us.  If it is not too late, we will try to add it.

Nominations Open in March

Nominations will open on Saturday, March 2nd.  CSFFA members have until Saturday, April 6th at 11:59 pm EST to enter your choices.  One special feature of the nomination process is that you can return as many times as you wish to add or modify your choices.  After our deadline our webmaster will lock all nominations that members have entered.

For those new to the awards, you may enter up to five choices in each category.  Each entry in a category must be unique.  If you submit the same work more than once ALL of them will be voided.  If you accidentally duplicate one you can always use the “blank” record that it at the top of each dropdown list.  Please be careful and review your choices before you submit them. Nominate what you know and enjoyed.

Special request when you nominate or ask others to nominate

Please do NOT ask friends or family to get a membership to just nominate or vote (later) for your works if they are not SF/Fantasy fans.  Members are encouraged to nominate in multiple categories.  The awards are for fans of the genre.  This is not a popularity contest to see who has the largest family.

We want people to get memberships who read Science Fiction, Fantasy, and/or Horror to help us determine the best works that were done last year.

Awards

The 2023 Hugo Awards: A report on censorship and exclusion

This is a must read report on what happened to the 2023 Hugo Awards. Also on File 770, letters from Kat Jones and Diane Lacey. 

Click here to read the report: 2023 Hugo Awards Censorship Report_Final

Extract below:

LEAKED EMAILS AND FILES REVEAL POLITICAL CONCERNS RESULTED IN INELIGIBILITY ISSUES WITH 2023 HUGO AWARDS

By Chris M. Barkley and Jason Sanford: Emails and files released by one of the administrators of the 2023 Hugo Awards indicate that authors and works deemed “not eligible” for the awards were removed due to political considerations. In particular, administrators of the awards from the United States and Canada researched political concerns related to Hugo-eligible authors and works and discussed removing certain ones from the ballot for those reasons, revealing they were active participants in the censorship that took place.

When the Hugo Award voting and nomination statistics were released, no detailed explanation was given for why multiple authors and works were deemed “not eligible” even though they had enough nominations to make the award’s final ballot. The only official explanation came from overall Hugo Awards administrator Dave McCarty, who said “After reviewing the Constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.”

However, emails and files released by another member of that Hugo administration team, Diane Lacey, shows that the rules “we must follow” were in relation to Chinese laws related to content and censorship.

Awards

Hugo controversy in mainstream press

IN THE GUARDIAN.The Guardian’s report “Science fiction awards held in China under fire for excluding authors” includes quotes from Xiran Jay Zhao and Paul Weimer.

…No reason was given for the exclusions, which were only revealed on 20 January when the Hugo awards published the full nomination statistics for last year’s prize. Certain titles were listed as having been given votes, but were marked with an asterisk and the words “not eligible”, with no further details given….

…Concerns have been raised that the authors were targeted for political reasons, connected to the fact that the ruling Chinese Communist party exerts a tight control on all cultural events that take place inside its borders.

Dave McCarty, the head of the 2023 Hugo awards jury, wrote on Facebook: “Nobody has ordered me to do anything … There was no communication between the Hugo administration team and the Chinese government in any official manner.”

McCarty did not respond to a request from the Guardian for comment, but shared what he said was the official response from the awards administration team on Facebook: “After reviewing the constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.” He declined to elaborate on what the rules were.

READ MORE:

https://file770.com/hugo-controversy-hits-mainstream-news-a-chengdu-vice-chair-comments-in-social-media/

Awards

Hugo Awards: Nomination Stats questioned

Nomination stats for the Hugos awarded at Chengdu, China, have finally been published, and a can of worms exploded all over social media, lots landing on Dave McCarty, the Hugo administrator.

Some works were declared ineligible, no reason given beyond:

After reviewing the Constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.

When asked which rules, the answer was:

After reviewing the Constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.

Theories are tending toward the committee not wanting trouble with the government of China. And if that is the case, then we need to be a whole lot more careful about site selection. WSFS does have to comply with the local laws. Kevin Standlee used the example of, “what if we had the World Con in Florida”. Now there’s a scary scenario!

Lots of commentary from fans and pros alike on File770.com.

This particular thread is worth reading: https://file770.com/chengdu-hugo-administrator-dave-mccarty-fields-questions-on-facebook/

 

 

 

Awards, Fanzines

FAAN Awards for zines published in 2023

From Nic Farey,the Voter’s Guide to FAAN Awards.

Attached: The Incompleat Register 2023 voters’ guide for this year’s FAAn Awards for excellence in fanzines, fanwriting and fanart. Incompleat2023

The awards are sponsored by the current Corflu (COR41U, to be held in Las Vegas) and the results will be announced at the banquet on Sunday March 3 2024 – membership of Corflu (or anything else) is not a requirement for voting, which is open to anyone with an interest in fanzines.

