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11.23.01

Although my infamous sf newsletter Ansible has a vast electronic circulation, the text is mercilessly edited for a print edition confined to a single sheet of paper. With an infinite matrix rather than two sides of A4 to fill, this column can offer Ansible previews, out-takes, raw data, and bits that really needed to be edited out …

World Fantasy Awards 2001.
   Novel: (tie) Declare, Tim Powers; Galveston, Sean Stewart
   Novella: The Man on the Ceiling, Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem.
   Short Story: 'The Pottawatomie Giant', Andy Duncan.
   Anthology: Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, ed. Sheree R.Thomas.
   Collection: Beluthahatchie, Andy Duncan.
   Artist: Shaun Tan.
   Special Award (Pro): Tom Shippey, for J.R.R.Tolkien: Author of the Century.
   Special (Non-Pro): Bill Sheehan, for At The Foot Of The Story Tree: An Inquiry into the Fiction of Peter Straub.
   Life Achievement: Philip José Farmer and Frank Frazetta.

R.I.P. Terry Hughes (1950-2001), US fan, publisher of the very fine 1970s fanzine Mota, and 1979 TAFF winner, died on 14 November from complications of brain cancer diagnosed and surgically treated a year before.

Terry Pratchett was at Discworld artist Josh Kirby's funeral on 6 November: 'It was a Humanist affair, consisting of a couple of pieces of favourite music and half a dozen eulogies—I think that that's the official word, but really they were a lot less formal and more moving than that—from relatives and friends, including me. It may be the only such occasion so far to include Monty Python's "The Galaxy Song", which seemed well received all round…'

James White Award. On 3 Nov this went to US fan and author David D. Levine of Portland, Oregon, for his short story 'Nucleon'. It's to be published in the December Interzone.

Thog's Masterclass. This section is Ansible's showcase for great fictional lines that appeal to our barbarian critic Thog, such as this recent moment of heartfelt romance: 'I wanted him in my mouth, aquiver, like the slippery muscle I'd once had a gloved hand on in an emergency room—a fibrillating heart.' (Elizabeth Knox, Black Oxen, 2001)

 

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David Langford is a writer, editor, physicist, bon vivant, and software consultant. His monthly SF newsletter, Ansible, is the essential SF-insider sourcebook of wit and incongruity. He lives in Reading, England with his wife Hazel, 25,000 books, and a few dozen Hugo awards.

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