The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America are pleased to announce that Robert Silverberg has received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. Silverberg, a writer, editor, and past president of SFWA, has given many years of service to the organization in both elected and appointed positions. He will be recognized at the Nebula Awards (R) Ceremony April 17, 2004 in Seattle Washington.

The 2004 Nebula Awards (r) banquet will be held April 17, 2004, in Seattle, Washington. The weekend will start with the opening of the SFWA suite at 6pm on Thursday, April 15. There will be a full schedule of panels Friday and Saturday, along with the SFWA business meeting Saturday afternoon. The traditional Mass Signing will take place Friday night, and the banquet will be Saturday night. Sunday afternoon will feature a pre-opening hard-hat tour of Experience Science Fiction, the first SF hypermuseum, scheduled to open during the summer of 2004.

The Keynote Speaker for the banquet, Dr. Rick Rashid, will give a talk titled, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future." Dr. Rashid is the founder and head of Microsoft Research, and a senior Vice President of Microsoft Corporation. The talk will explore some of the reasons for the mismatch between prediction and reality in computer science, and also show off some new technologies fresh from the laboratory.

Tickets for the full weekend (panels, parties, and awards banquet) are $100 until March 20, 2004. From March 21 through 5pm Wednesday, April 14, 2004, tickets will be $120. There will be no at-the-door banquet tickets available. All mail-order ticket purchases should be sent to:

Astrid Anderson Bear
506 Lakeview Road
Lynnwood, WA 98037

Checks should be made to SFWA, Inc.

Room reservations at the Westin Hotel can be made now through 5pm PST March 17, 2004. After that time, the hotel cannot guarantee room availability or getting the block room rate of $155 per night. There are other groups having events at the Westin that weekend, so it would be wise to book rooms well in advance. The hotel has an extremely limited number of smoking rooms; if this is something you need, please let them know as soon as possible. To make a hotel reservation, go to the special reservations page http://www.sfwa.org/awards/2004/WestinSeattle.html#Instructions or call the Westin at their toll-free reservation number, 888-627-8513. Be sure to mention Event Code 4690, to receive the SFWA rate.

Posted February 28, 2004