Award Season!

We are pleased as punch to announce our nominations for the Pushcart Prize.  How did we pick them?  It was hard.  Have you even looked at a fantastic menu and couldn’t decide what to order?  Twice Sue’s had the pleasure of dining at renowned Vij’s restaurant in Vancouver.  Both times she asked the owner which dish he’d recommend, and his reply was the same:  how can a parent choose his favourite child?  As publishers, we find ourselves in a similarly impossible position trying to pick favourites, but by studying the inclinations of each prize, we recommend the stories we think stand the best chance of winning each competition.  The Pushcarts are geared to literary fiction, which we have in each issue, but we proved our cross-genre dedication by nominating a literary vampire story. (Think they’ll notice?) The competition is fierce for these awards, but we know these stories are gems. And win or lose, we trust the authors of these stories will feel how much we value them in our magazine.

Nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2015:

• ‘Victory Girl’ by Ace Baker – Autumn 2014
• ‘Wager’ by Bob Thurber – Summer 2014
• ‘The Salt Tour’ by Joan MacLeod – Summer 2014
• ‘Poor Thing’ by KM Vaghela – Spring 2014
• ‘Not Dying in Central Texas’ by Sarah Pinsker – Spring 2014

We have also have suggested the following stories for Imaginarium 4, an anthology of Canadian Spec Fic by Chizine.

• ‘Only the Loons Know’ by SL Nickerson
• ‘Of Siege & Sword’ by Tyner Gillies
• ‘Built to Love’ by JJ Lee
• ‘The Tun’ by Trevor Shikaze
• ‘Falling’ by AY Dorsey
• ‘Capture of the Muse’ by Susan Pieters
• ‘The Lady in White’ by David Clink
• ‘Invisible’ by Susan Pieters
• ‘Soldier, Wake’ by Susanna Kearsley
• ‘Below the Knee’ by Susan Pieters
• ‘The Death of Me’ by KL Mabbs

In addition, ‘Blackthorne & Rose: Agents of DIRE’ by KG McAbee has been submitted for a Bram Stoker Award.

Stay tuned for the announcement of our Journey Prize nominations.  And hey, all you members of the SFWA, now’s your chance to be a hero and nominate a favourite fantasy or science fiction story for a Nebula Award!  If you’d like a complete list of our stories in that genre, just let us know.  We’d also like to hear from you if there is one or more of our stories you think ought to be submitted for other prizes.

Finally, the estimable CC Humphreys has finished judging our very own Raven Cover Story Contest  and we’ll be announcing the winners on Monday.  To whet your appetite, here, in no particular order, is the list of finalists:

• ‘The Hemisphere Stone’ by Mike Glyde
• ‘Dear Louis’ by Sara Cedeno
• ‘Claws In’ by Ace Baker
• ‘Odd Jobs’ by KL Mabbs
• ‘Family Relics’ by Katherine Wagner
• ‘The Ravens’ by Anna Belkine
• ‘The Inner Light’  by Krista Wallace
• ‘The Jealous Valley’ by Kiril Lavarevski

Congratulations to all these authors and best of luck in the final judgment!