Swanwick Interview Online
Rick Kleffel conducted a number of interviews for our Program Book. He will be posting some of them on his blog, The Agony Column. You can read his chat with Michael Swanwick here.
Fairmont Staff Thanks WFC2009
Elspeth Kovar, WFC2009 At-Con Hotel Liaison, informs us that the bell staff of the Fairmont wants us to let you know how very much they appreciate all of the members of WFC2009.
“‘We enjoy having you here’ is standard,” writes Elspeth, “and, in my experience, always true with SF conventions. But this was a special event for them, enough so that I was told and asked to pass it along.
“All too often folks don’t see the bell staff, or other front-line staff, as individuals. You, our membership, did. You looked them in the eye, chatted with them, said ‘thank you,’ and smiled at them when you went by. You have my thanks as well as on their behalf: it was special for them because you’re a pretty special bunch.”
So, thank you from the hotel staff to you, and also from the WFC2009 committee. It has been a long time since a convention of this type was in the San Jose Fairmont Hotel — it was the headquarters hotel for the 2002 Worldcon, ConJosé — and we’re happy to see how well everything worked as we returned after seven years’ absence.
Mailing It In
WFC 2009 extends a big thank you to the United States Postal Service! Rina Weisman, Vice Chair and Publisher Liaison of WFC 2009, would like to also personally thank My Wright, Jill Argaki, Jocelyn Wang, and Indy Deol of the USPS. With their help, expertise, patience, good humor, and time, they helped over 166 customers send more than 400 packages everywhere in the world, totalling over 5,600 lbs and over $5,000 in revenue. Without this service, many people might have been forced to leave their bookbags full of wonderful books at the convention! Kudos to their team for a job well done. We’ll be passing details of the arrangement on to the WFC 2010 committee so that they may be able to repeat the setup next year in Columbus.
Liars Panel Charity Event Successful
The “Liar’s Panel” with Mark L. Van Name, Ellen Klages, Sharyn November, and Jon Courtney Grimwood was a resounding success at the 2009 World Fantasy Convention. Held Saturday night in the Club Regent theatre, the panel entertained an audience kept in stitches by their straight-faced and bold lies… and boldfaced and straight truth! Questions such as “What was the weirdest date you ever went on?” and “What is the strangest thing you own” brought the comedic talents of the panelists to the fore, and tested the audience waving dollar bills to challenge their lies. The event, in one hour, raised over $350 for Variety Children’s Charity of Northern California. We extend a big thank you to the panelists and audience from Rina Weisman and Variety!
Impac Prize Long List
This news was embargoed until today, otherwise we would probably have been talking about it all weekend. The long list for this year’s highly prestigious €100,000 Impac Prize, voted on by the world’s librarians, has been announced. Among the nominees are:
- Escher’s Loops by our Guest of Honor, Zoran Živković
- The World Fantasy Award winning The Shadow Year by Jeff Ford
- Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin
- Anthem by Neal Stephenson
The Guardian has the full long list. There are several other books of a fantastical nature on it.
Award Jury for 2010
The jury for the 2010 World Fantasy Awards will be: Greg Ketter, Kelly Link, Jim Minz, Jurgen Snoeren and Gary K. Wolfe.
World Fantasy Award Winners 2009
Many thanks to everyone who joined us for our live coverage of the award ceremony. Here are the award winners.
- Lifetime Achievement: Ellen Asher & Jane Yolen
- Best Novel (tie): The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow) & Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Knopf)
- Best Novella: “If Angels Fight”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)
- Best Short Story: “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 7/08)
- Best Anthology: Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, Ekaterina Sedia, ed. (Senses Five Press)
- Best Collection: The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
- Best Artist: Shaun Tan
- Special Award – Professional: Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House)
- Special Award – Non-Professional: Michael Walsh (for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books)
The judges for 2009 were: Jenny Blackford, Peter Heck, Ellen Klages, Chris Roberson & Delia Sherman.
Live Awards Coverage
To see our live coverage of the awards ceremony, click here.
Banquet and Columbus Sales
If you want a banquet ticket, or a membership for next year’s World Fantasy in Columbus, the sales table has now moved to outside the Regency Ballroom where the banquet is due to take place.
Business As Usual
The Dealers’ Room is open for business and looks to be doing good trade.
The Art Show closed last night and is just doing sales pick-ups today.