Solaris Wins "This Is Horror" Awards 2011!

Wha-hey!

So, wotcher all. I'm not sure if you're aware of the sterling work that This Is Horror does, promoting and discussing the horror genre? If not, go and check out their site; it's crammed with interviews, reviews, features and all sorts of good stuff.

At any rate, they have recently launched a new award for the horror genre, the annual This Is Horror Award, which enjoyed an enormous response and looks set to become something pretty exciting in the years ahead.

And just to show what great taste they have, they have awarded us - Solaris Books and Abaddon Books, Rebellion's sister fiction imprints - their inaugural Publisher of the Year Award!

We're thrilled, naturally. Jon, our Editor-in-Chief, says, “What a lovely way to start the New Year! I’m so pleased that Abaddon and Solaris have made their mark on the horror genre, because horror has always been my first love, ever since I discovered Ramsey Campbell at the age of 11. It’s been a real pleasure to work with This is Horror over 2011 and to be recognised by Michael and the team in this way means a great deal to us.”

To top it off, they've also given one of our books, Gary McMahon's The Concrete Grove, the Novel of the Year Award. We're massively chuffed for Gary; this is an amazing book, and the start of what's promising (having just finished the copy-edit on Silent Voices myself) to be an extraordinary series.

Gary says, “I’m delighted to have my book named as Novel of the Year. The Concrete Grove is a very personal novel and it’s gratifying to receive any kind of recognition for my work.”

So we're just popping open the champers in our office, here, and will pop up a photo of the certificate. Huge congratulations to Angry Robot, the runner-up Publisher of the Year, to BC Furtney, whose Scarla was the  runner-up Novel of the Year, and to all the other winners and runners-up.

Cracking.

Poe Gets Another Nomination

Honestly, I think Ellen's going to get sick of attending posh parties...

The Poe anthology's up for another award. This time it's the Shirley Jackson Award for horror, given in honour of the author of The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. And, of course, we're in it twice.

Poe's up for the best Edited Anthology category, and the short story "Strappado," by the awesomely-named Laird Barron, is up for the best Short Story category.

The Awards will be given out at Readercon 21 in Burlington, Massachussets this July.

Congratulations, Ellen and Laird! Great work.

David

Poe Goodness

Hey kids,

Poe, Ellen Datlow's anthology of short horror stories inspired by the classic American author Edgar Allan Poe, has been critically acclaimed over and over and listed in "Best Of" lists all over webland, and now it's starting to show up in the awards lists. Two recent accomplishments are:

Dark Scribe Magazine's third annual Black Quill Awards were announced last month, and Poe won the "Readers' Choice" in the Best Dark Genre Anthology category. This is a fairly new award, but already becoming an influential achievement, so congratulations to Ellen and her authors for that one.

Most excitingly, the Horror Writers' Association has announced the nominees for the coveted Bram Stoker Award, and Poe's been nominated in the "Superior Achievement in an Anthology" category (I also note that Ellen's in there twice, with a Lovecraft anthology for Dark Horse Books, so well done, Ellen). This is pretty much the big one, and even just being nominated is a serious achievement. Fingers crossed for the announcement.

Awesome results all round.

David

Gemmell Award: Vote Now!

Hi all,

As I may have mentioned, Mark Chadbourn's The Lord of Silence (cover by John Picacio), Emily Gee's The Laurentine Spy (cover by Larry Rostant), Ed Greenwood's Archwizard (cover by Jon Sullivan), Gail Z. Martin's Dark Haven (cover by Michael Kormarck), James Maxey's Dragonseed (cover by Michael Kormarck) and Juliet E. McKenna's Irons in the Fire (cover by David Palumbo) have all been longlisted for the David Gemmell Award, in both the Legend (for best heroic fantasy) and Ravenheart (for best cover art) categories.

Current voting is for the short-list, to be published in April, and ends on March 31st; there will be another round of voting, the details for which will be given when the shortlist comes out.

The Gemmell Award is relatively new - this will be the second award - but already well supported and quite widely recognised, and winning either category will be a great coup for the author or cover artist (and for us). So be sure and jump on the website, sign up and get your votes in!

Cheers,

David

2009 was a very good year.

2009 was a good year, wasn't it! In addition to David's post of earlier today...

The Fantasy Book Critic picked Tim Akers' Heart of Veridon and James Maxey's Dragonseed as two of the top books of 2009. The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction (volume three) was also on the list as one of 2009's best anthologies.

Several short stories from The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction made it onto the longlist for the BSFA Awards. So go vote for them if you can!

Also, review blog The Bibliphile Stalker has awarded some short stories from our 2009 anthologies New Tales Inspired by Edger Allen Poe, and The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, it's Bibliophile Stalker Awards.

Phew. The pressure's on for 2010, then!

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