I was interviewed today on the CTV Calgary Noon News about my WWW trilogy of Wake, Watch, and Wonder winning the Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics (MIFRE) Media Award. You can watch the six-minute sement here. Robert J. Sawyer online: Website • Patreon • Facebook • Twitter • Email
I am pleased as punch to have just won the 2021 Media Award from the Machine Intelligence Foundation for Rights and Ethics (MIFRE) for my WWW trilogy of Wake, Watch, and Wonder. The award trophy is truly gorgeous, consisting of layers of laminated wood under glass — I just love the look of it. machineintelligencefoundation.org/mifreAward.html […]
Tomorrow (Saturday, October 16,) at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time is the virtual ceremony for the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards (“the Auroras”). The ceremony will stream live here: https://www.youtube.com/user/CANCONSF/featured I’m nominated for both best novel (for The Oppenheimer Alternative and best fan writing (for my “Random Musings” column in BCSFAzine, the newsletter of the […]
Carolyn Clink and I were honoured to serve on the jury selecting this year’s inductees into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, along with fellow jurors Clint Budd, Marcie Tentchoff, and Chris Sturges. It’s a delight to announce that this year’s inductees are Stan Hyde, the late Monica Hughes, and Jean-Louis Trudel. […]
Near the end of my new novel The Oppenheimer Alternative, I have J. Robert Oppenheimer thinking:Gödel … was already out there, as were Feynman and five of the newer crop of physicists, two of whom were women; the times were indeed a-changin’.Oppie and almost all of his male contemporaries would be considered flagrantly sexist by contemporary standards […]
Many people of privilege (and I certainly qualify as privileged) don’t truly understand the concept of microaggression, something that others face every single day. George R.R. Martin gave a master class in it yesterday during the Hugo Award ceremony. As an ally of marginalized writers, I won’t talk about their pain: they have tongues of […]
For Immediate Release Wednesday, July 22, 2020 The 2020 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award is presented today to: Rick Raphael (1919-1994) The jury particularly cites: Raphael’s 1966 fixup novel Code Three, composed of three shorter works the first two of which were published in Analog and were each separately nominated for the Hugo Award. Raphael’s 1960 […]
Six years ago, on June 12, 2014, the University of Winnipeg — the oldest university in the province of Manitoba, Canada — gave me an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree; former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chréitien also received the same degree that day. I was nominated for the honorary doctorate jointly by the Dean of […]
Woohoo! First, I’m thrilled that my Quantum Night just won the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award (“the Aurora“) for Best Novel of the Year this evening; the award (pictured above) was presented at Hal-Con in Halifax. The nominees were: Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay, Viking Canada Company Town by Madeline […]
On July 1, 2016 — Canada Day — I was named a Member of the Order of Canada, the highest civilian honour bestowed by the Canadian government. The citation reads:Robert J. Sawyer, C.M., for his accomplishments as a science-fiction writer and mentor and for his contributions as a futurist.(C.M. is the postnominal used by members […]
Twenty years ago tonight, on April 27, 1996, my life changed forever. Aboard the Queen Mary at Long Beach, California, Sheila Finch presented me with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s Nebula Award for best novel of the year, for The Terminal Experiment. As my editor John Douglas said at the afterparty, “You’ve […]
On a friend’s wall, there’s a discussion of the lack of overlap between winners of the Philip K. Dick Award and the Hugo and the Nebula. There was also mention of the Hugo, Nebula, and Dick being “science fiction’s Triple Crown.” My comments: Speaking as (a) a past Philip K. Dick Award judge, and (b) […]
Post TWO OF TWO on this topic, this one about the BEST-OF-DECADE Aurora Award: Members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association may vote now (online) or in-person at SFContario later this month on two new Aurora Awards. I just voted online, and, since the ballot solicited comments to go with votes, here’s what […]
Post ONE OF TWO on this topic, this one about the DRAMATIC PRESENTATION Aurora Award: Members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association may vote now (online) or in-person at SFContario later this month on two new Aurora Awards. I just voted online, and, since the ballot solicited comments to go with votes, here’s […]
One of the greatest honours of my career was being one of the nine initial inductees last year into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Each year, a jury will add two more inductees. The jury doesn’t propose the names to be considered, though — other people (like you!) do that. I’ve […]