As always, the reminder that TIR should not be seen as a definitive list of what you can or cannot vote for. All votes are recorded in good faith, subject to proper categorization.

Ballots must be received by midnight PST, Saturday February 24, 2024.

Faneds (or indeed anyone at all) receiving this are encouraged to publicize the awards, redistribute TIR or indeed engage in advocacy for any favored titles/individuals as a part of promotion of the awards overall.

Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

CSFFA Hall of Fame Inductees, 2023


CSFFA Hall of Fame Inductees, 2023

CSFFA has inducted three people into the Hall of Fame, in 2023. Congratulations to John Robert Colombo, Michelle Sagara, and Clifford Samuels for their induction. Thank you to the 2023 Hall of Fame Jury for their work. Here are very brief bios of the inductees (please visit their web sites for more info about them).

John Robert Colombo has been called “the Master Gatherer” for his compilations of Canadiana. He is a member of the Order of Canada and Order of Ontario, and has written, compiled, and translated more books than any other serious Canadian author. More than 200 titles of his books have been published since 1960. http://colombo.ca/

Michelle Sagara has written over 40 fantasy novels and has been nominated twice for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (the award underwent a recent name change). She also has a long running book review column, Musing on Books, for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, with over 50 columns. https://michellesagara.com/

Clifford Samuels is the Aurora Awards Administrator and has been a pillar of support for Calgary fandom for almost four decades, his contribution reaching beyond the city, beyond the province, indeed, beyond the country.

See more at the Hall of Fame page: https://www.csffa.ca/the-csffa-hall-of-fame/

Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

Aurora Awards Voting Info & Voters’ Package

From the CSFFA, news of the Aurora Awards.Membership is not expensive, and the voter package is well worth the cost. The deadline for membership is tomorrow!

Aurora Awards Voting Info & Voters’ Package

In this newsletter:

  1. Voting information for this year’s Aurora Awards
  2. Aurora Awards Voters’ Package
  3. Change of dates for membership payments and voters’ package download
  4. Reminder: CSFFA AGM June 25

Voting has begun: how to vote in this year’s Aurora Awards

Voting is open for CSFFA members.  You have until 11:59 pm EDT on July 29th, 2023, to submit your ballot.  Remember, vote for what you know.  You do not have to vote in all categories, and you do not have to rank all nominated works.

We use a ranked or alternate voting method.  To vote, sort your choices from 1 (your favourite) to 5 (your least favourite).  For full details about this and how votes are tabulated, go to our about voting method page, https://www.csffa.ca/about/aurora-awards-voting-method/

Unlike our nomination process, when you submit your ballot, it will be locked, and you will NOT be able to make any changes or return to it another day.  Do not start to vote until you are sure you know everything you wish to vote for.

We are using the same voting form that we used last year.  It is easy to use.  Each category allows you to move your selections either with your mouse or finger (if you have a touch screen) on most devices.  Move your choices above the voting line which says, “No pick underneath this line will be counted”.  As you do this your choice will show you what its ranking is.  If you make a mistake, you can move your choice to a different position or back below the voting line.

For your ballot to count you must click the “Send Ballot” button at the bottom of the form.  This will lock and submit your selections.  Do NOT submit your choices until all of your selections are arranged.  This must be done at the same time since you will not be able to return to edit or add to your ballot once it has been submitted.  If you close the form before you submit all of your choices, they will be cleared and not saved, and you will have to start again.

So, download and read the nominated works that are in our voters’ package.  When you are done, go to our online voting form and rank all of your choices.  When you’ve done this for all the categories that you’re interested in, click the “Send Ballot” button at the bottom of the form to lock and submit them.

Join us for our online awards ceremony at 7 pm EDT on August 19th to find out who takes home this year’s trophies.  We will be live streaming on both Facebook and YouTube.

2023 Aurora Awards Voters’ Package

The Voters’ Package is now available for the 2023 Aurora Awards. It can be accessed and the files downloaded from https://www.csffa.ca/members-home/. You must be logged into your account to access it.

Good luck to all of the nominees. Voting will begin on June 17th and close six weeks later on July 29th. The awards ceremony will be held online starting at 7pm EDT, August 19th, 2023. The ceremony will be hosted by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson. Links to both a Facebook and YouTube page for the ceremony will be posted in August.

Change of dates for membership payments and voters package download

We are changing the closing date for people to purchase CSFFA memberships and to download works from our voters’ package.  The new date is 11:59pm EDT, July 22nd, 2023.  This does NOT affect voting for the awards, that date is still one week later, July 29th.

Membership Payments:  Purchases of CSFFA memberships must be made one week prior to the close of voting.  If you purchase your membership and your account has not been automatically updated, then you must contact us ASAP.  Do NOT wait days, contact us with a copy of your payment notice from PayPal.  We will manually update your account.

