Here are the Ditmar winners for 2018, announced last weekend at the national sf convention in Perth and lifted shamelessly from the Australian SF Foundation website.
In my line of work these days I have little time to read fiction so I only read one novel and the first few paragraphs of a short story, so I’m not in a position to say anything about the winners in the fiction categories.
The fan categories is much more in my line and three of the people I voted for won awards there.
Lewis Morley for his cover art on Matters Arising from the Identification of the Body, which is a gorgeous piece of work.
Bruce Gillespie’s SF Commentary has been a landmark fanzine for decades and I was delighted to see it win the award over all those podcasts. You can find issues of SF Commentary at efanzines.com.
Stephanie Lai is a fan write whose work I’ve only recently found and it is very enjoyable, lively and thoughtful. I see that Stepahnie also won the Ditmar for ‘Best New Talent’ which means, I guess, that she has also been publishing fiction.
Three cheers for all three. Also a cheer for friends who won Ditmars in other categories, even if I haven’t read them.
Best Novel
- Crossroads of Canopy, Thoraiya Dyer, Tor.
Best Novella or Novelette
- “Girl Reporter”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Girl Reporter, Book Smugglers Publishing.
Best Short Story
- “A Pearl Beyond Price”, Janeen Webb in Cthulhu Deep Down-Under Vol 1, IFWG Publishing Australia.
Best Collected Work
- Ecopunk!, Cat Sparks and Liz Grzyb, Ticonderoga Publications.
Best Artwork
- Cover art, Lewis Morley, for Matters Arising from the Identification of the Body, Peggy Bright Books.
Best Fan Publication in Any Medium
- SF Commentary, edited by Bruce Gillespie.
Best Fan Writer
- Stephanie Lai, for writing at No Award.
Best Fan Artist
- Shauna O’Meara, for “How to Bee” (based on the novel by Bren MacDibble).
Best New Talent
- Stephanie Lai
William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review
- Ambelin Kwaymullina, for “Reflecting on Indigenous Worlds, Indigenous Futurisms and Artificial Intelligence”, Twelfth Planet Press.
Leigh Edmonds little box of stuff 