Ditmar Award Nominations Open

It feels like only yesterday that I last mentioned the Ditmar Awards on this website, but apparently a year has passed already! Ditmar nominations are now open — until April 13, 2012.

There is an incredible list of eligible works and potential nominees this year (as is also the case with the Aurealis Awards) — so many great stories for us to read, so much great writing happening in Australia at the moment! You can peruse the list of Ditmar-eligible works here, bearing in mind that this list may need tweaking, and some of the pieces might not be arranged under the right categories at the moment.

People active in Australian fandom and full or supporting members of this year’s Natcon, Continuum8, can nominate works for the Ditmars. The Awards rules are here, and nomination forms are here.

It always feels weird pointing out my own eligible works — it’s a bit of self-promotion I feel awkward doing — but still, here goes. If any of you have liked my stories this year and want to nominate them for an award, here’s the list:

Best Collected Work

Bluegrass Symphony (Ticonderoga Publications)

Best Novella / Best Novellette

‘From the Teeth of Strange Children’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘To Snuff a Flame’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘Wires Uncrossed’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

Best Short Story

‘Down the Hollow’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘Fur and Feathers’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘The Short Go: A Future in Eight Seconds’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘Carousel’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘Depot to Depot’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘Forever, Miss Tapekwa County’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘The Wager and the Hourglass’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘Them Little Shinin Things’ (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)

‘Gutted’, Shimmer, Issue 13

‘White and Red in the Black’ (Dead Red Heart, Ticonderoga Publications)

That’s it for 2011!

Now, on a similar but non-self-serving note, I want to nominate Angela Slatter’s ‘Drive-by’ interview series for a Ditmar. Angela ran this series for a couple of years, including all of last year, and the final post went up at the end of December 2011. Have a look at the breadth of interviews, the variety of excellent speculative fiction writers, editors, artists, and fans that participated — such a lot of work! Such a great series for all of us to read and re-read. It would be cool for it to be recognised with an award of some sort.

Any thoughts on what Ditmar category this series might fit into? ‘Best Fan Publication’? ‘The William Atheling Jr Award’? Please leave me a comment if you know which one would be best!