And a special thanks for tonight’s award announcement. Any anthology is only as good as the stories it contains.  The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six is a combination of some wonderful work by Stephen Baxter, Peter S. Beagle, Libba Bray, Cory Doctorow, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Neil Gaiman, Nalo Hopkinson, Dylan Horrocks, Kij Johnson, Caitlín R Kiernan, Ellen Klages, Margo Lanagan, Kelly Link, Ken Liu, Paul McAuley, Ian McDonald, Maureen F. McHugh, Nnedi Okorafor, An Owomoyela, K. J. Parker, Hannu Rajaniemi, Robert Reed, M Rickert, Geoff Ryman, Robert Shearman, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, Catherynne M. Valente, Peter Watts, and E. Lily Yu. I would like to thank each and every one of them for letting me feature their stories in my book. This Aurealis Award is every bit as much their award as it is mine.

I’ve just heard I’ve been very fortunate, against strong opposition, to win the Aurealis Award for Best Anthology for The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six. I asked James Bradley to read this aloud at the event, should this happen:

Thank you so much. If James Bradley is reading these words to you, which I promise I will keep brief as absent winners should, then it means my anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six has won the Aurealis Award. It is a great honour and I wish I was there in the Independent Theatre in Sydney, and not sitting in Perth following this on Twitter, so that you all could see just how thrilled I am.

I would sincerely like to thank the judges Kathleen Stubbs, Matt Chrulew and Sarah Fletcher for their hard work (and commend them on their excellent taste), and I also want to thank awards administrator Tehani Wesley and the AA team for their hard work. It is an honour to be nominated alongside my editorial colleagues Liz Gryb, Talie Helene, and Amanda Pillar and the great team at my dear friend Russell Farr’s Ticonderoga, and I extend my congratulations to them as well.

Editing The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year series has defined the past seven years of my life. It’s a strange, wonderful experience, and I am deeply proud of the books I’ve been able to produce with the Night Shade team. I would especially like to thank Ross Lockhart and Marty Halpern at Night Shade Books for the care and attention they gave to this book, and for their work on the rest of the series. They are my unsung collaborators and deserve your congratulations as much as I do.

Finally, and most importantly, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of my spectacular agent Howard Morhaim, and the tireless support of my family Marianne, Jessica and Sophie who give me time to do this strange editing thing that I love doing so much.

Thank you all very much! Have a great night! I’m going to turn Twitter off now and go have a glass of champagne (or at least get the kids dinner on).