Episode 547: Nominating for the World Fantasy Awards

Welcome to episode 5 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. After three weeks of unexcused absences, Jonathan and Gary return, just as the world starts re-emerging with the announcement that the Montreal World Fantasy Convention, at least at present, expects to host an in-person event in early November. That led us to return to our occasional discussion of possible candidates for Life Achievement Awards (limited to those over 62 years of age), with Jonathan again presenting his case for Howard Waldrop, which Gary finds it hard to disagree with. But Gary also mentions several other eligible possibilities.

That leads us toward the other categories on the ballot, and we name some possible candidates for novel, novella, anthology, collection, and artist, as well as the more mysterious categories of special achievements, professional and nonprofessional.  As always, we welcome reminders of those we have inevitably overlooked, some of which we will undoubtedly embarrassed about.

As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. We’ll see you again soon!

World Fantasy Awards eligibility

With World Fantasy Awards nominations opening, I’ve been asked what I’ve worked on is eligible.  Here’s a quick overview:

Anthologies

Novella

Short fiction (under 10,000 wds)

  • Yuli, Daniel Abraham (The Book of Dragons)
  • Lucky’s Dragon, Kelly Barnhill (The Book of Dragons)
  • Except on Saturdays, Peter S. Beagle(The Book of Dragons)
  • Where the River Turns to Concrete, Brooke Bolander (The Book of Dragons)
  • Hikayat Sri Bujang, or, The Tale of The Naga Sage, Zen Cho (The Book of Dragons)
  • The Last Hunt, Aliette de Bodard(The Book of Dragons)
  • The Long Walk, Kate Elliott (The Book of Dragons)
  • We Don’t Talk About the Dragon, Sarah Gailey (The Book of Dragons)
  • Pox, Ellen Klages (The Book of Dragons)
  • The Nine Curves River, R.F. Kuang(The Book of Dragons)
  • We Continue, Anne Leckie & Rachel Swirsky (The Book of Dragons)
  • A Whisper of Blue, Ken Liu  (The Book of Dragons)
  • Anything Resembling Love,  S. Qiouyi Lu (Tor.com)
  • Maybe Just Go Up There And Talk To It, Scott Lynch (The Book of Dragons)
  • Small Bird’s Plea, Todd McCaffrey(The Book of Dragons)
  • Hoard, Seanan McGuire (The Book of Dragons)
  • Camouflage, Patricia A McKillip (The Book of Dragons)
  • Cut me another quill, Mister Fitz, Garth Nix (The Book of Dragons)
  • The Necessary Arthur, Garth Nix (Tor.com)
  • Habitat, KJ Parker (The Book of Dragons)
  • Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law, Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com)

Professional Achievement 

  • Jonathan Strahan (The Book of Dragons; Prosper’s Demons, The Tindalos Asset; The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water;  Tor.com stories)
  • The Coode Street Podcast [178episodes] [co-hosted with Gary K. Wolfe.]

I’d also recommend Rovina Cai for Artist for her work on The Book of Dragons.

I hope you’ll consider supporting the talented people that I’ve worked with during the year.

Episode 546:Veronica Schanoes and Burning Girls and Other Stories

burninggirls.jpgWelcome to episode 4 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. Despite an unexpected glitch that caused Jonathan to disappear partway through, he and Gary are joined by Veronica Schanoes, whose Burning Girls and Other Stories is just out, with endorsements from writers and scholars as diverse as Karen Joy Fowler, Jack Zipes, Jane Yolen, Catherynne Valente, Jeffrey Ford, and Roz Kaveny. We talk about fairy tales, anti-Semitism, feminism, labour history, immigrant history, punk rock, and many other elements that go to make up her remarkable short stories.

As always, we’d like to thank Veronica for making the time to talk to us, and hope you enjoy the podcast.

Episode 545: Aliette de Bodard and Fireheart Tiger

fireheart.jpgWelcome to episode 3 of Season 12 of The Coode Street Podcast. This week the brilliant Aliette de Bodard joins us from Paris to discuss her new Fireheart Tiger, which is already gathering stellar reviews, as well as the challenges of writing a complex romance with significant political themes, how much world-building is needed for a particular story, her use of mystery plots in recent novellas like Seven of Infinities and The Tea Master and the Detective, and the importance of the city of Paris to her well-received Dominion of the Fallen trilogy.

As always, our thanks to Aliette for making time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode and see you next time!

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Volume 2 coming September!

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Volume 2
Cover art by Richard Yoo

The cover and table of contents for The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Volume 2 are out over at Tor.com.  It’s my only book for 2021 so I hope you’ll check it out. You can find the pre-order information for the book here.

The ToC is:

  • “50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know” by Ken Liu
  • “A Guide for Working Breeds” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
  • “A Mastery of German” by Marian Denise Moore
  • “Airbody” by Sameem Siddiqui
  • “An Important Failure” by Rebecca Campbell
  • “Beyond These Stars Other Tribulations of Love” by Usman T. Malik
  • “Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super” by A.T. Greenblatt
  • “Don’t Mind Me” by Suzanne Palmer
  • “Drones to Ploughshares” by Sarah Gailey
  • “Father” by Ray Nayler
  • “GO. NOW. FIX. “ by Timons Esaias
  • “How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobu?ar” by Rich Larson
  • “How to Pay Reparations: a Documentary” by Tochi Onyebuchi
  • “If You Take My Meaning” by Charlie Jane Anders
  • “It Came From Cruden Farm” by Max Barry
  • “Midstrathe Exploding” by Andy Dudak
  • “Polished Performance” by Alastair Reynolds
  • “Schrödinger’s Catastrophe” by Gene Doucette
  • “Sparklybits” by Nick Wolven
  • “The Bahrain Underground Bazaar” by Nadia Afifi
  • “The Final Performance of the Amazing Ralphie” by Pat Cadigan
  • “The Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee
  • “The Pill” by Meg Elison
  • “The Search for [Flight X]” by Neon Yang
  • “The Suicide of Our Troubles” by Karl Schroeder
  • “The Transition of OSOOSI” by Ozzie M. Gartrell
  • “Yellow and the Perception of Reality” by Maureen McHugh

…unavoidable stuff from jonathan strahan…