In Re Lovecraft

On the one hand, I’m sad that the World Fantasy Awards will no longer feature the bulbous head of H.P. Lovecraft. I like traditions, and am reflexively annoyed when genre stuff changes, even when it happens for a good reason. [1] I’m also a long-time fan and reader of Lovecraft – I wrote my college thesis in large part on him, and got it published in Lovecraft Studies #21. [2] And I’m a big Gahan Wilson fan, so I love that ugly old statue – maybe even more because it is ugly. [3] Finally, I feel a little proprietorial towards the Lovecraft Head, because I was a WFA judge myself, once upon a time, and because I got to accept the award for Marvin Kaye’s anthology The Fair Folk that same year. [4]

So I’m really close to being the kind of guy who would harrumph very loudly on this topic on the Internet, and probably say some stupid and irrevocable things.

Luckily, I have another hand. And that hand is well aware that Lovecraft was deeply racist – see my Twitter rant about him from around this time last year, preserved on this blog – and that any “man of his time” arguments are deeply specious and wrong. (Short form: Lovecraft was amazingly racist, in really weird ways, even for the 1920s. Seriously. It's not worth trying to argue against it; the man wrote hundred-page letters all about racial groups he loathed and wanted dead.) So I get why people wouldn’t want his head on their trophy, particularly if they were in groups he considered sub-human. [5]

No one is actually making the "awards have to be named after shining paragons of virtue, and no one else" argument, so I won't try to prop it up to chuck mud at. But there does seem to be a lurking sense that personalities rather than art is of primary importance, and that makes me uneasy in a literary-award context. If the argument was that Lovecraft was a minor weirdo writer with only a tenuous connection to the modern fantasy field, I'd be happier with it. (And that line of attack is nearly as true as the one about his racism -- it's arguable, at least.)

I just don’t like to see cool things that I enjoy changing, OK? I apparently had some lurking hope, deep in my heart, that I would someday get back into the SFF world and win a Wilson/Lovecraft head before I died. Now, that stupid hope is clearly shown to be a lie. And I do have a suspicion that whatever replaces the Head of Lovecraft will be dull and uninteresting, because I am middle-aged and all new things are horrible. (I may be exaggerating slightly for effect.)

Still, it is nice to see the WFA committee realizing that a big swath of the genre is really offended by the Font of Rugosity and is willing to move with the times. Old grumpy people often don’t move as quickly as young angry people want, but sometimes they do move – and even in the right direction.

And if the new statue is something equally ugly and disturbing from Gahan Wilson, I will be the first one to cheer and grin.

But I really don’t expect that -- it'll be something dull and tasteful, nothing like a human being and as inoffensive as possible. That's sad, because great art is deeply human and unconcerned with offense, and the WFAs are supposed to -- usually do, in fact -- fearlessly promote great art.

I may be wrong, of course. I would love to be wrong.


[1] For example, I’m still not sure if I consider the Kitschies to be a “real” award, since it started after I started working in the genre. (Actually, it started after I stopped working in the genre, which is even worse. No changes ever!) I don’t claim this is a good metric or a smart one, but it’s the one stuck in my head.

[2] My bragging is very lame. Pity me.

[3] And, yes, it is ugly. Very ugly. Wonderfully, amazingly ugly, as only Wilson could make it. Losing it as a major award in the SFF field will be a blow, and don't anyone forget that.


[4] Marvin, dear man that he is, pooh-pooed my protestations that asking a sitting judge to accept an award should you win could, just possibly, look a little shady. I still think someone else should have accepted, for appearances' sake, but I deeply enjoyed having custody of a Lovecraft Head for about a week.

[5] Then again, he consider just about everyone sub-human. Lovecraft liked male WASPs from Providence with suitably upper-class backgrounds and had problems with just about everyone else. Note that I’m not sure which side of the battle I’m arguing here.

Here Come the Judges

The panel for the 2009 World Fantasy Awards have been announced. (They seem familiar, so they may have been announced some time ago -- but I haven't blogged about them, so they're new to me.)

