This weekend, The North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation will announce the winner of the 2016 Manly Wade Wellman Award for North Carolina Science Fiction and Fantasy at Con-Gregate, a sci-fi and fantasy convention held in High Point.
The Manly Wade Wellman Award for North Carolina Science Fiction and Fantasy covers science fiction and fantasy novels published the previous year by North Carolina authors. Founded in 2013, the award is voted on by the combined membership of North Carolina science fiction and fantasy conventions (illogiCon, ConCarolinas, ConTemporal, and Con-Gregate).
Here are the nominees:
- Raising Hell by John G. Hartness (Falstaff Books)
- The Mussorgsky Riddle by Darin Kennedy (Curiosity Quills)
- Iron and Blood by Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin (Solaris Books)
- Vendetta by Gail Z. Martin (Solaris Books)
- War of Shadows by Gail Z. Martin (Orbit Books)
- Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon (Dial Books)
The award is named after North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee Manly Wade Wellman, who set his fantasy and horror stories in the Appalachian Mountains, drawing on folklore from that region. Perhaps his best-known series is the fantastic Silver John, which features a virtuous folk-ballad-singing young hero who battles supernatural forces of evil in the North Carolina mountains, defending the innocent and timid. Wellman generously extended aid to emerging writers, teaching classes in creative writing in the Evening College of the University of North Carolina and guiding many of his students to fruitful careers. He was awarded the North Carolina Award for Literature in 1978.
The North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation exists to promote the writing and reading of speculative fiction in North Carolina and to recognize outstanding achievements in North Carolina science fiction and fantasy. Founded in Durham 2013 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn, also the founder and publisher of Bull Spec, the foundation currently facilitates only this single program, which has quickly become one of the highest honors a speculative fiction writer in North Carolina can receive.
For more information, visit http://ncsff.org. Sign-up for Bull Spec’s e-newsletter here.