Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards
Bringing quality translated fiction to the English-speaking world
With just over a week to go in our fund raiser, here’s how we are doing.
Money raised: $1,317.64
Number of donors: 36
Number of prizes: 28
So we are still short of last year’s total, but those of of who have donated stand a better than 50:50 chance of winning something.
To see the list of prizes, and find out how to donate, click here.
Wesleyan University Press have sent us a copy of a new book containing translations of three novellas by Belgian author, J.-H. Rosny Aîné (Joseph-Henri Boëx, 1856–1940). A contemporary of Verne and Wells, Rosny Aîné is largely unknown in the English-speaking world, but had a key role in the development of science fiction. Like Wells and Olaf Stapledon, he had a fascination with the long-term evolution of humanity. He was also the first writer to try to imagine intelligent beings who are truly alien, as opposed to just humanoids from another world.
The book is titled Three Science Fiction Novellas: From Prehistory to the End of Mankind, and reflects Rosny Aîné’s obsession with the long view. The three stories are described by Wesleyan as follows:
“The Xipehuz” is a prehistoric tale in which the human species battles strange geometric alien life forms. “Another World” is the story of a mysterious being who does not live in the same acoustic and temporal world as humans. “The Death of the Earth” is a scientifically uncompromising Last Man story.
The translators, George Slusser and Danièle Chatelain, are well known for their studies of French literature. Professor Slusser is also the curator of the Eaton Collection of science fiction at the University of California, Riverside. The pair also contribute a lengthy introduction covering Rosny Aîné’s career and his influence on the genre.
As promised last week, we are adding some new prizes now that we are over half way to our goal.
Probably the most wanted of them will be the first three books of A Song of Ice and Fire, donated by George R.R. Martin. Acknowledging that we get donations from all over the world, George has offered the books in whichever language the winner chooses (there are about 40 to choose from).
Also on offer are: a fantasy duet from Deborah Kalin which is currently published only in Australia; a hot new release from Small Beer; and a signed Bujold from Baen books. Here is the full list.
The fund raiser will end at midnight on the last day of February, because it seemed cool to end on a leap day. Up until that time, everyone who donates money will go into a draw for one of those prizes. The full rules of the draw are available here.
Our aim, as with last year, is to raise $2000. As you may recall, we managed $1764.01. Let’s at least beat that.
If you are a new visitor, more information about our organization can be found here; and more information about the awards is here.
To donate, simply use this PayPal button. You are able pay with a credit card.
The current state of our fund raising drive is that we have received a total of $951.55 from 26 people (and two institutional donors who don’t qualify for the draw). That means two important things. Firstly we are almost half way to our goal, and secondly we now have more donors than prizes.
Except we don’t, because we have a lot of prizes in reserve. So here’s the deal. When we get to $1000 we’ll add a whole lot more prizes to the draw. People have offered these books, and we really want you folks to win them.
We are pleased to report that our fund drive is progressing well. Including the substantial donation from Science Fiction Studies, and a couple of donations that came in during the year, our total of funds raised currently stands at $686.55. But the good news from your point of view is that we currently have 24 prizes on offer, and only 19 people have donated money. So right now, every donor wins something. Obviously that will change with time, but we also have offers of several more prizes, some of them very exciting. We’d love to be able to offer them as well.
The winner of last year’s Long Form award, A Life on Paper: Stories by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, was published by Small Beer Press. We keep an eye on what they are up to. And this month they have released an exciting new anthology of stories from Mexico. Three Messages and a Warning, edited by Eduardo Jiménez Mayo & Chris. N. Brown, contains more than thirty all-original Mexican science fiction and fantasy. For more information, and biographies of all of the featured writers, see the Small Beer website.
Updated January 23rd with lots more prizes.
Our jury is now busily considering which of this year’s nominees will receive prizes, but before we can give out those prizes we need money. Our awards are not backed by wealthy sponsors, but by individual contributors and small grants. We have had a kind donation from Science Fiction Studies, and a few from private individuals, but most of our money comes from you, the readers.
For last year’s awards we ran a fund raising campaign, and several kind people donated books that we could give away to a few lucky donors. We have decided to repeat that exercise this year, and we have some fine prizes available already. They are:
Huge thanks to everyone who has donated. More prizes may be added during the draw. If anyone would like to donate an additional prize, please get in touch.
The fund raiser will end at midnight on the last day of February, because it seemed cool to end on a leap day. Up until that time, everyone who donates money will go into a draw for one of those prizes. The full rules of the draw are available here.
Our aim, as with last year, is to raise $2000. As you may recall, we managed $1764.01. Let’s at least beat that.
If you are a new visitor, more information about our organization can be found here; and more information about the awards is here.
To donate, simply use this PayPal button. You are able pay with a credit card.
Our jury has asked us to stop taking nominations for works published in 2011 now. The full list of books they have been asked to consider is therefore as given here.
Because translated works are often published in small presses, and our awards are not well known, we don’t always get to hear of eligible works in time. Therefore our rules allow us to carry works over from one year to the next. If you do know of a work that we should have considered from 2011, please do tell us about it. It isn’t too late, we just won’t be considering it for the current set of awards.
If you’re a US taxpayer, remember that donations to the SF & F Translation Awards are tax-deductible as charitable donations. We are a recognized 501(c)(3) organization. For most people, if you want to take that tax deduction on your next tax return, you need to donate by the end of 2011. See our Donations Page for further details and how to donate. In 2011, over 95% of our donation income was spent directly on the Awards themselves (award trophies, certificates, and award grants), with less than 5% spent on overhead costs such as postage, shipping, and governmental fees. (A copy of our latest financial statement is available upon request.) This is because all of the work managing the awards is done by volunteers donating their time and effort. You can help us by donating to keep the work going.
The latest issue of World Literature Today has a special feature covering the Serbian master of the fantastic, Zoran Živković. What’s more, four of the articles relating to Zoran are available free online. Here are the links: