The Nebula Awards Showcase 56 is nearing completion! All contributor contracts have been signed, manuscripts have been edited, and we’re finalizing the cover layout. The last big item on our “to do” list is completing the anthology’s interior graphic design, and then we’ll be ready for publication! (Once this anthology is complete, we’ll be working on the next one in the series!)
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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is proud to announce that Susan Cooper has been named the 40th Damon Knight Grand Master for her contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy.
Susan Cooper is most recognized for her fantasy sequence for young adults, The Dark is Rising, which has just reached its 50th anniversary. Her other books for children include The Boggart and its sequels, several works of historical fiction, and multiple picture books, most recently The Word Pirates and The Shortest Day in 2019.
Reflecting on the work of the newest Grand Master, SFWA President Jeffe Kennedy shared that “Susan Cooper possesses the rare gift of being able to write for young people with a resonance that endures all through their adult lives. I feel as if The Dark Is Rising books have always been a part of my life. I memorized poems and passages from those books, which I can still recite today. When I first began writing fantasy of my own, I slipped in images and names from her stories in homage and celebration. It’s truly a great honor for me to name Susan Cooper as the 2024 Grand Master, a writer so foundational to the fantasy genre, for both readers and readers who became writers.”
The 40th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master award will be presented to Susan during the annual SFWA Nebula Conference and the 59th Nebula Awards.
Visit sfwa.org to read the full press release.
Registration for the 2024 Nebula Conference is Open!
This year’s Nebula conference will take place at the Westin Pasadena and online! In-person registration includes all online access. With every conference ticket, you can watch and listen to all recorded panels and presentations that took place over the weekend. In addition, you’ll have access to ongoing special events and panels throughout the year, including our Narrative Worlds series, writing dates, and more!
Register for the conference before March 14th to receive our early bird tickets price!
If you or someone you know needs a scholarship to participate in the conference, find more information here.
Suggest Panels for the 2024 Nebula Conference
The Nebulas programming team is collecting proposals for panels and other session ideas!
We rely on submissions to this form to ensure our program is full of content which our community members will find valuable, relevant and interesting. Complete this form to submit your ideas by February 16th for us to consider your panel for the conference!
Have more than one idea? Feel free to share multiple submissions!
Bring Back the Book Bag!
We’re working on bringing back our collectable SFWA bookbag program for in-person conference attendees! If you have any publishing contacts who might be interested in distributing any of your titles your peers, colleagues, agents, and editors in attendance this year, please let us know at events@sfwa.org. The more publishers and authors who participate, the bigger the bag!
See you at the Nebulas!
The SFWA Events Team
Full, Associate, and Senior members of SFWA are eligible to submit a nomination ballot for the Nebula Awards. Ballots must be received by the deadline of February 29, 2024 @ 11:59pm Pacific Time.
In early December, and in cooperation with the SFWA Nebula Rules Committee, the SFWA Board of Directors voted to update the SFWA Nebula Awards Rules. Passing with a unanimous vote, these new rules are in effect for the current, 2023 nomination and final ballot season. You may find them here: Nebula Rules – The Nebula Awards® (sfwa.org)
Combining some small typographical and structural changes to numbering and bullet points, these new rules also require that at least one writer must be publicly credited on a project for it to be eligible for an award in any category. This iteration of the rules also introduces a new methodology for determining the appropriate category for comics and graphic novels. The rules now state:
*Comics and graphic novels less than 48 pages shall be eligible for the short story award.
*Comics and graphic novels that are between 49 and 100 pages shall be eligible for the novelette award.
*Comics and graphic novels that are between 101 and 150 pages shall be eligible for the novella award.
*Comics and graphic novels that are above 150 pages shall be eligible for the Novel award.
*For the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, comics and graphic novels shall have no page count.
We’d like to thank the SFWA Comics committee for their hard work in coming up with a method that will help the Nebula Awards Committee determine eligibility going forward.
