Needless to say, I am VERY happy with the work we jurors did this year. Go us!
PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE
PUBLICATION – 2008.04.14
JAMES TIPTREE JR. AWARD WINNER
ANNOUNCED
A gender-exploring science fiction award is presented to
Sarah Hall for The Carhullan Army (Daughters of the North)
The
James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council is pleased to announce that the
winner of the 2007 Tiptree Award is The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
(published in the United States as Daughters of the North). The British
edition was published in 2007 by Faber & Faber; the American edition in
2008 by HarperCollins.
The Tiptree Award will be celebrated on May
25, 2008 at WisCon (www.wiscon.info) in Madison, Wisconsin. The winner of
the Tiptree Award receives $1000 in prize money, an original artwork
created specifically for the winning novel or story, and (as always)
chocolate.
Each year, a panel of five jurors selects the Tiptree
Award winners and compiles an Honor List of other works that they find
interesting, relevant to the award, and worthy of note. The 2007
jurors were Charlie Anders, Gwenda Bond (chair), Meghan McCarron, Geoff
Ryman, and Sheree Renee Thomas.
The Carhullan Army elicited strong
praise from the jurors. Gwenda Bond said, “Hall does so many things well in
this book – writing female aggression in a believable way, dealing with
real bodies in a way that makes sense, and getting right to the heart of
the contradictions that violence brings out in people, but particularly in
women in ways we still don't see explored that often. I found the writing
entrancing and exactly what it needed to be for the story; lean, but
well-turned.” Geoff Ryman said, “It faces up to our current grim future
(something too few SF novels have done) and seems to go harder and darker
into war, violence, and revolution.” Meghan McCarron said, “I found the
book to be subtle and ambiguous in terms of its portrayal of the Army, and
its utopia….The book became, ultimately, an examination of what it means to
attain physical, violent power as defined by a male-dominated world. And it
asserted that it could be claimed by anyone, regardless of physical sex,
provided they were willing to pay the price.”
The book, which is
Hall’s third novel, also won the 2007 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for the
best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama) from Britain
or the Commonwealth written by an author of 35 or under.
The Tiptree
Award Honor List is a strong part of the award’s identity and is used by
many readers as a recommended reading list for the rest of the year. The
2007 Honor List is:
- "Dangerous Space" by Kelley Eskridge, in the author’s collection Dangerous Space (Aqueduct Press, 2007)
- Water Logic by Laurie Marks (Small Beer Press, 2007)
- Empress of Mijak and The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller (HarperCollins, Australia, 2007)
- The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (Hyperion, 2007)
- Interfictions, edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss (Interstitial Arts Foundation/Small Beer Press, 2007)
- Glasshouse by Charles Stross (Ace, 2006)
- The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper (Harper Collins 2007)
- Y: The Last Man, written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Pia Guerra (available in 60 issues or 10 volumes from DC/Vertigo Comics, 2002-2008)
- Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce (Harcourt, 2007)
The James Tiptree Jr. Award is
presented annually to a work or works that explore and expand gender roles
in science fiction and fantasy. The award seeks out work that is
thought-provoking, imaginative, and perhaps even infuriating. The Tiptree
Award is intended to reward those women and men who are bold enough to
contemplate shifts and changes in gender roles, a fundamental aspect of any
society.
The James Tiptree Jr. Award was created in 1991 to honor
Alice Sheldon, who wrote under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr. By her
choice of a masculine pen name, Sheldon helped break down the imaginary
barrier between “women’s writing” and “men’s writing.” Her insightful short
stories were notable for their thoughtful examination of the roles of men
and women in our society.
Since its inception, the Tiptree Award
has been an award with an attitude. As a political statement, as a means of
involving people at the grassroots level, as an excuse to eat cookies, and
as an attempt to strike the proper ironic note, the award has been financed
through bake sales held at science fiction conventions across the United
States, as well as in England and Australia. Fundraising efforts have
included auctions conducted by stand-up comic and award-winning writer
Ellen Klages, the sale of t-shirts and aprons created by collage artist and
silk screener Freddie Baer, and the publication of four anthologies of
award winners and honor-listed stories. Three of the anthologies are in
print and available from Tachyon Publications
(www.tachyonpublications.com). The award has also published two cookbooks
featuring recipes and anecdotes by science fiction writers and fans,
available through www.tiptree.org.
In addition to presenting the
Tiptree Award annually, the James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council
occasionally presents the Fairy Godmother Award, a special award in honor
of Angela Carter. Described as a “mini, mini, mini, mini MacArthur award,”
the Fairy Godmother Award strikes without warning, providing a financial
boost to a deserving writer in need of assistance to continue creating
material that matches the goals of the Tiptree Award.
Reading for
the 2008 Tiptree Award will soon begin, with jurors K. Tempest Bradford,
Gavin Grant (chair), Leslie Howle, Roz Kaveney, and Catherynne M. Valente.
As always, the Tiptree Award invites all to recommend works for the award.
Please submit recommendations via the Tiptree Award website at
www.tiptree.org.
For more information, visit the Tiptree Award
website at www.tiptree.org.
