About the Sir Julius Vogel Awards
Last week—wearing my book blogger’s hat—I received advance publicity that the nomination period for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards would be opening on 1 January and running through until 8 pm on 31 March 2013.
Just to get in the spirit and for those of you who may not know, here’s a little background about the awards:
About the Sir Julius Vogel Awards:
The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are a reader-voted award made annually under the auspices of SFFANZ, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of New Zealand, to recognise achievement in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by New Zealanders or New Zealand residents. Like other science fiction and fantasy awards around the globe, the Sir Julius Vogels include both professional and fan categories for various forms of writing, artwork, dramatic presentation, and editing.
The Award itself was designed by Weta Workshop, which has been involved with the making of a large number of major films, most famously The Lord of the Rings trilogy—and forthcoming—The Hobbit.
The reason why it’s called the Sir Julius Vogel Award, when Sir Julius was a nineteenth century NZ prime minister—is because he is also held to be NZ’s first speculative fiction author, publishing a novel called Anno Domini 2000 – A Woman’s Destiny in 1889. The premise of the book is one where women have achieved suffrage (which NZ actually enacted in 1893, just four years later) and gone on to hold major positions of authority in politics, law and industry. Given that shortly after 2000, NZ’s prime minister, as well as our governor general, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the chief executive of NZ’s largest private company, were all women, Sir Julius’s speculation is now held to be uncommonly prescient …
Looking ahead to 2013:
Looking ahead to 2013 and the nomination period opening on 1 January, one of the great things about the Sir Julius Vogel Awards is that the initial nomination round is open to everyone /anyone to nominate. So I hope that a lot of other readers, like me, are looking at the list of eligible novels put together by SFFANZ with a view to reading and nominating works they enjoy. SpecFicNZ may also put together a list of eligible works by its members that will also feature short fiction as well as novels.
So far I have read the following novels on the SFFANZ list:
- Fredrik Brounéus: The Prince Of Soul And The Lighthouse
- Adam Christopher: Seven Wonders
- Rachael King: Red Rocks
- Juliet Mariller: Shadowfell
And I hope to have read more by the time nominations close on 31 March.
(I also note that The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two is on the list of eligibles this year.)
Any books left off SFFANZ’s list of NZ books, let us know at listing@sffanz.org.nz.
Thanks Helen. Very informative and well written.
Glad you like, Jan.:) It’s shaping like a good lineup for next year in the novels.
“Open to everyone /anyone to nominate” means international readers can make nominations to these NZ SF/F awards at no charge.
Thanks for that clarification, June: it’s an important point.
I’ve read both Adam Christopher novels. Need to catch up on others!! And pardon me if I’m wrong but isn’t Joanne Anderton, another Angry Robot author, also NZ? Or is she Australian?
You do need to catch up on the others, Abhinav, especially… 😉
But I *think* Joanne Anderton is Australian—a Sydney-sider if I have that right.