This year's crew of victims judges are:

• Jenny Blackford
• Peter Heck
• Ellen Klages
• Chris Roberson
• Delia Sherman

And they have my best wishes, and my most sincere hopes that their eyes, backs, and minds will hold out against the onslaught of fantasy works that they're about to be inundated with. (That onslaught runs the entire gamut from wonderfully awesome down to spork-your-eyes-out.)

One thing that did amuse me is the difference in the call for submissions between the WFA (which I was a judge for, several years ago) and the Eisners (which I'm a judge for, right at this moment).

The WFA lists the addresses of the five judges, and then says:

Materials to be considered for awards must be received, no later than June 1, 2009, by all five judges with an additional copy to the World Fantasy Awards Association, Peter Dennis Pautz, President [address suppressed].

Please mark any packages as Review Material — No Commercial Value — World Fantasy Awards Materials. Also, please make sure to send a file copy of any and all materials to the Awards Administrator so a comprehensive list may be kept, as well as backup copies for any that are lost or misplaced. This is the only way the judges can consider all eligible items, and you can be sure that your work has been given fair attention.

And the Eisners call for a single copy to be sent, thus:

All submissions should be sent to Eisner Awards, Attn: Jackie Estrada, Eisner Awards Administrator, 8340 Allison Ave., La Mesa, CA 91941 before the deadline of March 13, 2009.

One more point: the WFAs have nine categories; the Eisners over two dozen. I'm not sure if the difference is meant to spare the judges' mailboxes (or perhaps shield their privacy) or to mollify comics companies that don't like sending out free copies of anything to anyone. (Some of them are quite remarkably averse to the concept of "review copies," for example.) But it is a notable difference in strategy.

World Fantasy Award Nominees Announced

Below is the full list of nominees for all of the categories of the World Fantasy Awards; they were released sometime yesterday. Winners will be announced, as usual, at this year's World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, NY in early November. (And you'll see me there, as well, as long as I'm not living in a box under an overpass by then.)

My most profound congratulations to all of the nominees, and thanks and congratulations to the judges, who have hit the fun part of a long, grueling (but enjoyable, I hope) process -- now they get to act mysterious and give small smiles when people try to get them to reveal who the winners are. (I was a judge last year, and it was one of the best things I've ever done.) Specifically, those judges this year were Gavin Grant, Ed Greenwood, Jeremy Lassen, Jeff Mariotte, and Carsten Polzin, and their hard work should be recognized.

But the person I want to give the greatest thanks and congratulations to is Ellen Asher, my former boss at that employer I now do not name. Ellen was nominated in the category of Special Award: Professional, for what I think is the first time and what probably will be the last time (she's now retired, and so won't be eligible). It may be parochial of me, but I hope she wins.

I won't say who else I'm rooting for; this looks like a strong list from top to bottom, and all of the nominees would be fine winners. Again, congratulations to all of them.

NOVEL

Lisey's Story, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)

The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Bantam Spectra; Small Beer Press)

The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch (Gollancz; Bantam Spectra)

The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)

Soldier of Sidon, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

NOVELLA

"Botch Town", Jeffrey Ford (The Empire of Ice Cream, Golden Gryphon)

"The Man Who Got Off the Ghost Train", Kim Newman (The Man from the Diogenes Club, MonkeyBrain)

Dark Harvest, Norman Partridge (Cemetery Dance)

"Map of Dreams", M. Rickert (Map of Dreams, Golden Gryphon)

"The Lineaments of Gratified Desire", Ysabeau S. Wilce (F&SF Jul 2006)

SHORT FICTION

"The Way He Does It", Jeffrey Ford (Electric Velocipede #10, Spr 2006)

"Journey Into the Kingdom", M. Rickert (F&SF May 2006)

"A Siege of Cranes", Benjamin Rosenbaum (Twenty Epics, All-Star Stories)

"Another Word for Map is Faith", Christopher Rowe (F&SF Aug 2006)

"Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)", Geoff Ryman (F&SF Oct/Nov 2006)

ANTHOLOGY

Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard, Scott A. Cupp & Joe R. Lansdale, eds. (MonkeyBrain and the Fandom Association of Central Texas)

Salon Fantastique, Ellen Datlow & Terry Windling, eds. (Thunder's Mouth)

Retro Pulp Tales, Joe R. Lansdale, ed. (Subterranean)

