Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic Longlist

From the press release email:

The Sunburst Award Committee is pleased to announce the 2018 longlist for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. This year’s lists are comprised of a mixture of established authors, talented newcomers, and several past nominees.  Below are the longlisted works, with links where available:

Adult Fiction

• Janie Chang, Dragon Springs Road [HarperCollins Canada] 
• Joey Comeau, Malagash [ECW]
• David Demchuk, The Bone Mother [Chizine Publications]  
• Cory Doctorow, Walkaway, [Tor/Forge]  
• Kristyn Dunnion, Tarry This Night [Arsenal Pulp] 
• Omar El Akkad, American War [Penguin Random House]  
• Terri Favro, Sputnik's Children [ECW]
• Barbara Gowdy, Little Sister [HarperCollins Canada] 
• Fonda Lee, Jade City [Little, Brown Book Group]
• Elan Mastai, All Our Wrong Todays [Penguin Random House]   
• Ahmad Danny Ramadan, The Clothesline Swing [Harbour Publishing]  
• Emma Richler, Be My Wolff [Penguin Random House]  
• Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster [Penguin Random House] 
• Adam Sternbergh, The Blinds [HarperCollins Canada]

Young Adult Fiction

• S.M. Beiko, Scion of the Fox [ECW]
• Kate Blair, Tangled Planet [Dancing Cat Books]
• Charis Cotter, The Painting [Penguin Random House]
• Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves [Dancing Cat Books]
• Catherine Egan, Julia Defiant [Penguin Random House]
• Ashley Graham, All the Stars Left Behind [Entangled Publishing]
• Fonda Lee, Exo [Scholastic]
• Lesley Livingston, The Valiant [HarperCollins Canada]
• Kari Maaren, Weave a Circle Round [Tor/Forge]
• Wendy Orr, Dragonfly Song [Allen and Unwin]
• Ursula Pflug, Mountain [Inanna Publications]

Short Story Fiction  

• Nathan Adler, "Valediction at the Star View Motel" [Love Beyond Body, Space and Time, Bedside Press]
• Rebecca Campbell, "On Highway 18" [The Magazine for Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2017]
• Peter Darbyshire, "Casual Miracles" [Has the World Ended Yet? Wolsak & Wynn]
• David Demchuk, "Dragoi" [The Bone Mother, ChiZine Publications]
• Kate Heartfield, "Not Valid for Spain" [49^th Parallels, Bundoran Press]
• Claire Humphrey, "Yellowcat" [Grain Magazine #44.3, Spring 2017]
• Sandra Kasturi, "The Beautiful Gears of Dying" [The Sum of Us, Laksa Media]
• Rich Larson, "Spiked" [Abyss & Apex, June 2017]
• Karen Lowachee, "Meridian" [Where the Stars Rise, Laksa Media]
• Rati Mehrotra, "Hacker's Faire" [Cast of Wonders #239, March 2017]
• Matt Moore, "Goodbye is that Time Between Now and Forever" [The Sum of Us, Laksa Media]
• Julie Paul, "The Expansion" [Chapbook, The Rusty Toque]
• Kate Story, "Animate" [Cli Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, Exile]
• Naru Dames Sundar, "The Weight of Sentience" [Shimmerzine #40, November 2017]
• Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, "Gone Flying" [The Sum of Us, Laksa Media]

The Sunburst Award official shortlist will be announced in late June. Sunburst Award winners will be announced in Fall 2018.

Novel Jury: Megan Crewe, Kate Heartfield, Dominik Parisien, Halli Villegas, and Heather Wood.

Short Story Jury: Candas Jane Dorsey, Emily Pohl-Weary, and Alexandra Renwick

2017 Sunburst Award Winners

Congratulations to this year's winners of the Sunburst Awards for excellence in Canadian literature of the fantastic. The winner of each category is in bold, followed by the other nominees. This information comes from their press release.

Adult Fiction Award

• Claire Humphrey, Spells of Blood and Kin [Thomas Dunne Books]
• Ami McKay, The Witches of New York [Knopf Canada]
• Sylvain Neuvel, Sleeping Giants [Del Rey]
• Jo Walton, Necessity [Tor Books]
• Robert Charles Wilson, Last Year [Tor Books]

Young Adult Fiction Award

• Jonathan Auxier, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard [Puffin Canada]
• Lena Coakley, Worlds of Ink and Shadow [HarperCollins]
• Marina Cohen, The Inn Between [Roaring Brook Press]
• Catherine Egan, Julia Vanishes [Doubleday Canada]
• Ian Donald Keeling, The Skids [ChiTeen]

