The James White Award is a short story competition for nonprofessional writers, and Interzone have been publishing each year’s winner for some time now.
Unlike many of the past winners, this story doesn’t show any signs at all of being by an (until now) unpublished author, and stands foursquare with the other stories in the volume. It’s a tight, claustrophobic piece, with a young woman forced to slum it, having been kicked out of her comfortable life and privilege. We find out what she has done, and who she has offended (quite neatly it’s a virtual AI taking the persona of Ada Lovelace). She is desperate to find a way back to her previous life, and a shamaness offers her the chance to do this, but is she willing to pay the high, very high, price for that chance?
So in addition to the award, a handsome trophy, and the cash prize, and publication in Interzone, C.J. Paget gets his name added as an author on Best SF. Just how long before clicking on the Filed Under link above will generate more than just the link to this story?
# So in addition to the award, a handsome trophy,
# and the cash prize, and publication in
# Interzone, C.J. Paget gets his name added
# as an author on Best SF.
I gave the money back so that this year’s prize is even bigger, and the trophy fell apart after a week! In truth, I only did it to get my name on ‘Best SF’.
# Unlike many of the past winners, this story
# doesn’t show any signs at all of being by an
# (until now) unpublished author,
I had been published before, (it’s getting published since that I’m having trouble with). The James White Award is open to anyone who hasn’t yet acheived ‘SWFA Professional’ status. You don’t have to be unpublished to submit to it.
The Award is already open for next year, and this year the first prize is 300 pounds, with a 100 pound second prize! Entrants are accepted from anywhere in the world (although submissions must be in English) and the stories are stripped of author names so they can be judged anonymously.
More details here: http://www.jameswhiteaward.com/rules
If you’re a writer reading this, then next year it could be you!
Oh, and thanks for the nice review.
Colum