One of the most original
and encouraging awards of the speculative fiction scenes are The Kitschies.
Established in 2009 The Kitschies celebrate “the
year’s most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain
elements of the speculative or fantastic.” And as we’ve seen in the first
three editions of the awards they are true to their word, the shortlists have
plenty of titles unrecognized by the other, older, genre awards, but deserving
of the attention nonetheless. This year is no exception, as it can be noticed
from the recently announced shortlists:
2012 Red Tentacle (Novel – Judged by Rebecca Levene, Patrick Ness &
Jared Shurin)
“The Folly of the
World” by Jesse Bullington (Orbit)
“A Face Like
Glass” by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan)
“Angelmaker” by Nick Harkaway (William
Heinemann)
“Jack Glass” by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
“The
Method” by Julie Zeh (Harvill
Secker)
2012
Golden Tentacle (Debut - Judged by Rebecca
Levene, Patrick Ness & Jared Shurin)
“vN” by Madeline Ashby (Angry Robot)
“The Panopticon” by Jenni Fagan (William
Heinemann)
“Seraphina” by Rachel Hartman (Doubleday)
“Redemption in
Indigo” by Karen Lord (Jo
Fletcher Books)
“The
City’s Son” by Tom Pollock (Jo
Fletcher Books)
2012
Inky Tentacle (Cover Art – Judged by Gary Northfield, Lauren O’Farrell
and Ed Warren)
La Boca for Ned
Beauman’s The Teleportation Accident (Sceptre)
Oliver Jeffers for
John Boyne’s The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket (Doubleday)
Tom Gauld for
Matthew Hughes’ Costume Not Included (Angry Robot)
Peter Mendelsund for
Ben Marcus’ Flame Alphabet (Granta)
Dave
Shelton for his own A Boy and a Bear in a Boat (David Fickling
Books)
2012
Black Tentacle
The
Black Tentacle is a special achievement award. It is handed out at the
discretion of The Kitschies' board, which is comprised of editors, authors,
marketers and social entrepreneurs.
The
Black Tentacle is awarded for a work or body of work that does not otherwise
fit The Kitschies' criteria. The winner receives a hand-crafted and embroidered
tentacle and a bottle of The Kraken's black spiced rum.
The winners will be announced on 26th
February in a ceremony held in London, at Free Word Centre.
Congratulations and good luck to all the
nominees!
6 comments:
Thanks for the kind words!
Don't mention it, Jared! :) I am looking forward to see the winners.
I enjoy awards like this that bring different books to light than the "major" awards. I'm not slighting those awards. Despite the jaded feelings of others and the annual controversies I enjoy the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy and Locus awards for what they are. But I enjoy the lists that the Kitschies generates too. I have yet to read any of these but have vN on my tbr pile as gift for Christmas and am looking forward to it after the praise I've read and there are several others including The Folly of the World and Angelmaker that sound like works I would enjoy.
The awards that I tend to follow are quite numerous, but only to see their shortlists and winners. There are only a couple of awards, The Kitschies included, that make me want to read all the titles from their shortlists. I managed to keep up with them for a while, but in the past two years my time was a bit limited. However, I do hope to read the shortlists of 2 or 3 awards that I find the most attractive at the moment, The Kitschies, Shirley Jackson Awards and World Fantasy. I might try for British Fantasy Awards too, but I am not sure how they go this year since there is no FantasyCon this year due to the World Fantasy Convention being held in Brighton.
I like that all the awards point me to books to at least take a look at, whether or not I end up reading them. And despite all the complaints, it is the controversy of awards that often get folks talking about books that should have been shortlisted, that should have won, etc. and that talk leads to exciting reading discoveries.
Truly spoken. :)
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