Poul Anderson’s Genesis won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year and Ian McDonald’s "Tendeleo’s Story" won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of the year, James Gunn announced today at the Award dinner on the University of Kansas campus.

Ian McDonald and Justin Leiber

Anderson’s award comes after nearly 55 years of authorship resulting in more than one hundred books. Last year he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. McDonald, on the other hand, is an Northern Ireland author who has published a dozen books in the past decade. Genesis was published by Tor Books; McDonald’s story, as a chapbook by Britain’s PS Publishing.

The Campbell Award featured an unprecedented three-way tie for second place between Mary Gentle’s Ash, Robert Sawyer’s Calculating God, and Jack McDevitt’s Infinity Beach. Sheri Tepper’s Fresco placed third. Second place in the Sturgeon competition went to Stephen Baxter’s "Sheena 5" and third place, to Lucius Shepard’s "Radiant Green Star."

The Award dinner came at the end of a two-week Writers Workshop in Science Fiction held on the University campus that brought more than a dozen writers to the campus from both coasts and places in between and as the lead-in to a day and a half Campbell Conference devoted to the topic of "Science Fiction in the Electronic Era," followed by a two-week Intensive English Institute on the Teaching of Science Fiction.

Photo courtest of the MidAmerican Fan Photo Archive. More photos from the Campbell Conference available at http://www.midamericon.org/photoarchive/01camp01.htm

Posted July-6-2001