Voters Package:  The download form for the voters package will also close one week prior to the close of voting.  If you have not taken what you wish to read it will be unavailable.

The CSFFA board felt that members should be part of the society at least a week prior to when voting closes.  We provide the voters package to help you vote and if you don’t download it until the last few days, you don’t have time to read the works before you vote.  The other reason is that we don’t feel the support team should be scrambling for those who decide to only join at the last moment and have problems.

We hope CSFFA members appreciate that our board members are all volunteers and cannot be monitoring the site 24/7.

Reminder: CSFFA AGM June 25, 2023

To attend the AGM, email president@csffa.ca. You will be emailed a Zoom link a few days before June 25.

The 2023 CSFFA AGM materials and motions can be viewed by logged-in members (Home page -> Annual General Meeting). Members can vote until June 24.

The AGM will begin Sunday June 25, 10 a.m. Pacific/ 11 a.m. Mountain/ noon Central/ 1 p.m. Eastern/ 2 p.m. Atlantic/ and one half-hour later, Newfoundland & Labrador.

 

Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

CSFFA Special Update: AGM Date Changed, Voters Package Ready

Membership in CSFFA is really worth the price if you enjoy reading, and there is a lot of reading in the awards package!  https://www.csffa.ca/ CPL

In this newsletter:

  1. Change of Date for CSFFA AGM
  2. Aurora Awards Voters’ Package

The CSFFA AGM has a new date: June 25, 2023

The CSFFA 2023 AGM now will occur Sunday, June 25. The 2023 CSFFA AGM materials and motions can be viewed by logged-in members (Home page -> Annual General Meeting). Members can vote now on the motions. Voting ends June 24.

The AGM will begin Sunday June 25, 10 a.m. Pacific/ 11 a.m. Mountain/ noon Central/ 1 p.m. Eastern/ 2 p.m. Atlantic/ and one half-hour later, Newfoundland & Labrador.

2023 Aurora Awards Voters’ Package

The Voters’ Package is now available for the 2023 Aurora Awards. It can be accessed and the files downloaded from https://www.csffa.ca/members-home/. You must be logged into your account to access it.

Good luck to all of the nominees. Voting will begin on June 17th and close six weeks later on July 29th. The awards ceremony will be held online starting at 7pm EDT, August 19th, 2023. The ceremony will be hosted by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson. Links to both a Facebook and YouTube page for the ceremony will be posted in August.

Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

Aurora Awards & CSFFA Updates for April 2023

Aurora Awards & CSFFA Updates
for April 2023

In this newsletter:

  1. Aurora Awards 2023 Nominations Deadline Imminent
  2. CSFFA Board of Directors Vacancy

Aurora Awards 2023

Nominations close on April 22, 2023, at 11:59pm EDT.

Yes, there is still time to get your nominations in for this year’s Aurora Awards. As we always say, nominate what you know and enjoyed. This is your chance to put your selections forward.

You are allowed to nominate up to five works in each of the ten categories. Choose from the list of approved works by Canadian’s in 2022. You don’t have to nominate in all the categories. Here a link to this year’s approved works.

A couple of notes about the nomination process

  1. You can change your nominations up until we close nominations on Saturday, April 22nd.
  2. Selections on our nomination form are done by using its drop-down lists of approved works.
  3. When you put in your nominations you MUST click the SAVE or UPDATE button for each category.
  4. When you click the SAVE/UPDATE button, your screen changes to show a message that your selections have been saved instead of your selections. No, your selections have not been lost. If you refresh your screen or leave and come back to this screen your selections will be displayed.
  5. If you select something that you don’t want to nominate, just go to the top of the drop-down list and select the first item which is a blank line.
  6. Don’t wait until the last day since you can always add or remove items at any time until the deadline.

Payment Note:

If you pay your annual CSFFA dues and the system still will not let you in, DO NOT pay a second time. Wait a little bit and try logging in again. Do not wait days. If after an hour you are still having trouble, then please send us an email through our contact form. Include your PayPal receipt information and we will update your account. If you pay with a PayPal account that has a different email address than your CSFFA account PayPal might not get us the right information to update your account automatically.

Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame

Aurora Awards & CSFFA Updates for March 2023

Aurora Awards & CSFFA Updates
for March 2023

Springtime is almost here, and with it the awards process kicks into high gear! The nomination period for this year’s Aurora Awards have opened. This newsletter also features a call for a CSFFA secretary to join the Board. And if you are considering applying to professional development grant, don’t hesitate as there are only a few weeks left. More information below.

