New Awards for Horror and Dark Fantasy
January 17th, 2008 by Editors
Via Ellen Datlow we hear of the foundation of the Shirley Jackson Awards.
In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Award has been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
The awards will be juried and will be given in the categories of Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology. Further details will be forthcoming on the official web site soon.
Update: Ellen notes in comments on her blog that the Shirley Jackson Awards will take the place of the International Horror Guild Awards, which are being discontinued. As long as we still get the incredibly efficient Mr. Picacio to MC them we’ll be happy.
Update 2: It turns out that Ellen was wrong about that. See Paula’s comment below.
Heh….I’m sure there are more capable emcees than me, but thanks very much all the same. I think folks were just pleased because I got them back to the bar scene quickly.
RE: the Jackson Awards — Best of luck to them. It’s a shame to see the IHGs close down, but these things happen. One thing to note — with the passing of the IHG, there’s no dedicated horror publishing award that acknowledges excellence in horror art. The Stokers don’t have an art category, and now neither do the Jacksons. If the Jackson Awards are truly going “replace” the IHGs, they should have an art category as well.
That does seem unfortunate, John. I guess the difficulty with a juried award set is that a jury selected to pick quality fiction might feel that it is not qualified to judge art. Maybe the art community needs to start a separate set of art awards. It would be something like the Spectrum Awards, but instead of categorizing by type of production it would categorize by subject matter.
Point well-taken, Cheryl. Perhaps another solution is the Jackson Awards could include an illustrator, art director or other informed party on the jury who could advise the rest of the jurors about some of the best illustration and imagery in the previous year.
Right, but if they did that then it might seem like the art award was being chosen by a jury of one.
Not the way I see it. Award juries utilize informed single-point sources all the time to sift through the previous year’s work, whether it be the opinions of a Year’s Best editor on the jury, a Year’s Best volume itself, a trusted annual online “best-of” summation, or a magazine’s recommended reading list. These are all accepted single-point sources. I’m suggesting that the art correspondent on the jury would be in charge of gathering a wide-range of work for the consideration of the jury and then it would be up to the jury as a whole to deliberate the choices and make a final decision.
Well then, you need to convince the SJA people about that (or the Stokers). All I know is that personally I’d be deeply nervous about being asked to serve on a jury that had to pick an art award, even if I did have an art expert there to help me.
As the administrator of the International Horror Guild Awards I feel it is necessary to point out that IHG awards are governed by the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization that oversees the awards. That Board has yet to vote on any discontinuation. The World Fantasy Convention has again graciously invited the IHG to present its awards at the 2008 convention. The Board has neither accepted nor rejected that invitation.
I personally wish the new Shirleys well, but do so entirely as an individual. Their establishment has nothing to do with the IHG’s awards and whether those awards continue or not. In fact, the IHG was approached informally in December as to any interest in declaring a designated “heir” award, so to speak, if the awards were ever discontinued. This query was voted on by the Board and the answer was “no.” Those involved in the establishment of the Shirleys are aware of this.
Other than the obvious fact that one cannot replace something that still exists, the Shirleys are “established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.” These goals are not identical to those of the IHG.
The Bylaws of The Mirabundus Project Inc. (Section 2.) state: The specific objectives and purposes of this corporation shall be: To encourage public interest in and foster appreciation for outstanding works of fantasy and related fields in literature and other arts; to disseminate information about such works to broaden the intellectual and cultural horizons of the public; to further scholarship about and advocate creation of such works through publication, commendation, discourse, conference, and other appropriate means.
Towards this purpose, Article 15. Awards. Section 1. of these Bylaws state:
The corporation shall present the annual International Horror Guild awards to recognize outstanding achievements in the field of Horror and Dark Fantasy.
To this end, the IHG Awards are, informally, “a way to recognize the achievements of those who create in the field of Horror and Dark Fantasy” and/or “recognize outstanding achievements in the field of Horror and Dark Fantasy”
As always, any press releases or announcements concerning the IHG will be sent directly to SF Awards Watch along with other media.
While they aren’t horror specific, the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA) does give out the Chesley Awards.
http://www.asfa-art.org/?page=chesley