2014 Campbellian Anthology

For those of you eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer next year, there’s a service that may help to get your work more attention. There is a tradition started up of publishing an anthology of eligible work, and the 2014 call for submissions can be found here. Note that this is a non-paid reprint anthology, but if Hugo voters are getting it to check out eligible writers than it may well be worth your while.

For everyone else, I’ll let you know when the book is available.

3 thoughts on “2014 Campbellian Anthology

  1. There is a tradition started up of publishing an anthology of eligible work,

    My coffee is broken: does this mean there is an established tradition (in which case see below 1 ) or that there a tradition starting up (in which case see below 2)?

    Oh, I see there was at least a 2013 version (not listed at ISFDB as far as I can tell). Well, I will stick with Below 1 anyway.

    Below 1: How long has this latest version been going on?

    Below 2: Interestingly, in olden times when there was still a middle class and HP made a decent calculator, George R.R. Martin edited a line of anthologies by Campbell nominees. Not available before the voting, I don’t think, and not just because the contributors had trouble hitting deadlines. Anyway, worth a look if you come across copies.

    http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?8548

    1. Cheryl’s Second Law of Fandom: “One data point indicates a dangerous trend that must be resisted; two data points indicate a sacred and holy tradition that must be preserved.”

  2. James, to clarify:

    I assemble the annual Campbellian Anthology, and I do so because I believe the period of eligibility is an excellent time for readers to discover — and with any luck, then continue to follow — new genre writers.

    As you already noted, there was a volume released at the beginning of this year. The original 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology was conceived mid-December 2012, then released in early February 2013. The name was unwieldly, and the publication date was later than would have been ideal. The ongoing series has been rechristened the Annual Campbellian Anthology, and will be released mid-January (hence the reason for gathering contributions now)… and I have committed to producing an annual installment for as long as the annual crop of eligible writers believes it to be beneficial.

    As a side observation, while the series edited by George R. R. Martin focused on stories by those already nominated for the award, the Annual Campbellian Anthology includes work from any writers who are still within their two-year window of eligibility and who elect to participate. The material is presented impartially, and a full list of every writer known to be eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer is also included (with links to each writer’s website, if that individual maintains an online presence) so that all might share in the exposure.

    Cheryl, re: “… two data points indicate a sacred and holy tradition that must be preserved.”:

    Last year 43 writers supplied somewhere around 350K words of fiction for the anthology, and their contributions included short stories, novelettes, and novel excerpts (perhaps this year we’ll see a novella or two?).

    If we’re going for “sacred and holy tradition,” my hope is that a greater number will choose to participate each year, so that the Annual Campbellian Anthology might ultimately become worthy of that designation.

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