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We are proud to announce the creation of the Infinity Award, with its inaugural presentation honoring the works and career of Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) at the 58th Annual Nebula Awards® Ceremony on May 14. |
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The SFWA Board voted to create the Infinity Award to posthumously honor acclaimed creators who passed away before they could be considered for a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. This new award aims to recognize that even though those celebrated worldbuilders, storytellers, and weavers of words are no longer with us, their legacies will continue to inspire. Upon its creation, it was also unanimously agreed that Octavia E. Butler would be our first recipient. Beginning with her perseverance in the face of the prejudice she encountered early on in her career, including claims that African American writers–especially African American women writers–could not write science fiction, Butler ultimately went on to earn a MacArthur Grant and a PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award. Butler did more than prove such naysayers wrong. Her works offered prescient critiques of societal issues and visions of what might be possible in different and future worlds. They are now being taught in over 200 colleges and universities nationwide. SFWA President Jeffe Kennedy remarked, “Establishing this new award is very important to me. Over the years, so many creators have been passed over for the Grand Master nod, for one reason or another. Some died tragically early. Others were not recognized for their work during their lifetimes because of cultural prejudices and blind spots. Others were simply ahead of their time. When we look back at the nearly sixty years of SFWA celebrating SFF creators, there are some who stand out as ones we deeply wish had been given our highest awards. Being able to recognize Octavia E. Butler as our first recipient of the Infinity Award is an inspiring and gratifying first step toward correcting past omissions.” |
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Courtesy of the Octavia E. Butler Estate Butler wrote sixteen novels and novellas, multiple collections and chapbooks, and many published essays. Her award-winning work during her lifetime includes “Bloodchild,” “The Evening and the Morning and the Night,” and Parable of the Talents. After her death, the #1 New York Times best-selling graphic novel adaptation of her book Kindred, created by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, received the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation. In media, her novel Dawn is being developed for television by Ava DuVernay, an opera by Toshi Reagon based on Parable of the Sower was part of The Public Theatre “Under the Radar” festival and toured worldwide in 2018, and Amazon Studios and JuVee Productions are developing a drama series from Butler’s Patternist series, beginning with Wild Seed. Jules Jackson, directing manager of the Octavia E. Butler Estate, shared the following remarks: “For those who have chosen to pay attention, there is one thing that has become clear and apparent…. Octavia Estelle Butler, the mother of Afrofuturism, has literally written herself into history. And now the Estate is tasked with the honor of archiving, diagramming, and extending the reach of Octavia Estelle Butler’s cherished body of work. Octavia taught her readers to imagine relentlessly, our collective figures…Octavia painted the ‘least respected of us’ into the center of every narrative, re-framing a genre…I am beyond excited to accept this inaugural Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association award, for and on behalf of Octavia Butler, The Octavia E. Butler Estate, and all of the incredible storytellers who are, and continue to be inspired and those who follow in Octavia Estelle Butler’s prescient wake.” Jackson will receive the award on Butler’s behalf at the Nebula Awards Ceremony. The award will be presented by Chinaka Hodge, writer and showrunner of the upcoming Wild Seeds television series. Rather than a physical award, SFWA will make a donation to a cause that an Infinity Award honoree supported or that their loved ones request. For this first award, and in future years when a specific charity is not requested, that donation will go to the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship to the Clarion West workshop, which is administered by the Carl Brandon Society. |
The annual SFWA Nebula Conference and 58th Nebula Awards will be held May 12–14, 2023. The conference will take place in Anaheim, California and aboard the virtual Airship Nebula. Registration Price: $449.00 for in-person attendance, $150.00 for Virtual attendance.
Register here.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is once again offering more than 100 scholarships for members of underserved communities for online registrations for the hybrid 2023 Nebula Conference.
To support efforts such as funding conference scholarships and other programs that promote and advance SFF creators and the genres, SFWA is also offering several conference sponsorship tiers for interested parties.
The 2023 Nebula Conference is rapidly approaching, taking place May 12–14, 2023. The conference is geared toward aspiring and professional storytellers in the speculative fiction genres and offers a professional development weekend full of panels, networking opportunities, and chances to learn from and interact with experts in related fields.
The 2023 Nebula Conference: May 12–14, 2023. Registration prices:
Both of these prices include one full year of amazing content. Register here: https://events.sfwa.org/
NEBULA SCHOLARSHIPS. Scholarship applications for the Nebula Conference must be completed on this form by April 21, 11:59pm Pacific Time.
Here are the categories of scholarships we’re offering and the number available for each.
From the applicant pool, the scholarship recipients will be selected by lottery. This scholarship will be available for our online conference only, which will give access to the streamed/online conference events over the conference weekend and all future online events for a full year.
Support of underserved communities isn’t possible without help. Donations are welcome at sfwa.org/donate to help support this very worthy cause. Questions about scholarships can be sent to events@sfwa.org.
NEBULA SPONSORSHIPS. Conference sponsorships are an important way SFWA funds essential outreach, like the Nebula scholarships, to the diverse voices within the global science fiction and fantasy publishing community. The cost of funding a scholarship significantly rises for in-person conferences and SFWA needs help to make them possible for future years.
Are you looking to increase the visibility of your latest book release? Interested in getting your brand in front of hundreds of conference attendees both in-person and around the world online? SFWA has a sponsorship option for you!
Here are this year’s options:
*additional costs dependent on cocktail/menu selection.
If you’re interested in any of our sponsorship opportunities, email sponsors@sfwa.org for details. Sharing the opportunities for sponsorships and scholarships with publishers, agents, and other industry friends is highly encouraged.