Short Story Award

• A.C. Wise, "The Sailing of the Henry Charles Morgan in Six Pieces of Scrimshaw (1841)" [initially published in The Dark, Issue 14]
• K.T. Bryski, “La Corriveau” [Strange Horizons, October 2016]
• James Alan Gardner, “The Dog and the Sleepwalker” [Strangers Among Us, Laksa Media Groups Inc.]
• Helen Marshall, “Caro in Carno” [The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu, Constable-Robinson UK & Running Press US]
• A.C. Wise, “The Men from Narrow Houses” [Liminal Stories, #1]

This year's jury consisted of: Nancy Baker, Michel Basilières, Rebecca Bradley, Dominick Grace, and Sean Moreland

Reading List: Canadian Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Authors

Most of these are Canadian authors living in Canada. A few of them live outside of Canada, and a few authors listed here (the ones with * next to their name) are not Canadian citizens but either live or lived - and write/wrote - in Canada long enough for us to claim them. A few of the authors listed only write in French and haven't been translated into English. In other cases I used one of their English titles.

Most of this list was compiled several years ago when I was still working at the World's Biggest Bookstore (back then I did an endcap with Ontario Speculative Fiction Authors, and posted a reading list). I did a few google searches to flesh out authors I didn't know about or had forgotten. While it's a long list, it's not comprehensive. I try to know a lot but I can't know every everything, so if you know someone who's been missed or someone who was added and shouldn't have been, please tell me in the comments.

Below the Line - Scott Albert

The Stoneholding - James Anderson and Mark Sebanc

The Masked Truth - Kelley Armstrong

vN - Madeline Ashby

Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

What We Salvage - David Baillie

The Night Inside - Nancy Baker

The White-Luck Warrior - R. Scott Bakker

The Binding Stone - Don Bassingthwaite

Deadwalk - Stephanie Bedwell-Grime

The Lake and the Library - Samantha Beiko

Destiny's Blood - Marie Bilodeau

Above - Leah Bobet

Nexus: Ascension - Robert Boyczuk
L'Oiseau de Feu - Jacques Brossard (French)

Small Magics - Erik Buchanan

Les crabes de Venus regardent vers le ciel - Alain Bergeron (French)

Pontypool Changes Everything - Tony Burgess

The Red Knight - Miles Cameron

Genesis - Paul Chafe

The Dragon’s Eye - Joel Champetier

The Good Brother - E. L. Chen

Appleseed - John Clute

The Summer is Ended and We Are Not Yet Saved - Joey Comeau 

Neptune’s Children - Michael Coney *

A Turn of Light - Julie Czerneda

Angel of Death - Karen Dales

Sarah Court - Craig Davidson (aka Nick Cutter/Patrick Lestewka)

Against a Darkening Sky - Lauren Davis
Under My Skin - Charles de Lint

Indigo Springs - A. M. Dellamonica 

The Bone Mother - David Demchuk

Maleficium - Martine Desjardins

The Dragon and the George - Gordon Dickson

Makers - Cory Doctorow *

Black Wine - Candas Jane Dorsey 

Alchemist’s Apprentice - Dave Duncan

The Honey Month - Amal El-Mohtar

Gardens of the Moon - Steve Erikson

Shrinking the Heroes - Minister Faust 

Book of Tongues - Gemma Files

Shadowplay - Nigel Findley *

Halcyon - Catherine Fitzsimmons

Triptych - J. M. Frey

Hunted - James Alan Gardner

Stuff of Legends - Ian Gibson

Spook Country - William Gibson

The Old Die Rich - H. L. Gold

Mindworld - Phillis Gotlieb

Hopeful Monsters - Hiromi Goto *

Sailing Time’s Ocean - Terence Green

Elminster Enraged - Ed Greenwood

Venus on Orbis - P. J. Haarsma

Lament for the Afterlife - Lisa Hannett

Filaria - Brent Hayward *

Gamification - Keith Hollihan

The New Moon's Arms - Nalo Hopkinson

The Wild Ways - Tanya Huff

Fools Errant - Matthew Hughes *
The Keeper of the Isis Light - Monica Hughes *

Spells of Blood and Kin - Claire Humphrey

Northern Frights - Don Hutchison

Blackdog - K. V. Johansen

Fall From Earth - Matthew Johnson

River of Stars - Guy Gavriel Kay

The Skids - Ian Donald Keeling

Ouroboros - Michael Kelly
The Snow Queen - Eileen Kernaghan

Revenge of the Vampire King - Nancy Kilpatrick

The Moon Goddess and the Son - Donald Kingsbury *

Alex and the Ironic Gentleman - Adrienne Kress

Objects of Worship - Claude Lalumiere

Once Every Never - Lesley Livingston

Gaslight Dogs - Karin Lowachee

Running on Instinct - Nicole Luiken (aka N.M. Luiken)

