February 2023 CSFFA Newsletter

February 2023 CSFFA Newsletter

We at CSFFA hope you have lots of great speculative fiction keeping you company during these winter months. Our February newsletter provides some updates on where we’re at in the annual Aurora Awards cycle, and a nice bit of news on one of the recent Best Novel winners.

In this newsletter:

  • Aurora Awards Eligibility Lists Close Soon
  • Mexican Gothic featured in CBC’s 2023 Canada Reads contest

Aurora Awards Eligibility Lists Close Soon

This year’s eligibility lists of works that are eligible in the ten Aurora Award categories will close on February 25th at 11:59 EST (or 8:59 PST in BC). CSFFA members will only be able to nominate works that have been approved on these lists.

We are looking for CSFFA members to help us add works that were first published/done by Canadians in 2022. Works in our eligibility lists will be validated by a team of CSFFA volunteers. If there are issues with any of the approved items, please let us know right away.

Note:  We are no longer giving out an award for movies or TV shows. Works that were in the Best Fan Organizational category are now in the Best Fan Related Work category. Due to a lack of eligible works in past years it was decided to make these changes. Also, we have redefined the Best Artist category so that it is the Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration category. Rather than nominate an artist, members now nominate each work that an artist has had published in the past year.

Nominations for this year’s awards will begin on Saturday, March 4th.

Membership registration note: Please do not wait until the last few days before a deadline to either signup or renew your CSFFA membership. Once you’ve paid your account should automatically be updated.  If not, do NOT pay a second time. Email us via our contact page to check that your payment did go through.  If you send us your receipt

Mexican Gothic featured in
CBC’s 2023 Canada Reads contest

Congratulations to Silvia Moreno-Garcia and her 2021 Aurora winning novel Mexican Gothic on being named a finalist in this years CBC’s Canada Reads! What an amazing spotlight on Mexican Gothic, we couldn’t be more proud on seeing this wonderful and moving novel brought back into the hearts and hands of Canadians. It is nice to see the work of Silvia Moreno-Garcia showcased and bringing a spotlight to the amazing speculative fiction written right here.

“It’s great to see horror on the CBC Canada Reads list. It’s often considered a minor genre. I’m glad Mexican Gothic is getting renewed attention and I’m eternally grateful to my champion, TikTok creator Tasnim Geedi, who will be representing the book during the competition.”
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This year’s CBC Canada Reads, which runs March 27 – 30, 2023 with the theme of novels that will shift your perspective, will have five books represented by five Canadian personalities over four days of passionate debate and discussion with one book being named the one book all Canadians should read. But readers are the true winners with the five books on the short list or the books on the long list, which includes Speculative writer Guy Gavriel Kay, as great recommendations when choosing your next read.

We wish Mexican Gothic and Silvia the best during Canada Reads and in the future. You can join the fun by tuning into Canada Reads this March.