Twenty Epics, David Moles & Susan Marie Groppi, eds. (All-Star Stories)

Firebirds Rising, Sharyn November, ed. (Firebird)

COLLECTION

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)

The Empire of Ice Cream, Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon)

American Morons, Glen Hirshberg (Earthling)

Red Spikes, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin Australia; Knopf)

Map of Dreams, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon)

ARTIST

Jon Foster

Edward Miller

John Picacio

Shaun Tan

Jill Thompson

SPECIAL AWARD, PROFESSIONAL

Ellen Asher (For work at SFBC)

Mark Finn (for Blood & Thunder: The Life of Robert E. Howard, MonkeyBrain)

Deanna Hoak for copyediting

Greg Ketter for Dreamhaven

Leonard S. Marcus, ed. (for The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy, Candlewick)

SPECIAL AWARD, NON-PROFESSIONAL

Leslie Howle (for her work at Clarion West)

Leo Grin (for The Cimmerian)

Susan Marie Groppi (for Strange Horizons)

John Klima (for Electric Velocipede)

Gary K. Wolfe (for reviews and criticism in Locus and elsewhere)

[via Locus Online]

Post-World Fantasy Judge-y Thoughts

I tried to say most of this at the Judges' Panel on Sunday -- and I wouldn't be surprised if a transcript or account of that turns up on the web at some time (I think someone was taping us) -- but here's my version, out in public. It will probably be very disjointed.

Being a World Fantasy Judge was the most exhausting wonderful thing that ever happened to me. (Both of my sons were born by Caesarian section, so those were the most nerve-wracking wonderful things.) I met four great people who I now consider my friends, and I hope we'll stay in touch for years to come. (After all of the horror stories from previous years, I was a little surprised.)

We did each have our own opinions -- and some of us (including me) got quite opinionated, but we never got personal. Getting to discuss fantasy in depth with the other judges over months and months was great -- I even got to look forward to seeing a cascade of "[WFA Judges]" in my e-mail, since that meant I'd be able to ignore work and just talk about books for a while.

I honestly didn't think our selections were all that controversial when we made them, though that realization snuck up on me sometime before I got to the con. There was no horse-trading, and I think all of us were happy with all of the winners. (It wasn't quite a pure "consensus" -- we used a points system for voting -- but most of the categories had very obvious winners, and all of us were happy with them.)

I've seen a bunch of rumors (though there's probably many more I haven't seen), and, so far, not only are none of them true, several of them are the opposite of what really happened. No specifics, sorry -- but whatever you think happened is probably very wrong.

Honestly. We did get along very well. I was amazed; I was sure I was going to piss someone off when I was first asked to do it. But we had a great group; I wish that every future World Fantasy jury has it as easy as we did.

So if there's anyone out there who has been asked -- go for it. It can be an amazing experience. And I'll be ready to judge something else myself...in 2008, I think.

World Fantasy Award Winners

I posted this at the SFBC Blog yesterday, but there may be folks who don't read both, so...here they are:

• Novel: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
• Novella: Voluntary Committal by Joe Hill
• Short Fiction: "CommComm" by George Saunders
• Anthology: The Fair Folk edited by Marvin Kaye
• Collection: The Keyhole Opera by Bruce Holland Rogers
• Artist: James Jean
• Special Award: Professional: Sean Wallace (for Prime Books)
• Special Award: Non-Professional: David Howe and Stephen Walker (for Telos Books
• Lifetime Achievement: Stephen Fabian
• Lifetime Achievement: John Crowley

As you may recall, I was one of the judges this year, so please leave any questions, rants, statements of pure befuddlement, or requests to know what drugs we were taking as comments...and I'll explain exactly why all of those things were the best f-ing fantasy of 2005.

World Fantasy Award Nominees

I'm posting a notice here as well as the SFBC Blog out of pure ego-boo: I am one of the WFA judges this year. Well, maybe it's not pure ego-boo; I also think all of these works are worth celebrating and I want to see them get the widest possible recognition. The list is from the official WFA site.

