News from the Campbell Conference:

Finalists for this year’s Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction have been selected. The awards will be presented during the Campbell Conference Awards Banqueton Friday, June 16, as part of the annual Campbell Conference.

Finalists for the 2017 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award

Nina Allan, “The Art of Space Travel,” Tor.com, 27 July 2016.

Amal El-Mohtar, “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, eds. Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, Saga Press, 2016.

Carolyn Ives Gilman, “Touring with the Alien,” Clarkesworld, April 2016.

Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom, Tor.com, February 2016.

Ian R. MacLeod, “The Visitor From Taured,” Asimov’s, September 2016.

Sam J. Miller, “Things with Beards,” Clarkesworld, June 2016.

Dominica Phetteplace, “Project Empathy,” Asimov’s, March 2016.

Catherynne M. Valente, “The Future is Blue,” Drowned Worlds, ed. Jonathan Strahan, Solaris Books, 2016.

Kai Ashante Wilson, A Taste of Honey, Tor.com, 13 October 2016.

The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award recognizes the best science fiction short story of each year. It was established in 1987 by James Gunn, founder of the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at KU, and the heirs of Theodore Sturgeon, including his partner Jayne Engelhart Tannehill and Sturgeon’s children, as an appropriate memorial to one of the great short-story writers in a field distinguished by its short fiction.

The Campbell Conference has been held each year since 1978, usually in Lawrence, Kansas. It includes a Friday-evening banquet where the annual Theodore Sturgeon and John W. Campbell Memorial Award are presented; a round-table discussion with scholars, scientists, and writers of science fiction; and several other events.

This year’s Campbell Conference celebrates James Gunn and the mission of the Gunn Center – “Saving the world through science fiction.” The Conference takes place on June 16-18, where we return to the University of Kansas Student Union for most of our activities, including a mass signing by the attending authors and editors. We continue adding more special guests throughout May and early June.

In addition to our theme, we’ll also celebrate the winners of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best SF novel (we’ll announce finalists soon – see prior years’ finalists here) and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short SF (see prior years’ finalists here), and host a reception for our winning Guests of Honor (if they are able to attend).