While hearing that Kyell Gold has been nominated for an award may seem old news by this point, hearing that he was nominated for an award by a decades old, non-furry, science fiction club adds a new level of legitimacy to the fandom.
“Race to the Moon” (which many of you may know better as “that Kyell Gold story with no sex in it”), was chosen as a finalist for the Washington Science Fiction Association’s Small Press Awards, in the category of Short Fiction. A total of eight stories were selected as finalists.
What makes WSFA’s awards different from their contemporaries is that the voters read the stories without knowing the author or publisher. The association claims this removes bias and makes the works stand on their own merit.
“Race to the Moon” was submitted to the club last year by the publisher, Sofawolf Press. The story appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of New Fables, the annual short story collection Sofawolf publishes.
Gold is using the nomination as an example of fandom writing making the leap into the professional realm.
“I’m deeply honored by this nomination,” Gold said. “I think it validates what many of us have been saying about the writing in the fandom: that it is getting better and has a place in mainstream SF.”
The winner of the award will be announced during an award ceremony at the science fiction convention Capclave in October.
The WSFA, founded in 1947, is the oldest science fiction club in the Washington DC area, and one of the oldest science fiction clubs in the country. For the past 60 years the club has hosted numerous annual science fiction conventions, like Capclave.
The WSAF has a full list of the nominees on their website.
A big congratulations to Kyell!
Hopefully this will help put an end to the idea that furry writing should be held to a different standard.