Novel:

• Hal Duncan, Vellum (Macmillan; Del Rey)
• Bret Easton Ellis, Lunar Park (Knopf; Macmillan)
• Graham Joyce, The Limits of Enchantment (Gollancz; Atria)
• Patricia A. McKillip, Od Magic (Ace)
• Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (Harvill; Knopf)
• Paul Park, A Princess of Roumania (Tor)

Novella:

• Laird Barron, "The Imago Sequence" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 2005)
• Michael Cunningham, "In the Machine" (Specimen Days, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Joe Hill, Voluntary Committal (Subterranean Press)
• Tanith Lee, "UOUS" (The Fair Folk, Science Fiction Book Club)
• Kelly Link, "Magic for Beginners" (Magic for Beginners, Small Beer Press; Fantasy & Science Fiction, September 2005)
• Simon Morden, Another War (Telos Publishing)

Short Fiction:

• Peter S. Beagle, "Two Hearts" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Oct/Nov 2005)
• Joe Hill, "Best New Horror" (Postscripts 3, Spring 2005)
• Holly Phillips, "The Other Grace" (In the Palace of Repose, Prime Books)
• Caitli­n R. Kiernan, "La Peau Verte" (To Charles Fort, With Love, Subterranean Press)
• George Saunders, "CommComm" (The New Yorker, 08/01, 2005)
  

Anthology:

• Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth ed. Stephen Jones (Fedogan & Bremer)
• The Fair Folk ed. Marvin Kaye (Science Fiction Book Club)
• Polyphony 5 ed. Deborah Layne and Jay Lake (Wheatland Press)
• Adventure Vol. 1 ed. Chris Roberson (MonkeyBrain Books)
• Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction ed. Neil Williamson and Andrew J. Wilson (Crescent Books)

Collection:

• Joe Hill, 20th Century Ghosts (PS Publishing)
• Caitli­n R. Kiernan, To Charles Fort, With Love (Subterranean Press)
• Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners (Small Beer Press)
• Holly Phillips, In the Palace of Repose (Prime Books)
• Bruce Holland Rogers, The Keyhole Opera (Wheatland Press)

Artist:

• Kinuko Y. Craft
• James Jean
• Dave McKean
• Edward Miller (Les Edwards)
• John Jude Palencar

Special Award: Professional:

• Susan Allison and Ginjer Buchanan (for Ace Books)
• Lou Anders (for editing at Pyr)
• S. T. Joshi & Stefan Dziemanowicz, Editors (for Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia, Greenwood Press)
• Peter Lavery (for Pan MacMillan UK/Tor UK)
• Chris Roberson and Allison Baker (for MonkeyBrain Books)
• Sean Wallace (for Prime Books)

Special Award: Non-Professional:

• The Friends of Arthur Machen (for Faunus, Machenalia, and The Life of Arthur Machen)
• Leo Grin (for The Cimmerian)
• David Howe and Stephen Walker (for Telos Books)
• Jess Nevins (for The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana, from MonkeyBrain Books)
• Rodger Turner, Neil Walsh, and Wayne MacLaurin (for SF Site)
  

(Let me note in passing that I learned that these had been released by reading Darkecho Blog; I'm going to go check my work e-mail now and see if I should have known ahead of time. Five minutes later: yes, they did e-mail me early yesterday to say the list was being released, and it's my own fault for not keeping up with e-mail.)

Today's WFA Reading: 6/9

Two books today, a week after the deadline, after nothing for a while. Book One is to help support the cause of getting A.N. Author the Life Achievement Award, while Book Two is one that various people (up to and finally including the author) have been asking the publisher to please send to us.

Still more books than I know what to do with, I'm still pulling things back out of the "settled" pile, and only a few weeks left...

Today's WFA Reading: 6/3

On the lighter side, I got one book for WFA consideration today, two days after the deadline. (I'm not planning to be a hard-ass about the deadline, since it wouldn't serve any useful purpose, and I'm an old softy anyway.)

But, luckily, none of that matters, since this is the UK edition of a book I already have on the pile in its US edition.

Today's WFA Reading: 5/30

I cam back from a trip to Great Wolf Lodge with the family (about which more later, maybe) to find one package here and one slicker on my door saying that DHL tried to deliver something. I also ran out to the Post Office to pick up something that needed a signature (and has been there almost a week). On top of that, another package came in on Saturday that I neglected to mention. So I now have:

• A year's worth of a small-press criticalzine
• a second copy of a novella-in-book-form
• an anthology that looks very familiar but which I couldn't find in my stacks during a quick search
• and a couple of other photocopied stories.

