Prix Aurora Awards 2020

Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2020 Prix Aurora Awards.

As many of you know, Speculating Canada was nominated again this year for the Best Fan Related Work Category, and congratulations everyone, we won! Speculating Canada started as a way for me to give back to the Canadian SF community and it has been exciting to see it grow and change. It was meant to be a way of creating community and opening up conversations about Canadian Speculative Fiction, and I have been honoured to be part of so many important conversations with all of you authors, fans, publishers, artists, and academics. I am so lucky that we have been able to have the conversations we have and that we have been able to work together toward social change. Although officially my name is listed on this award, it is an award that should reflect all of you as members of this community and reflect all of the work we do together to ask deep questions about SF. I am honoured to have been able to be on this journey with all of you and to continue that journey as we move forward.

The nominees this year were:

Best Novel

• Haunting the Haunted, E.C. Bell (Tyche)
• The Gossamer Mage, Julie E. Czerneda (DAW)
• A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada)
• The Quantum Garden, Derek Künsken (Solaris)
• Jade War, Fonda Lee (Orbit)
• Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)

Best YA Novel

• Wolf’s Bane, Kelley Armstrong (KLA Fricke)
• The Brilliant Dark, S.M. Beiko (ECW)
• Metamorphosis, Marty Chan (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
• Bursts of Fire, Susan Forest (Laksa)
• Murder at the World’s Fair, M.J. Lyons (Renaissance)

Best Short Fiction

• This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga)
• “Clear as Quartz, Sharp as Flint”, Maria Haskins (Augur 2.1)
• Alice Payne Rides, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing)
• “Little Inn on the Jianghu”, Y.M. Pang (F&SF 9/19)
• “Modigliani Paints the World”, Hayden Trenholm (Neo-Opsis 30)
• “Blindside”, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm (Amazing Stories Fall ’19)

Best Graphic Novel

• The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel, Margaret Atwood & Renee Nault (McClelland & Stewart)
• Krampus Is My Boyfriend!, S.M. Beiko (https://www.smbeiko.com/)
• It Never Rains, Kari Maaren (http://itneverrainscomic.com/)
• Carpe Fin, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Dakwäkãda Warriors, Cole Pauls (Conundrum)

Best Related Work

• PodCastle, Jen R. Albert & Cherae Clark, eds.
• Nothing Without Us, Cait Gordon & Talia C. Johnson (Renaissance)
• Neo-opsis, Karl Johanson, ed.
• Lackington’s, Ranylt Richildis, ed.
• “Dave Duncan’s Legacy”, Robert Runté (On Spec 111)
• Augur, Kerrie Seljak-Byrne, ed.

Best Poem/Song

• “The Girl Who Loved Birds”, Clara Blackwood (Amazing Stories Spring ’19)
• “At the Edge of Space and Time”, Swati Chavda (Love at the Speed of Light)
• “Steampunk Christmas”, David Clink (Star*Line Fall ’19)
• “The Day the Animals Turned to Sand”, Tyler Hagemann (Amazing Stories Spring ’19)
• “Totemic Ants”, Francine P. Lewis (Amazing Stories Fall ’19)
• “Beauty, Sleeping”, Lynne Sargent (Augur Magazine 2.2)
• “Bursts of Fire”, Sora (theme song for book trailers)

Best Artist

• Samantha M. Beiko, cover for Bursts of Fire
• James F. Beveridge, cover for Fata Morgana and cover for On Spec 112
• Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk, “A Rivet of Robots” in On Spec and cartoons in Amazing Stories
• Nathan Fréchette, covers for Renaissance Press
• Dan O’Driscoll, covers for Bundoran Press and cover for On Spec 110

Best Visual Presentation

• The Umbrella Academy
• V Wars, Season 1
• Killjoys, Season 5
• Murdoch Mysteries, Episodes 10-18 in Season 12 and Episodes 1-9 in Season 13
• Van Helsing, Season 4

Best Fan Writing and Publications

• Graeme Cameron, weekly online columns for Amazing Stories
• Graeme Cameron, editing Polar Borealis (issues 9-12)
• “Travelling TARDIS“, Jen Desmarais (JenEric Designs)
• Steve Fahnestalk, weekly online columns for Amazing Stories
• “Will Voyager 1 leave the Milky Way?“, Ron S. Friedman (Quora)
• Books and Tea, Christina Vasilevski

Best Fan Organizational

• KT Bryski and Jen R. Albert, ephemera reading series, Toronto
• Brent Jans, Pure Speculation Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival, Edmonton
• Derek Künsken and Marie Bilodeau, co-chairs, Can-Con, Ottawa
• Randy McCharles, chair, When Words Collide, Calgary
• Sandra Wickham, Creative Ink Festival, Burnaby, BC

Best Fan Related Work

• Broadcasts from the Wasteland, Brandon Crilly & Evan May
• Kari Maaren for music on her YouTube channel
• Speculating Canada, Derek Newman-Stille
• Just Joshing, Joshua Pantalleresco
• The Worldshapers, Edward Willett

The winners this year were: 

Inductees into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame:

• Heather Dale
• Cory Doctorow
• Matthew Hughes

Best Novel:

• Julie Czerneda for The Gossamer Mage

Best Young Adult Novel:

• Susan Forest for Bursts of Fire

Best Short Fiction:

• Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone for This Is How You Lose The Time War

Best Graphic Novel:

• S.M. Beiko for Krampus is my Boyfriend

Best Poem/Song:

• Tie between Swati Chavda for At The Edge of Space and Time
• and Sora for Bursts of Fire

Best Related Work:

• Diane Walton for On Spec Magazine

Best Visual Presentation:

• The Umbrella Academia

Best Artist:

• Dan O’Driscoll for covers for Bundoran Press and cover for On Spec 110

Best Fan Writing and Publications:

• R. Graeme Cameron

Best Fan Organizational

• Marie Bilodeau and Derek Kunsken for Can Con

Best Fan Related Work

• Derek Newman-Stille for Speculating Canada

To watch the Prix Aurora Awards ceremonies, hosted this year by When Worlds Collide, click on the link below:

In order to check out the award category for Best Fan Related Work, which Speculating Canada won, click on the link below and see my acceptance speech. 

Thank you all for your support and for the support of Canadian Speculative Fiction. Thank you to the folks at When Worlds Collide for hosting the Aurora Awards and thank the Prix Aurora Awards organizational committee for their work. Thank you also to Mark Leslie Lefebvre for being an incredible host for the awards.

I also want to thank the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University for their continuing support and encouragement.