The Moon Under Her Feet - Derwin Mak

The Mirror Prince - Violette Malan (aka V. M. Escalada)

The Prince of the Golden Cage - Nathalie Mallet

Sporeville - Paul Marlowe

Hair Side, Flesh Side - Helen Marshall

Ninja Versus Pirate Featuring Zombies - James Marshall

Darwin’s Paradox - Nina Marteanu

The City Underground - Suzanne Martel

The Delphi Room - Melia McClure

Angels and Exiles - Yves Meynard

The Thirteen - Susie Moloney
Temps Mort - Charles Montpetit (French)

Resenting the Hero - Moira Moore

Certain Dark Things - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Everyone in Silico - Joe Munroe

Napier’s Bones - Derryl Murphy

Blaze of Glory - Sheryl Nantus

Eutopia - David Nickle

Technicolor Ultra Mall - Ryan Oakley

Janus - John Park *

The Silver Lake - Fiona Patton

Nelle de Vilveq - Francine Pelletier (French)

At the Edge of Waking - Holly Phillips

Sins of the Angels - Linda Poitevin

The Raven's Warrior - Vincent Pratchett

The Demonologist - Andrew Pyper

Dark Matter - Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Telempath - Spider Robinson *

The Shell - Esther Rochon

Every House is Haunted - Ian Rogers

The Mona Lisa Sacrifice - Peter Roman

Enter, Night - Michael Rowe

Paradise Tales - Geoff Ryman

Silence - Michelle Sagara (aka Michelle Sagara West)

Red Planet Blues - Robert J. Sawyer

Virga: Cities of the Air - Karl Schroeder
Chronoreg - Daniel Sernine (French)

Sacrifice of the Widow - Lisa Smedman

Chimerascope - Douglas Smith

Moonfall - Heather Spears

Bloodlight Chronicles: Reconciliation - Steve Stanton

The Prince of Outcasts - S. M. Stirling *

Dead Girls Don’t - Mags Storey
Nobody's Son - Sean Stewart

The Angels of our Better Beers - Jerome Stueart

Ink - Amanda Sun

Frozen Blood - Joel A. Sutherland

The Pattern Scars - Caitlin Sweet

Take Us To Your Chief and Other Stories - Drew Hayden Taylor

Run With the Wolves: The Pack - T. C. Tombs

Defining Diana - Hayden Trenholm

Night Runner - Max Turner

Battle Dragon - Edo van Belkon

Slan - A. E. Van Vogt

In the Mother’s Land - Elisabeth Vonarburg *

Among Others - Jo Walton *

Meatheads - Noah Wareness

Blind Sight - Peter Watts

Station Gehenna - Andrew Weiner *

The World More Full of Weeping - Robert Wiersema

Lost in Translation - Edward Willett

The Courtesan Prince - Lynda Williams

Spin - Robert Charles Wilson

Westlake Soul - Rio Youers

Major Karnage - Gord Zajac

Prix Aurora Award Nominees

Congratulations to the 2015 Prix Aurora Award Nominees.  The Aurora is Canada's SF/F award and will be given out at SFContario 6 in November.  I've cut and pasted the information below from their website but added links to the novel titles so you can read the synopses.

Best Novel – English

Echopraxia by Peter Watts, Tor Books
The Future Falls by Tanya Huff, DAW Books
My Real Children by Jo Walton, Tor Books
A Play of Shadow by Julie E. Czerneda, DAW Books
The Peripheral by William Gibson, Penguin Books

Best Young Adult Novel – English

Lockstep by Karl Schroeder, Tor Books
Rain by Amanda Sun, Harlequin TEEN
Out of This World by Charles de Lint, Razorbill Canada
The Voices in Between by Charlene Challenger, Tightrope Books
Mabel the Lovelorn Dwarf by Sherry Peters, Dwarvenamazon
Twist of the Blade by Edward Willett, Coteau Books
Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong, Doubleday Canada

 Best Short Fiction – English

“Crimson Sky” by Eric Choi, Analog, July/August
“Jelly and the D-Machine” by Suzanne Church, Elements: A Collection of Speculative Fiction, EDGE
“Mecha-Jesus” by Derwin Mak, Wrestling With Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen, EDGE
“No Sweeter Art” by Tony Pi, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #155, September 4, 2014
“Soul-Hungry” by Suzanne Church, Elements: A Collection of Speculative Fiction, EDGE

