Each year we make the eligible nominations received for the annual Convenors’ Award for Excellence public. There are several reasons for this:

• There is no shortlist announced, so it feels right to recognise the nominations;

• These are items you may not otherwise have come across, so we’d like to make sure you know about them;

• It may help people figure out what might be eligible in future.

It is very important to note that this list is NOT a shortlist – it is simply a list of the eligible entries we received for the Award this year (please note also that these can be self-nominated). The convenors consider all eligible entries in deciding the winner, but there is no shortlist generated, and only the winner will be presented at the ceremony.

A reminder what this award is for:

The Convenors’ Award for Excellence is awarded at the discretion of the convenors for a particular achievement in speculative fiction or related areas in that year that cannot otherwise by judged for the Aurealis Awards. 

This award can be given to a work of non-fiction, artwork, film, television, electronic or multimedia work, or one that brings credit or attention to the speculative fiction genres.

This year’s entries are:

Narrelle M Harris, “A love affair: Why pros and non-pros write fic”, in SPARK (Improbable Press)

My essay explores fanfiction’s relationship with professional writing, including the unique value of fanfiction and the significant benefits to published authors of writing it, even after they’ve become professional authors. While fanfiction is popular among fans (and dismissed by the mainstream) this short piece is designed to celebrate its strengths as a way of reflecting the diversity in real life that’s not always seen in mainstream media. The essay is part of a book of essays aimed at celebrating fandom and fanfiction, and offers an analysis of the profic/fanfic connection as part of that celebration.

Claire Fitzpatrick (Ed.), A vindication of monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley (IFWG Publishing International)

A Vindication of Monsters is a collection of essays about the lives of Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft. This book is a culmination of almost five years work across five countries, including a grant from the Horror Writers Association. The work is intended to assist academics, as a source for writing classes, and for general reading. This book is a detailed, in-depth examination of both women’s lives, worthy of being read by anyone interested in Mary Shelley and those around here. Winning this award would encourage future works of non-fiction on other creatives in the speculative fiction industry.

Paul Booth (Volume Editor), Matt Hills (Volume Editor), Tansy Rayner Roberts (Volume Editor), Joy Piedmont (Volume Editor), Adventures across space and time: A Doctor Who reader (Bloomsbury)

This significant media studies textbook is a first of its kind, collating and reprinting writings about Doctor Who from fans, academics and journalists across the 60 year history of this iconic science fiction TV show, alongside commissioned essays. Intended as a reference and teaching tool, this reader will be distributed to university libraries worldwide. The editorial team, featuring two media studies professors and two podcasters and writers from the Doctor Who fandom, includes one Australian (Dr Tansy Rayner Roberts).

Janeen Webb & Andrew Enstice (Eds.) Aliens & Savages: The voice in Australia (Norstrilia Press)

Aliens & Savages is an important book, a hands-on historical record that looks through the lens of speculative fiction at the racism and xenophobia that underpins Australia’s growth as a nation. First written some 25 years ago, Aliens & Savages was updated and re-issued in response to the rhetoric surrounding the 2023 proposed Voice to Parliament, providing excerpts of Australian popular writings before the advent of social media. It is our contribution to national truth telling. In it, you can hear the unguarded voices of the colonists, the squatters, the politicians; you can see the close relationship between the popular press and the prejudices of its readers; you can experience the impact of predictive science fiction on social and political decisions. From stories of the Missing Link to the Yellow Peril, sf has always been at the forefront of our national consciousness. The extracts printed in Aliens & Savages show how the marginalisation of First Nations people has been done; how it has always been done; how it is still being done. The book invites its readers to consider the evidence, and judge for themselves.

Claire Fitzpatrick, “Introduction to A vindication of monsters – Women, horror, society, and moving forward” (The Ginger Nuts of Horror)

I believe this essay is worthy of nomination for the convenor award for excellence, as it is an example of my writing, research, and communication ability to tell a story through facts. Both Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft are women whom I study in my own time, and I would very much like to write scholarly papers on them in the future. To win this award would demonstrate my commitment to future study on them would be a worthwhile endeavour.

Amy Laurens, “On the origin of paranormal species” (Inkprint Press)

This non-fiction work represents significant research and scholarship into the symbolic purpose of seven key paranormal creatures throughout different periods of history. The articles together suggest ways in which postmodernism and contemporary expectations of fiction have influenced the way paranormal creatures are represented in fictional texts, and what this reveals about the nature of our society.

Helen Marshall, Kathleen Jennings, Joanne Anderton, “Science fiction for hire? Notes towards an emerging practice of creative futurism” (Text Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, 27(2))

This is an academic article written by three professional speculative fiction writers (one of them me!) about a very particular kind of speculative writing. It’s what we’re calling ‘creative futurism’ — the kind of stories that are produced when writers (usually of science fiction) apply their skills to help other institutions (such as government, NGOs or defence) imagine and prepare for potential futures. The article distinguishes creative futurism from more traditional forms of speculative fiction and analyses what the difference is, and whether that matters. I think its worth nominating for the way it not only analyses this kind of writing, the uses and the practices involved in it, but also because it’s drawing attention to the impact speculative fiction can have on the ‘real’ world!

George Ivanoff, “The best of both worlds: Fanfic & licensed fiction”, in SPARK (Improbable Press)

The essay appears in SPARK, an anthology from the USA (edited by Atlin Merrick and published by Improbable Press). It’s not eligible for any other category.

Jack Dann, The fiction writer’s guide to alternate history: a handbook on craft, art, and history (Bloomsbury)

This book is an unusual and perhaps important addition to the SF genre. A comprehensive guide to the speculative sub-genre of alternate history fiction, this book maps the unique terrain of this vibrant mode of storytelling and then explains how to write it. First giving a concise conceptual overview and the critical tools to differentiate the different forms of counterfactual fiction, Jack Dann lays out the ‘tricks of the trade’ such ‘Heinleining’, how to create recognizable ‘divergent points’ and how to employ paratextual elements and ‘layering’ to overcome readers’ unfamiliarity with invented counterfactual events and cultures. Alongside this, Dann takes you step-by-step through a complete short story to demonstrate, line-by-line, how alternative history fiction works. As well as Dann’s exacting methodology for writing professional quality alternate history stories, this book also features a live-on-the-page Q&A with some of the most esteemed alternate history writers working today, including Kim Stanley Robinson, John Birmingham and Lisa Goldstein among many others, who will detail their own particular hacks, theories, processes, methods and strategies. Combining extensive and deep knowledge of the field with accessible writing advice, this is the ultimate guidebook to the broad and complex sub-genre of counterfactual and alterative history fiction.

Andrew J. Harvey, Michael Cnudde, Leonie Rogers, Ken Vickery, HG Wells tweeting ‘The war of the worlds’ in real time (Hague Publishing)

126 years ago, humanity faced the greatest threat to its existence with the Martian invasion. Recreated through the diaries, newspapers, and photographs of the time, and with the assistance of H.G. Wells’ seminal work (The war of the worlds), The war of the worlds in real time told the story of what really happened during that crucial month in June 1897 when the Earth stood on the precipice, and civilization teetered on the edge of extinction. The addition of new characters by Cnudde, Harvey, Rogers, and Vickery to the world of HG Wells enabled a deeper dive into the times, mores, customs, and technologies of 1897, that even without the Martians would have turned the entire world on its head over the next 10 years. Readers were able to follow the drama throughout the month of June 2023, tweet by tweet at https://twitter.com/1897WotW (@1897WotW) or post by post at http://wotw.name or https://haguepublishing.com/wotw