calissa

There has been so much controversy surrounding the shortlist for the Hugo Awards over the last couple of weeks that international readers may be forgiven for thinking it was the only speculative fiction awards news of any note. However, Australian readers will know this is certainly not the case. Over the Easter weekend, the Australian National Science Fiction Convention (Natcon) took place in conjunction with SwanCon 40 in Perth, Western Australia. The event saw the presentation of the Australian SF awards (the Ditmars).

For those unfamiliar with Australian speculative fiction awards, the Ditmars are Australia’s equivalent of the Hugos. Anyone in fandom can nominate, and attendees of the current and previous Natcons get to vote on the shortlist. There’s a full list of nominees and winners, but for now I’d just like to congratulate Helen Stubbs on winning Best New Talent. I published one of Helen’s first stories in Winds of Change and have been delighted to see her build on that so successfully.

I’d also like to congratulate Donna Maree Hanson on being presented the A. Bertram Chandler Award. Donna has been a guest here previously and this award recognises the huge contribution she has made to the Australian speculative fiction community. She was the inaugural president of the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and has been involved in running several Conflux conventions. There’s hardly a member of the Australian speculative fiction community she doesn’t know (or so it seems) and she has done a great deal to make the scene a warm and welcoming one. It is wonderful to see her hard work recognised.

Less than a week after the Ditmars were presented, segments of the community gathered again–this time on the east side of the continent–for the 2014 Aurealis Awards. Instead of being voted on by fandom, the Aurealis Awards are judged by panels of industry professionals. This year marked the 20th anniversary of the awards. Guests were invited to dress up in 90s costume (and several did, as you can see in Cat Sparks’ Flickr album). Master of Ceremonies Margo Lanagan treated us to excerpts of stories that won the inaugural awards, setting many people squirming when it came to the horror category.

Angela Slatter had an excellent year, winning every category for which she was nominated. Fortunately, she’d had the foresight to write a slightly different acceptance speech for each category.

Having taken out the Ditmar for Best Collected Work, Kaleidoscope, edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios, added to its accolates by snagging the Aurealis Award for Best Anthology.

A full list of nominees and winners is below. Congratulations to all!