Nominate "Mecha-Jesus" for a 2015 Aurora Award for Best Short Fiction - English

Calling all Canadians citizens at home and abroad and permanent residents of Canada: our national science fiction awards, the Aurora Awards, are now open for nominations. This year, my short story "Mecha-Jesus" is eligible to be nominated in the category of Best Short Fiction - English.

"Mecha-Jesus" was published in the anthology Wrestling With Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen, edited by Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stueart, from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. Since the Kindle e-book edition was released in November 2014, Wrestling With Gods and all its stories are eligible for the 2015 Aurora Awards. 

During the nomination period, "Mecha-Jesus" will be available free on my website at http://www.derwinmaksf.com/Mecha-Jesus.html

 To learn more about the Aurora Awards and to nominate stories and individuals, visit:

 http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/

The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) charges an annual $10 membership fee, so both new and returning members will be asked to pay $10 by Paypal. Renewing members can access the membership portal and make nominations after paying the membership fee. New members will receive a Society number by email and can go back to the Aurora Awards website and submit nominations. Nominees do not get any sort of monetary gain from the fees. The CSFFA is a non-profit organization, and its small budget, raised by the membership and voting fees, goes to administer the awards program and produce the trophies. $10 is a low price to promote national pride in our science fiction and to give a small reward to your favourite authors, artists, and fan organizers.

The online nomination deadline is April 25, 2015, 11:59:59 PM EDT.

The Dragon and the Stars wins an Aurora Award!

Left to right: Derwin Mak, Tony Pi, and Eric Choi with the Aurora Award trophies for The Dragon and the Stars.

 

The Dragon and the Stars won the Aurora Award for Best Related Work in English. The Aurora Awards, Canada's national science fiction awards for science fiction, were handed out at SFContario 2, which served as this year's Canadian National Science Fiction Convention, on November 20, 2011. The short-list of nominees and the winners were decided by voting of Canadian science fiction readers.

This is the probably the first time that a Chinese-theme anthology of science fiction and fantasy has won a national science fiction award outside China. Hopefully, the success of The Dragon and the Stars will encourage the publishing of more science fiction and fantasy inspired by the various cultures and traditions of the world.

The editors Derwin Mak and Eric Choi thanked Dr. Wu Yan of Beijing Normal University, Canadian author Julie Czerneda, John Helfers of Tekno Books, Sheila Gilbert of DAW Books, and the authors of the anthology. Tony Pi, who wrote the story "The Character of the Hound", represented the authors at the ceremony.

Thanks to all the persons who voted in the Aurora Awards.

May science fiction and fantasy flourish in Canada and the Chinese communities around the world for ten thousand years!

Left to right: Eric Choi, Derwin Mak, and Tony Pi.

Derwin Mak with author J.M. Frey, a presenter at the Aurora Awards. Publishers' Weekly listed J.M.'s novel Triptych as one of the five best science fiction or fantasy novels of 2011.

Nominate Eric Choi's story "Another's Treasure" for a Prix Aurora Award

Eric Choi is my co-editor of The Dragon and the Stars.

Eric Choi's short story "Another's Treasure" is indeed that rare treasure: a humorous science fiction short story published in a time when most science fiction writers are trying to exceed each other with serious, pessimistic themes. My warped sense of humour liked it, which is why I'm nominating it for Canada's national science fiction award, the Prix Aurora Award, in the category of Best Short-Form Work in English.

"Another's Treasure" was published in the anthology Footprints, edited by Jay Lake and Eric T. Reynolds, from Hadley Rille Books. See it here at Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/Footprints-James-Van-Pelt/dp/0981924395/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262752154&sr=1-1

If you're a Canadian citizen (even if not necessarily living in Canada) or permanent resident of Canada, you too can nominate the story for the Prix Aurora Award, Best Short-Form Work in English category, online at: http://www.prix-aurora-awards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationForm.php