Nebula Awards Showcase 2009 (57 page)

Best Novella:
“Da Vinci Rising” by Jack Dann

Best Novelette:
“Lifeboat on a Burning Sea” by Bruce Holland Rogers

Best Short Story:
“A Birthday” by Esther M. Friesner

 

1997

Best Novel:
The Moon and the Sun
by Vonda N. McIntyre

Best Novella:
“Abandon in Place” by Jerry Oltion

Best Novelette:
“The Flowers of Aulit Prison” by Nancy Kress

Best Short Story:
“Sister Emily’s Lightship” by Jane Yolen

 

1998

Best Novel:
Forever Peace
by Joe Haldeman

Best Novella:
“Reading the Bones” by Sheila Finch

Best Novelette:
“Lost Girls” by Jane Yolen

Best Short Story:
“Thirteen Ways to Water” by Bruce Holland Rogers

 

Grand Master:
Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs)

Bradbury Award:
J. Michael Straczynski

Author Emeritus:
William Tenn (Phil Klass)

1999

Best Novel:
Parable of the Talents
by Octavia E. Butler

Best Novella:
“Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang

Best Novelette:
“Mars Is No Place for Children” by Mary A. Turzillo

Short Story:
“The Cost of Doing Business” by Leslie What

Best Script:
The Sixth Sense
by M. Night Shyamalan

 

Grand Master:
Brian W. Aldiss

Author Emeritus:
Daniel Keyes

 

2000

Best Novel:
Darwin’s Radio
by Greg Bear

Best Novella:
“Goddesses” by Linda Nagata

Best Novelette:
“Daddy’s World” by Walter Jon Williams

Best Short Story:
“macs” by Terry Bisson

Best Script:
Galaxy Quest
by Robert Gordon and David Howard

 

Grand Master:
Philip José Farmer

Bradbury Award:
Yuri Rasovsky and Harlan Ellison

Author Emeritus:
Robert Sheckley

 

2001

Best Novel:
The Quantum Rose
by Catherine Asaro

Best Novella:
“The Ultimate Earth” by Jack Williamson

Best Novelette:
“Louise’s Ghost” by Kelly Link

Best Short Story:
“The Cure for Everything” by Severna Park

Best Script:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
by James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai, and Hui-Ling Wang; from the book by Du Lu Wang

President’s Award:
Betty Ballantine

 

2002

Best Novel:
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman

Best Novella:
“Bronte’s Egg” by Richard Chwedyk

Best Novelette:
“Hell Is the Absence of God” by Ted Chiang

Best Short Story:
“Creature” by Carol Emshwiller

Best Script:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson; based on
The Lord of the Rings
by J. R. R. Tolkien

 

Grand Master:
Ursula K. Le Guin

Author Emeritus:
Katherine MacLean

 

2003

Best Novel:
The Speed of Dark
by Elizabeth Moon

Best Novella:
“Coraline” by Neil Gaiman

Best Novelette:
“The Empire of Ice Cream” by Jeffrey Ford

Best Short Story:
“What I Didn’t See” by Karen Joy Fowler

Best Script:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, and Peter Jackson; based on
The Lord of the Rings
by J. R. R. Tolkien

 

Grand Master:
Robert Silverberg

Author of Distinction:
Charles Harness

Service to SFWA Award:
Michael Capobianco and Ann Crispin

2004

Best Novel:
Paladin of Souls
by Lois McMaster Bujold

Best Novella:
“The Green Leopard Plague” by Walter Jon Williams

Best Novelette:
“Basement Magic” by Ellen Klages

Best Short Story:
“Coming to Terms” by Eileen Gunn

Best Script:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson; based on
The Lord of the Rings
by J. R. R. Tolkien

 

 

Grand Master:
Anne McCaffrey

 

2005

Best Novel
:
Camouflage
by Joe Haldeman

Best Novella
: “Magic for Beginners” by Kelly Link

Best Novelette
: “The Faery Handbag” by Kelly Link

Best Short Story
: “I Live with You” by Carol Emshwiller

Best Script
:
Serenity
by Joss Whedon

Andre Norton Award:*
Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
by Holly Black

 

Grand Master:
Harlan Ellison

Author Emeritus:
William F. Nolan

 

2006

Best Novel:
Seeker
by Jack McDevitt

Best Novella:
“Burn” by James Patrick Kelly

Best Novelette:
“Two Hearts” by Peter S. Beagle

Best Short Story:
“Echo” by Elizabeth Hand

Andre Norton Award:*
Magic or Madness
by Justine Larbalestier

Grand Master:
James Gunn

Author Emeritus:
D. G. Compton

 

* The Andre Norton Award is not a Nebula.

