News from 100 Year Starship:

100 Year Starship (100YSS) has announced the winners of the inaugural 2015 Canopus Award honoring excellence in interstellar writing.  Prizes were given in four categories — Previously Published Long-Form and Short-Form Fiction, and Original Fiction and Non-Fiction — to works that contribute to the excitement, knowledge, and understanding of interstellar space exploration and travel.

The winners are:

Previously Published Long-Form Fiction 

InterstellarNet: Enigma, by Edward M. Lerner (Published by FoxAcre)

Previously Published Short-Form Fiction 

“The Waves,” by Ken Liu (Originally published in Asimov’s December 2012)

Original Fiction

“Everett’s Awakening,” by Robert Buckalew writing as Ry Yelcho

Original Non-Fiction

“Finding Earth 2.0 from the Focus of the Solar Gravitational Lens,” by Louis D. Friedman & Slava G. Turyshev

100YSS is the independent, long-term global initiative led by former astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison to ensure the capabilities for human travel beyond our solar system exist within the next 100 years and the advances are applied to enhance life here on Earth every step of the way.

The award is named for the second brightest star in the night sky, Canopus, which connects humanity’s past, present and future through fact and fantasy.  Over the millennia Canopus not only heralded planting seasons in the Rift Valley, but was a major navigation star for everyone from the Bedouin of the Sinai and the Maori of New Zealand to deep space probes like Voyager. Just as Canopus has helped explorers find their way for centuries, great writing —telling a story well ––is a guidepost for current and future interstellar achievement.

The winners were announced during Science Fiction Stories Night at 100YSS’s fourth annual public symposium held this year in the heart of Silicon Valley, at the Santa Clara Marriott in Santa Clara, Calif., October 29-November 1.

The judges include writer and 100YSS Creative and Editorial director Jason Batt; author and former Wall Street Journal reporter August Cole; Founder of International Speechwriting Associates Kathleen Colgan; teacher at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Education and Leadership, Janet DeVigne; editor Jaym Gates; 100YSS Principal and former astronaut Mae Jemison, M.D.; Chapman University creative writing student Alec Medén; Rutgers University Professor Ronke Olabisi, Ph.D.; faculty and advisor to the Singularity University David Orban; Georgia high school freshman Bailey Stanley; writer and anthropologist Juliette Wade, Ph.D.; Aeronautical and Astronautical engineer Paul Webber; journalist Sofia Webber;astrobiologist and creator of Yuri’s Night Loretta Whitesides; and,Major General Ken Wisian.

For more information about the Canopus Award, visit http://100yss.org/initiatives/canopusaward.