In this newsletter:

  1. Aurora Awards News: 2023 Nominations Are Open
  2. CSFFA Board of Directors Vacancy
  3. CSFFA 2023 Professional Development Grant Deadline: March 31st

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Aurora Awards 2023: Nominations Are Open

You can now nominate for the 2023 Aurora Awards for works done in 2022. There are ten (10) categories.  You may nominate up to five (5) different works in each category. You do not have nominate in all categories or select five works in a category. Nominate what you know and what you enjoyed. Do NOT nominate the same work more than once. Duplicate entries of the same work will be voided.

Nominations will be open until 11:59pm EDT on April 22nd. At that time your choices will be locked. You must have a paid CSFFA membership to participate (annual membership is $10). Log into your account and click the Nomination icon on the member’s home page.

Note: The top five works by five different nominees will be chosen to be on the final ballot in each category. If a nominee has two works with the same number of nominations in the top five, they will be asked to select one to be on the ballot.

About the nomination form plus a few tricks:

  1. The nomination form consists of ten sections (one for each award category)
  2. Each section has five lines of drop-down lists of the approved eligible works in the category you are on. You may only nominate works from the drop-down lists.
  3. You can enter your selections in any order and if you wish to remove one, select the blank line at the top of each drop-down list.
  4. You do not have to nominate in all the categories, and you don’t have to select five works in a category.
  5. Do not nominate the same work more than once. Duplicate selections of the same work will be voided.
  6. To move through the drop-down lists, you can either use your mouse to scroll down or you can key in the first letter of a work and the list will move to the first work starting with that letter.
  7. You can go to the eligibility lists from the members-only page at any time to view what has been approved and use the URL link to look at online information about it.
  8. After you have selected works in a category you must click the Save button or your choices will be lost if you leave the nomination form.
  9. Each category has its own save button.If you close the form before you Save or Update your changes they will be lost, and you will have to start again.
  10. If you refresh your screen or come back to it later your selections will be visible.You may change your choices at any time. Categories that you have already saved works will display Update rather than Save.
  11. You may continue to change your choices until we have closed nominations.
  12. Nominate what you know and enjoyed. This is your chance to have a say what is on the final ballot. Make it your own choices.

CSFFA Board of Directors Vacancy

Your CSFFA board needs a secretary!

The secretary is a full member of the board, equally participating in discussions and decisions. Meetings are monthly (except December), the last Tuesday of each month (8 p.m. E.S.T.: attendees are in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia.)

Meetings happen via Zoom. Meetings typically last 60 minutes.

Duty of the secretary is to write the minutes of board meetings. In the event that the secretary can not attend a meeting, the meeting is recorded.

Interested? Email president@prixaurorawards.ca

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CSFFA Professional Developmental Grant

Grant deadline one is fast approaching! Get your application in by March 31, 2023, 11:59pm MT. In case you missed any of the details you will find them below.

This grant is to enable CSFFA members to pursue education and professional development that helps them expand their skill set. Starting in 2023 we will be awarding a total of $2,500.00 over the year to new writers, writers new to the genre or writers changing focus, for example short story to novel.

This Grant will be awarded to successful a successful applicant or applicants to cover up to 75% of the cost of developmental avenues such as:

  • Courses
  • Retreats
  • Writing software
  • A book coach or editorial fees for their first book

There will be two submission windows in 2023. The first is January 1st to March 31st, with funds awarded by May 15th and June 1st to August 31st with funds awarded by Oct 15th.

Funds will be distributed at the discretion of the Board and based upon applications submitted per submission windows until the full amount of the grant is paid out. Any unawarded funds will be distributed at the discretion of the Board or rolled over into the next grant year.

Successful applicants will be contacted by CSFFA and an announcement will be made on our website, newsletter, and/or during the Aurora Awards.

All decisions by the CSFFA Board are final.

Application Submission Guidelines

  1. Applicants must be members of CSFFA in good standing.
  2. Current Board Members or family members of the selection committee are not eligible for this grant.
  3. Former Board members must have vacated their position for a minimum of one year prior to application.
  4. Must be a new writer or new to the genre of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative fiction, or any subgenres of these main genres.
  5. Must be unpublished or have publications that are less than 50 copies in speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, or any sub genres of these main genres.
  6. Provide contact Information
  7. A 1,000-word proposal is to be submitted detailing the following:
  8. What the endeavour is, along with a description and weblink
  9. A timeline for the endeavour (must be less than one year)
  10. Expected results from the endeavour
  11. A short bio
  12. If awarded, the applicant is asked to submit upon completion a 500-word description on the results and experience of the endeavour. The applicant must also be in agreement that their name and or photo will be used on the website, newsletter or both.

Applications must be submitted by 11:59:59 MT on the last day of each submission period. Any late submissions will be automatically transferred to the next submission period for consideration.

Submission of applications are to be made to PublicityCSFFA@gmail.com

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