The Lifeboat Foundation will present the “Lifeboat to the Stars” award along with $1,000 to the winner at the 2013 Campbell Conference.

The “Lifeboat to the Stars” award honors the best work of science fiction of any length published in 2011 or 2012 contributing to an understanding of the benefits, means, and difficulties of interstellar travel.

Coordinating judge is Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell Award-winning science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer. Editors and readers were invited to nominate eligible works and a judging panel drawn from Lifeboat Foundation advisory boards winnowed that 50-plus-item longlist down to a final seven-item ballot.  Fourteen final judges are now voting on that ballot to determine the winner.  The finalists are:

• Anderson, Kevin J. and Steve Savile. Tau Ceti. Arc Manor, 2011.
• Benford, Gregory and Larry Niven. Bowl of Heaven. Tor, 2012.
• Bishop, Michael. “Twenty Lights to `The Land of Snow'” from the anthology Going Interstellar, Baen, 2012.
• Bova, Ben. “A Country for Old Men” from the anthology Going Interstellar, Baen, 2012.
• McDevitt, Jack. “Lucy” from the anthology Going Interstellar, Baen, 2012.
• Reynolds, Alastair. Blue Remembered Earth. Ace, 2012.
• Santos, Domingo (translated by Stanley Schmidt). “The First Day of Eternity.” Analog, January-February 2011.

Sawyer will present the award — and the $1,000 prize — at this year’s Campbell Conference, June 13-16, 2013, at the Oread Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas:http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/campbell-conference.htm

The award was suggested by Frederik Pohl and James Gunn, and named by Gunn.

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About Lifeboat Foundation

The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the Singularity.

Contact:

Robert J. Sawyer
sawyer@sfwriter.com