I realized today that I hadn’t noted yet here in my blog one of the biggest honours of my career: On Saturday, October 5, 2014, I was one of the initial inductees into The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, administered by The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association — the same people […]
I am thrilled and amazed to note that every single winner of Canada’s Aurora Award for Best Short Story of the Year between 2003 and 2014 (twelve years) was either (cough, cough) me or one of my writing students — with only one exception, and that exception was in a writing critique group with me: […]
On Thursday, June 12, 2014, the University of Winniepg presented me with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree at its Spring Convocation. I was asked to say a few words to the graduating students in Business, Economics, and Science: I’ve often said the job of a science-fiction writer is not to predict the future. Rather, […]
On June 12, 2014, the University of Winnipeg — the oldest university in the province of Manitoba, Canada — gave bestselling science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree; former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien also received the same degree that day. Sawyer was nominated for the honorary doctorate jointly by the […]
I’m absolutely thrilled to be the 2014 winner of the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark), presented annually since 1966 by the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA). The award is given to a person who “has contributed significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying […]
Award-nominating season is upon us, and so allow me to share some of the praise for my 2013 novel Red Planet Blues (published Ace Science Fiction in the US and Viking in Canada): “Red Planet Blues is a perfectly executed gem of a book. Sawyer sets a classic work of noir against a Buck Rogers […]
This morning at Can-Con 2013 in Ottawa, this year’s Canadian National Science Fiction Convention, I received a Lifetime Achievement Aurora Award — the first one given to an author in 30 years — from the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association; the award was presented to by Hayden Trenholm. This was my acceptance speech: Thank […]
A press release from the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association: For the first time in 30 years — and only the fourth time ever — the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) is bestowing a Lifetime Achievement award on an author. The award will be presented in Ottawa on Sunday, October 6, 2013, […]
PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: Anderson and Savile win New $1,000 Science-Fiction Award New $1,000 cash award for science fiction writing Theme: interstellar fiction Finalists: Anderson & Savile, Benford & Niven, Bishop, Bova, McDevitt, Reynolds, and Santos. Coordinating judge: Robert J. Sawyer Presented at the 2013 Campbell Conference LIFEBOAT TO THE STARS AWARD On Friday, […]
My novel Triggers — first published by Ace after serialization in Analog, and currently eligible for nomination for the Hugo, Nebula, and Aurora Awards — had a very good showing on year’s best lists, and has just been nominated for one of Canada’s top literary awards. The award is the Ontario Library Association’s Evergreen Award […]
For Immediate Release: New $1,000 Science-Fiction Award New $1,000 cash award for science fiction writing Theme: interstellar fiction Readers and editors are invited to nominate works Coordinating judge: Robert J. Sawyer To be presented at the 2013 Campbell Conference LIFEBOAT TO THE STARS AWARD The Lifeboat Foundation will present the “Lifeboat to the Stars” award […]
Now that Hugo Award nominations are officially open, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that my novel Triggers, published in the US by Ace Science Fiction following serialization in the January-February, March, April, and May 2012 issues of Analog (and Audio version from Audible), is eligible for nomination in the Best Novel category. […]
On Saturday, September 22, 2012, the RTA School of Media Wall of Fame was unveiled at my alma mater, Ryerson University in Toronto; I am thrilled to be one of the initial twelve inductees. The Wall of Fame is sponsored by the RTA School of Media (formerly the School of Radio and Television Arts, the […]
To my absolute astonishment and delight, my twenty-first novel, Wonder, has just won the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award (“the Aurora”) for Best Novel of the Year. This means that each of the three volumes in my WWW trilogy have each now separately won the Aurora Award for Best Novel of The Year (in […]
On Saturday, August 4, 2012, at the annual conference of Humanist Canada, held this year in Montreal in conjunction with the General Assembly of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, bestselling science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer was presented with Humanist Canada’s first-ever Humanism in the Arts award (click the photo above for a high-resolution version). […]
