Matthew Hughes Wins the Endeavour Award!

Congratulations, Matthew!

We are thrilled to announce that Matthew Hughes has won the 2020 Endeavour Award for his magnum opus What the Wind Brings!

Published in 2019 by Pulp Literature Press, this sweeping slipstream historical epic tells the story of African slaves who were shipwrecked on the jungle coast of 16th-century Ecuador. They allied with local indigenous people and together outfought and out-thought Spanish conquistadors to preserve their freedom.

Through a braided narrative, Hughes tells the stories of three unusual protagonists whose lives intersect. An excerpt in Pulp Literature Issue 23, Summer 2019 brought readers aboard La Virgen and introduced Alonso Illescas, an educated slave loyal to the merchant family who put him in charge of their ship’s cargo. His fellow protagonists are Alejandro Espinosa, an idealistic Trinitarian monk fleeing the Inquisition, and Expectation, a hermaphroditic Nigua shaman. 

The Story Behind the Story

In 1971, Hughes came across an intriguing footnote in a university textbook on cross-cultural conflicts and assimilations. In fewer than two dozen words, the footnote mentioned a group of shipwrecked slaves who became castaways on the coast of 16th-century Ecuador and built a new society in cooperation with the indigenous people. 

Hughes thought, “That would make a great historical novel.” 

And, wow, did it ever! What the Wind Brings has garnered praise and rave reviews — and is now the recipient of this highly coveted Science Fiction and Fantasy award!

This year, the Endeavour judges awarded two prizes: one to What the Wind Brings, the other to The Witch’s Kind by Louisa Morgan.

Congratulations to Matt, Louisa, and their fellow finalists! And thank you to the Endeavour Award Committee and its sponsor — the Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc (OSFCI) — and to the esteemed judges.

The Endeavour Award

Sponsored by Oregon’s annual science fiction convention, OryCon, the award has been given annually since 1999 for “a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year.”

It was Hughes’s third time as an Endeavour finalist, and the first time that the award has gone to a Canadian author. Previous winners have been well-known speculative fiction authors resident in the Pacific Northwest states, including the late Ursula K Le Guin, Greg Bear, Robin Hobb, John Varley, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

The award is named for the Royal Navy barkentine, Endeavour, in which Captain James Cook explored the Pacific Northwest.

Set sail for award-winning adventure. Pick up your copy of What the Wind Brings today!

Matthew Hughes writes in many genres under many names including Matt Hughes and Hugh Matthews. He has won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada and has been short-listed for the Aurora, Nebula, Philip K Dick, Endeavour (twice), AE van Vogt, and Derringer Awards. He was recently inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association’s Hall of Fame. His work appears in Pulp Literature Issues 13, 23, and 26. Visit Matt at matthewhughes.org for updates on his many projects.