The following, chiefly English-language, awards receive detailed individual entries in this encyclopedia:
- Arthur C Clarke Award (for novels)
- British Fantasy Award (1966-1969)
- BSFA Award
- Chesley Awards (for art and illustration)
- Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Memorial Award (for first novels)
- Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award (for perhaps neglected authors)
- Ditmar Award (Australia only since the abolition of past International Fiction category; partial listing)
- Eaton Award (for life achievement; formerly for nonfiction about the genre)
- First Fandom Hall of Fame (for long-time contributions to sf and/or Fandom)
- Hugo
- IAFA Award (for sf scholarship)
- International Fantasy Award
- Jack Gaughan Award (for Best Emerging Artist)
- James Tiptree Jr Award (for gender-exploring sf)
- John W Campbell Award (for new writers)
- John W Campbell Memorial Award (for novels)
- Locus Award
- Nebula (see also SFWA Grand Master Award)
- Philip K Dick Award (for US paperback originals)
- Pilgrim Award (for criticism)
- Prometheus Award (for Libertarian SF)
- Retro Hugo
- Rhysling Award (for Poetry)
- Science Fiction Hall of Fame (for life achievement)
- Seiun Award (Japanese; for novels and stories, both Japanese originals and translated works)
- SFWA Grand Master Award (for life achievement); this entry also covers other SFWA career awards such as Author Emeritus/Emerita and the Solstice Award.
- Sidewise Award (for Alternate History)
- Skylark Award (for general contributions to the field)
- Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for short stories)
- Thomas D Clareson Award (for various services to sf)
- World Fantasy Award (partial listing);
- Writers of the Future Contest
Additionally we include selected lists of sf-writing recipients of the Carnegie Medal and the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult sf/fantasy is presented with, and listed under, the Nebulas.
Awards given exclusively for Fantasy or Horror, such as the August Derleth, Bram Stoker, British Fantasy Award, Crawford, David Gemmell Legend, Gandalf, Gryphon, Mythopoeic or Shirley Jackson (psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic) awards do not receive full entries. Nor for the most part do awards for fields or genres whose overlap with sf is only partial (the Will Eisner Award for Comics is a good example here). Past editions of this encyclopedia did not list awards based in countries other than the UK and USA, especially when only natives of the host country are eligible: the sheer proliferation of sf-related prizes necessitated this chauvinist ruling. However, with the relaxing of space restrictions exceptions are being allowed for some long-established awards, including so far the Australian Ditmar Award and the Japanese Seiun Award
We still do not list individually the following country-specific awards: the William Atheling Jr Award (Australian award for criticism, associated with the Ditmar Award), the Prix Jules Verne, given in France to novels in the spirit of Jules Verne; discontinued in 1980; the Prix Apollo, another French award given since 1972 to best sf novel published in France, regardless of whether it is French or translated; the Prix Rosny aîné for best sf in French; the Aurora (known until 1991 as the Casper) given in Canada to local sf in both English and French; the Sunburst, again restricted to Canada, for adult and Young Adult speculative books in English only; the Gigamesh award given by bookshops in Spain for sf in Spanish and translation; the Xatafi-Cyberdark awards, also in Spain; the various European Science Fiction Awards given at the annual pan-European Convention known as Eurocon; the Kurd Laßwitz Award, Germany's equivalent of the Nebula; the SFCD-Literaturpreis given by a large German fan club; the Nova Science Fiction award in Italy; the Atorox in Finland; and many others.
We also do not list awards whose eligibility is restricted to particular regions within a country, such as the Chronos awards (Victoria, Australia) and the Endeavour awards (the US Pacific Northwest).
Yet other awards, such as the Balrog (presented chiefly for Fantasy, 1979-1985), the James Blish (for criticism, won by Brian Aldiss in 1977 and thereafter discontinued) and the Jupiter (for novels and the same short fiction categories as the Hugo, presented 1974-1978 only), have not received the necessary administrative and/or public support and have been short-lived. The Richard Evans Award – presented 1999-2006 to encourage writers whose success had been more critical than commercial – was not intended to outlast its initial funding.
There are many fan awards largely given to professionals, like the Hugo. Others are given by fans to fans: long-running examples include the US Fanzine Activity Achievement (FAAn) Awards and the UK Nova Awards, both presented for Fanzine publication and contributions. The Rotsler Award, in memory of William "Bill" Rotsler (who see), is for life achievement in fanzine artwork. The UK Doc Weir Award, part of the tradition of Eastercon, goes to "unsung heroes" whose services to fandom may not be easily defined. Quasi-awards that most strikingly demonstrate fannish generosity are the Fan Funds, for which it costs money to vote. Winners have their expenses paid to foreign Conventions and are often treated as honoured guests. The Pegasus awards are given in many categories for Filk. A Japanese fan honour is the Takumi Shibano Award.
Among the remaining awards, the following are considered too specialist, recent or small-scale to warrant full entries: Big Heart (sponsored by Forrest J Ackerman for services to Fandom), Davis Awards (voted on by readers of Analog and Asimov's Science Fiction) – renamed the Dell Awards in 1992 when Davis sold out its two sf magazines to Dell, Sam Moskowitz Archive Award (given by First Fandom for "excellence in collecting"), Pioneer Award (given by the Science Fiction Research Association from 1990 for best critical essay of the year about sf), Raymond Z Gallun Award (in its first years the I-CON Lifetime Achievement Award; presented to Gallun in 1985 by the US Convention I-CON and subsequently renamed for him); Norma K Hemming Award (see her entry); Readercon Small Press Awards (inaugurated 1989 for best work in various sf categories published by small presses), SFBC Award (chosen by members of the US Science Fiction Book Club), Saturn Awards (sf/fantasy film and television work, given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films), SFBC Awards given by the Science Fiction Book Club in the US according to a popularity poll among the members, the Turner Tomorrow Award, and the William L Crawford Memorial Award (given by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for a first novel in the fantasy field).
Particular media attention was attracted by the early-1990s Turner Tomorrow Award, a literary competition with an unbelievable $500,000 first prize sponsored by broadcasting magnate Ted Turner, for best original sf-novel manuscript to be published in hardcover by Turner Publishing and containing practical solutions to world problems. When the initial winner, Daniel Quinn's Ishmael (1992) – selected from some 2500 entries – was announced in June 1991, three of the judges, including novelist William Styron, declared their dismay at so huge a sum going to the winner of a contest in which none of the place-getters was, in their view, especially distinguished. This award was not repeated.
The best book reference on the subject used to be Reginald's Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards: A Comprehensive Guide to the Awards and their Winners (1991) by Daryl F Mallett and Robert Reginald. More and more, however, the full tabulations of award winners are most conveniently found on line – see links from individual award entries in this encyclopedia, and more general links below. [PN/DRL]
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