Canadians for the Campbell

There are two awards named for John W. Campbell, Jr. (pictured above), the great editor of Astounding Stories. One is the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel of the Year, and it is the principal juried award in the SF field; I was fortunate enough to win it two years ago for my Mindscan.

The other is the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; it's given alongside the Hugos at the World Science Ficton Convention. This year, there are four Canadians eligible for the award:

Stephen Kotowych

Tony Pi

Jerome Steuart

Sarah Totton

I point out (cough, cough) that I have personally mentored three of them: Stephen came to see me when I was writer-in-residence at the Toronto Public Library's Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy; Tony was my writing student at the University of Toronto; and Sarah came to see me when I was writer-in-residence at the Richmond Hill Public Library. Jerome moved to Canada in October 2007.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site