June 2014 Clarion West Alumni News
It’s June, and Clarion West is gearing up for the summer: workshop students are finalizing travel plans, readings are being planned, and the Write-a-thon is open for registration. This is a busy and exciting time of year for Clarion West, and for the speculative fiction world in general.
This month, we have awards news, a number of publications, and a wedding!
Featured This Month
“Book of Lish” by Trent Walters (CW ’99)
“Transported Abruptly to the Future” by Ellen Levy Finch (CW ’98)
“Surviving the eBookalypse” by Randy Henderson (CW ’09)
Remember, if you have stories, essays, or poems online, we would love to feature them. Send email to alumni@clarionwest.org with links and your class year.
Awards
The Nebulas were a smash this year! We have three Clarion West alumni among the winners.
Ann Leckie (CW ’05) won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. She has also been nominated for the Hugo, Locus, and Campbell awards for Ancillary Justice.
Rachel Swirsky (CW ’05) has won the Nebula for Best Short Story for “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” (Apex, 3/13)
Vylar Kaftan (CW ’04) has won the Nebula for Best Novella for “The Weight of the Sunrise.”
Congratulations, everyone!
Nominations
The Locus Award nominations have been announced, and there are several alumni among the honorees.
Best Science Fiction Novel
Abaddon’s Gate James S.A. Corey (half of whom is Daniel Abraham, CW ’98)
Best First Novel
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (CW ’05)
Best Novella
“Wakulla Springs”, Andy Duncan (CW ’94) and Ellen Klages
The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalists have also been announced, including Vylar Kaftan (CW ’04) for “The Weight of the Sunrise” and E. Lily Yu (CW ’13) for “The Urashima Effect.”
Publications
Lightspeed’s “Women Destroy Science Fiction” special issue is out now, and includes a number of our alumni!
Kris Millering (CW ’09) has a short story and author spotlight, Rachel Swirsky (CW ’05) selected the reprints and has a personal essay, and Maria Romasco Moore (CW ’11) has a reprint. Tina Connolly (CW ’06) has a piece of flash fiction, as does Rhiannon Rasmussen (will be attending CW ’14). Tracie Welser (CW ’10) and Nisi Shawl (CW ’92) have pieces of nonfiction. Nancy Jane Moore (CW ’97), Kameron Hurley (CW ’00), Helena Bell (CW ’13), and Georgina Kamsika (CW ’12) all have personal essays. Sandra Odell (CW ’10) interviewed three of the authors for spotlights.
Maura McHugh’s (CW ’06) short story “Bone Mother” has been optioned by the National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Studio to make a short stop-motion animated film. It will be adapted and directed by Sylvie Trouvé and Dale Hayward, and produced for the NFB by Jelena Popovic.
Cat Rambo (CW ’05) has recently had stories accepted for Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Genius Loci, Three-Lobed, Burning Eye, and Unidentified Funny Objects 3. She is also the incoming SFWA Vice President.
Stephanie Burgis (CW ’01) has a YA Victorian romance/fantasy story, “The Unladylike Education of Agatha Tremain,” in Inscription Magazine. Also, the third of her Kat, Incorrigible books, Stolen Magic, was published in paperback by Atheneum Books this spring.
Sonia Lyris (CW ’92) has a short story called “Done” in Lore.
M. Huw Evans (CW ’12) has sold his story “Nine Instances of Rain” to GigaNotoSaurus.
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (CW ’09) has a non-fiction essay in Strange Horizons called “Movements: Brown Woman at Work.”
Passages
Geetanjali Dighe (CW ’13) and Todd Vandemark (CW ’09) were recently married in San Antonio. Our warmest congratulations and wishes for your future happiness!