 Best Poem/Song – English

“A Hex, With Bees” by Tony Pi, Wrestling With Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen, EDGE
“Aversions” by Helen Marshall, Goblin Fruit, October
“The Machine” by David Clink, Wrestling With Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen, EDGE
“The New Ways” by Amal el-Mohtar, Uncanny Magazine, November
“The Perfect Library” by David Clink, If the World were to Stop Spinning (Chapbook)

 Best Graphic Novel – English

Trillium by Jeff Lemire, DC Comics-Vertigo
It Never Rains by Kari Maaren, Webcomic
Cassie & Tonk by Justin Currie and GMB Chomichuk, Chasing Artwork
Treadwell by Dominic Bercier, Mirror Comics
Raygun Gothic Vol. 2 by GMB Chomichuk, Alchemical Press

 Best Related Work – English

Elements: A Collection of Speculative Fiction by Suzanne Church, EDGE
Gifts for the One Who Comes After by Helen Marshall, CZP
Lackington’s speculative prose edited by Ranylt Richildis
On Spec published by the Copper Pig Writers’ Society
Strange Bedfellows edited by Hayden Trenholm, Bundoran Press

Best Artist

James Beveridge, cover for Tantamount and Out DwellerErik Mohr, cover for The Door in the Mountain and ChiZine Publications
Derek Newman-Stille, cover for Elephants and OmnibusesDan O’Driscoll, covers for Bundoran Press and On Specmagazine
Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk & Steve Fahnestalk, “Walking on the Moon”, cover for On Spec, No. 95 (Vol. 25 No. 4)

Best Fan Publication

Broken Toys edited by Taral Wayne
Ecdysis edited by Jonathan Crowe
Pubnites & Other Events edited by Yvonne Penney
Space Cadet edited by R. Graeme Cameron
Speculating Canada edited by Derek Newman-Stille

Best Fan Music

Brooke Abbey, Weirdness from 2014, Bandcamp
Debs & Errol (Deborah Linden and Errol Elumir), OVFF Concert (Ohio Valley Filk Fest)
Copy Red Leader, Crossing the Streams CD, The Pond Studio
Kari Maaren, YouTube Channel
Stone Dragons, Dream of Flying CD, Stone Dragon Studios

Best Fan Organizational

Sandra Kasturi, Chair, Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Toronto
Derek Künsken, Farrell McGovern, Caycee Price and Elizabeth Buchan-Kimmerly, Executive, Can*Con 2014, Ottawa
Randy McCharles, Chair, When Words Collide, Calgary
Matt Moore, Marie Bilodeau and Nicole Lavigne, Co-chairs, Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Ottawa
Alana Otis-Wood and Paul Roberts, Co-chairs, Ad Astra
Convention, Toronto

Best Fan Related Work

Steve Fahnestalk, weekly column in Amazing Stories Magazine
Richard Graeme Cameron, weekly column in Amazing Stories Magazine
Kevin B. Madison, Thunder Road Trip
Derek Newman-Stille, Speculating, Canada on Trent Radio 92.7 FM
Lloyd Penney, fan writing for fanzines and e-zines

Sunburst Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic:

Adult category

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

On a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, a Hello Kitty lunchbox washes up on the beach. Tucked inside is a collection of curious items, including the diary of a sixteen year-old Japanese girl named Nao Yasutani. Ruth, who finds the lunchbox, suspects that it is debris from Japan's devastating 2011 tsunami. Once Ruth starts to read the diary, she quickly finds herself drawn into the mystery of the young girl's fate.

In a manga café in Tokyo's Electric Town, Nao has decided there's only one escape from the loneliness and pain of her life, as she's uprooted from her U.S. home, bullied at school, and watching her parents spiral deeper into disaster. But before she ends it all, she wants to accomplish one thing: to recount the story of her great-grandmother, a 104-year-old Zen Buddhist nun, in the pages of her diary. The diary, Nao's only solace, is her cry for help to a reader she can only imagine.

Young Adult category

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint

Lillian Kindred spends her days exploring the Tanglewood Forest, a magical, rolling wilderness that she imagines to be full of fairies. The trouble is, Lillian has never seen a wisp of magic in her hills--until the day the cats of the forest save her life by transforming her into a kitten. Now she must set out on a perilous adventure that will lead her through untamed lands of fabled creates--from Old Mother Possum to the fearsome Bear People--to find a way to make things right.