SFWA
inaugurated the Author Emeritus program in 1995 as a way to recognize and appreciate senior writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy who have made significant contributions to our field but who are no longer active or whose excellent work may no longer be as widely known as it once was. The honor is decided by SFWA’s board of directors through discussion and consensus. The Author Emeritus is invited to speak at the Nebula Awards Banquet and given a lifetime SFWA membership. When the invitee is not able to attend the banquet to speak, he or she is instead recognized as an
Author of Distinction
.

Fiction by the first five Authors Emeriti is collected in the anthology
Architects of Dreams
(Meisha Merlin, 2003) edited by Robin Wayne Bailey.

Multigenre, award-winning writer Joe R. Lansdale has written a fitting tribute to Ardath Mayhar.

 

 

 

A
rdath Mayhar is a talent out of East Texas, a woman living in a small dome-shaped house in the depths of the pines, her home surrounded by wind-rattled bamboo—at least before a tornado did a bit of natural weed eating, tearing a lot of it up, taking it away and not quite weaving baskets of it. There’s also a yard full of stray cats that have found a sucker, and their numbers vary according to the eating habits of the local coyotes who like nothing better for an evening snack than a fresh, warm cat.

Like her natural surroundings, Ardath is one of the most natural writers who ever wrote a line. The words and stories jump at her like hot sparks from lightning; seem to come from hidden places in the pines instead of the clouds.

I lost count long ago of how many books Ardath has written, though I have read most, many in manuscript, and I look forward to those that have been lost in her files for so many years and are soon to be brought into book form via Borgo Press.

I have said this before, and I will say it again: Ardath Mayhar is a neglected writer, and that neglect is an offense worthy of a firing squad. Like Neal Barrett, Jr., she has been so good and so consistent, folks take her for granted. She is one of those born storytellers, and therefore easy to take for granted, like the wind, the earth, and sky. We tend to think these things are always going to be there.

It takes only a moment of applied logic to know this isn’t true.

All things pass.

But not everyone has the backlist of work Ardath has, or the kind of readers who at the recent Nebula convention rushed to her signing table with piles of books and childlike excitement, gushing accolades long overdue.

Part of the reason for this neglect is Ardath herself.

She doesn’t get out much.

She’s not someone to stand on a soapbox and wave her arms and tell everyone how good she is and how important she is.

She’s not someone to remind us that her work is unique, that it is born and bred out of East Texas, and no matter what she writes, be it the most amazing aliens one can imagine—and she had created a large number of amazing aliens—they all are somehow out of East Texas. I’m not saying they talk with Ardath’s accent, which is pretty close to mine, bless our little country hearts, and I’m not saying these aliens aren’t alien, but it’s the East Texas mind that has created them. Living out in the pines as she does, out where the dark things gather and there are plenty of odd ducks, hungry alligators, and vicious water moccasins with snake hearts full of sin; deep in the center of East Texas, it is no surprise that at the core of her stories is the strange, sweetly dark soul of East Texas; it throbs like a sore at times, and at others it is as healing and comforting as a mother’s touch.

Over thirty years ago I met Ardath. She was already an accomplished poet, and had a few stories published, including one, “Crawfish,” that was a big influence on me. It was a crime story and it was about East Texas and it alerted me to the fact that I didn’t have to write about some place outside of my homeland of East Texas; it showed me writing was about life and experience. It was a great lesson, and without that story, I don’t know if I would have had a career. I had been fueled by Matheson and Bloch and Bradbury, and so many others, and they gave me direction, but Ardath, she showed me that I could write closer to the bone. It was, at the time, a revelation. It seems obvious now, but not then.