The 2017 Australian SF (“Ditmar”) Awards for 2017 were presented on Sunday (June 11) at Continuum 13 in Melbourne. You can read the results over on File 770.
SFFANZ News usually publishes these results in order to highlight the Kiwis who have been winning awards on the other side of the Tasman. This year however, there isn’t really anything to report in that area. So instead, here are a couple of highlights from these awards that may interest NZ readers…
Kaaron Warren’s The Grief Hole won the best novel Ditmar. Kaaron was a high profile attendee at the recently completed NZ Natcon Lexicon in Taupo. Kaaron has already been shoulder tapped to be a guest at the 2019 NZ Natcon (GeyserCon) in Rotorua. Of particular note here is that The Grief Hole has now won an Australian Shadows award, an Aurealis award and now a Ditmar award. Possibly a unique treble.
Rose Mitchell was presented the Peter McNamara Achievement Award. Rose is a former FFANZ delegate known to many NZ fans. She was most recently a guest at SmofCon South held in Wellington last year.
During the “Australia” panel at Lexicon, it was noted that it can be hard for folk in NZ to find out what is happening in Australian spec fiction. It is therefore worth noting that the 2016 Australian SF Snapshot picked up an award. Further to that information, if you really are interested in what is happening in Aussie SF, have a look at the ASFF SF Resources page. Or for a writing oriented list of event’s have a look at Jason Nahrung’s Australian Literary Festival Calendar.
SFFANZ News 