And the official deadline is Thursday, which means I'm nearly at the end; I think I'm going to miss getting all this mail. The unruly piles of books all over the place -- not so much.

Today's WFA Reading: 5/24

One book today and one that I missed mentioning on Monday: an anthology and a collection.

And the deadline fast approaches; everything is supposed to reach the judges by 6/1. Pretty soon, I won't have these little snippets to rely on to post every day or three; I'll actually have to think up something to say.

Today's WFA Reading: 5/18

Today three packages arrived: two from Wildside/Prime (adding to the one I got the other day) and all of the fantasy from Asimov's (as what must have been a very labor-intensive pile of pages yanked out of last year's magazines).

Yesterday I got Nova Scotia, which is a really handsome book -- well-designed, with fancy French flaps and everything. I've read a couple of the stories from it in various Year's Bests, and they've all been good so far -- but they've all also been SF so far, so we'll see how much fantasy is in there.

Today's WFA Reading: 5/15

I'd thought the big flood was over, but I was wrong; it looks like, with the 6/1 deadline for submissions looming, I'll be seeing another big surge of stuff.

Today brought seven packages, not including one still waiting at the post office from Saturday that requires a signature. It adds up to at least ten books and a magazine to read for various fiction categories, a package of art (some of it in book form), and another pile of books and journals for Special Award: Non-Professional (which, by the way, no one has been able to define all that clearly).

I estimate, right now, that I should be reading at least four books a day to get through everything by my voting deadline...

Today's WFA Reading: 5/11

Two slim packages today: one with a small book (maybe a novella, maybe a novel) and one with a chapbook that must be a short story.

It's nice to have a day when the incoming stuff could all be read that night. (Not that this goes to the head of the queue by any means -- I have Systems for these things.)

Today's WFA Reading: 5/6

Two novels came in while I was away, from two separate publishers. One of them looks really interesting, though possibly grinding some axes. The other...well, it's best just not to say.

Today's WFA Reading: 5/3

Another single-book day: this one is an interesting-looking novel in an odd trimsize that came all the way from Australia.

Today's WFA Reading: 5/2

One big FedEx box, stuffed full of stories from (the late, lamented) SciFiction. There's something homey about getting what looks like a gigantic manuscript after all of the books and magazines so far.

Today's WFA Reading: 4/28

Another single-book day: this time a single-author collection from Australia.

The deadline for submissions is now barely a month away (June 1st), so, if there are any publicists lurking out there, please check your lists.

Today's WFA Reading: 4/27

Just one book today: a single-author collection from a small press.

This week I've been reading two good novels, so I seem to be catching up a bit.

Today's WFA Reading: 4/26

One big box today (twenty mass-market paperbacks, mostly from areas of the publishing world with which I am not overly familiar) and one small package (containing one science fiction book originally published in 2004, which was a nice try but not quite right).

Yesterday's haul was one brand-new hardcover book (publishing in about a week and a half, which is to say, ineligible for last year's award), which makes me thing I've made my way onto some general publicity lists. Far be it from me to say no to books, but I'm beginning to wonder if The Wife will let me convert yet more wall space into bookcases...

Today's WFA Reading: 4/24

What I've been dreading waiting for has finally arrived: the big box from Ace/Roc (last of the major US publishers to send us stuff, I think), with sixteen books in it. And, no, I won't tell you what's in it; I've gotten that circumspect, at least.

In other package news, I now have my fourth copy of Vellum, so I guess I'd better read the damn thing before a pile of them fall over and kill me. I now have one copy of the US paperback at my office, one copy of the US galley at home on the "might read for SFBC" shelf, one copy of the UK hardcover on the "gotta read this for WFC" shelf, and now another emergency auxiliary US paperback for home, just in case. I plan to read it in the UK edition, since that's the one eligible for the WFA, and I'd like to experience it in its full no-quotation-marks splendor. The current plan is to read it over Nebula weekend, so, if you happen to see me then, feel free to ask how Vellum is going...