Vladimir Colin Awards nominees, 6th edition

The Romanian book market offers quite a struggle for the local speculative fiction. Still, although speculative fiction still moves on wobbling feet at least the signs are encouraging. It is true that we seem to fall short in recognizing our speculative fiction writers and editors at a professional level, but I do hope that this situation would change in the future. And if each of us starts to bring our little contribution, be that in form of buying, reading or acknowledging our authors’ works, that future might be very close. One way to recognize the new published work or to discover them, since the promotion level is quite low in this domain, is with the help of awards. It is also true that if speculative fiction puts quite a fight the Romanian genre awards are in need of more work. It is difficult to speak of an established Romanian genre award, some drift from time to time while others lack the desired consistency. There is also the question of endless debates surrounding such endeavors; nothing wrong with the constructive ones, but when these conversations become warzones or constant bickering none has anything to gain from it. An example of such an award is Vladimir Colin. Although at its 6^th edition the Vladimir Colin Awards is not celebrated yearly, as it can be seen from the list of nominees of this 6^th edition, the titles on the shortlists were published during the last three years. But as I said, each small step can do a world of good for the local speculative fiction and can help reach a certain state of normality, so I can only salute the existence of this new edition of the Vladimir Colin Awards. Hopefully, the years to come would offer us more published books and writers in order to have the opportunity to properly honor Romanian speculative fiction. Therefore, without further ado, here are this year’s nominees for the Vladimir Colin Awards. This year’s jury for the Vladimir Colin Awards is formed by Cornel Robu (president), George Ceaușu, Lucian-Vasile Szabo, Sebastian A. Corn and Cătălin Badea-Gheracostea and the winners will be announced on 11^th – 12^th July in a ceremony held in Bucharest.

SF NOVEL:

“Curtezana onestă şi astrologul” (The Honest Courtesan and the Astrologer) by Voicu Bugariu (Eagle, 2011)

“DemNet” (DemNet) by Dan Doboș (MediaTech, 2011)

“Insula pescăruşilor” (Seagulls’ Island) by Mircea Liviu Goga (Eagle, 2011)

“Călătorie în Capricia” (Journey to Capricia) by Mircea Opriţă (Eagle, 2011)

“Anul terminal” (The Final Year) by Florin Pîtea (Audiosfera, 2012)

SF SHORT STORY COLLECTION:

“Cronici de la capătul Pământului” (Chronicles from the End of the Earth) by Costi Gurgu (Millennium, 2011)

“Floarea de loldilal” (The Loldilal Flower) by Ana-Veronica Mircea (Nemira, 2012)

“A doua venire” (The Second Coming) by Marian Truţă (Nemira, 2013)

“Efectul de nautil” (The Nautilus Effect) by Ioana Vișan (Millennium, 2013)

FANTASY NOVEL:

“Cerneală şi sânge” (Ink and Blood) by Ştefana Czeller (Millennium, 2011)

“Ozz” (Ozz) by Ştefana Czeller (Tracus Arte, 2013)

“Vânzoleli nocturne”(Nocturnal Fidgeting) by Liviu Radu (Millennium, 2012)

“Armata moliilor” (The Moth Army) by Liviu Radu (Nemira, 2012)

“Taxidermie” (Taxidermy) by Narcia Stoica (Millennium, 2012)

FANTASY SHORT STORY COLLECTION:

“Anotimpurile” (The Seasons) by Bogdan-Tudor Bucheru (Millennium, 2011)

“Acluofobia” (Achluophobia) by A.R. Deleanu (Herg Benet, 2013)

“Golem, golem” (Golem, Golem) by Liviu Radu (Nemira, 2013)

NON-FICTION:

“Tolkien cel veşnic verde” (The Forever Green Tolkien) by Györfy-Deák György (self-published, 2013)

“…nici Torquemada” (…neither Torquemada) by Michael Haulică (Millennium, 2011)

“Eseuri” (Essays) by Victor Martin (Autograf MJM, 2013)

“Identitatea literaturii science fiction” (The Identity of Science Fiction Literature) by Mircea Naidin (Millnnium, 2013)

FRONTIER TEXTS (new category covering sub-genre and experimental titles of the Romanian speculative fiction):

“…și la sfîrșit a mai rămas coșmarul” (…and at the end the nightmare remained) by Oliviu Crâznic (Vremea, 2011)

“Îmblânzitorul apelor” (The Tamer of Waters) by A.R. Deleanu (Casa de Pariuri Literare, 2012)

“Transfer” (Transfer) by Michael Haulică (Millennium, 2012)

“Transparenţi şi Semiconductori”, în “Călătorii în timp” (“Transparent and Semiconductor” from the collection “Time Travels”) by Cristian-Mihail Teodorescu (Nemira, 2013)

Congratulations and good luck to all the nominees!