. . . and here they are:
Best Novel: TIE: The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK); The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
Best Novella: “Palimpsest”, Charles Stross (Wireless; Ace, Orbit)
Best Novelette: “The Island”, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2; Eos)
Best Short Story: “Bridesicle”, Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)
Best Related Book: This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”), Jack Vance (Subterranean)
Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Who: “The Waters of Mars” Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
Best Editor Long Form: Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Best Editor Short Form: Ellen Datlow
Best Professional Artist: Shaun Tan
Best Semiprozine: Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
Best Fan Writer: Frederik Pohl
Best Fanzine: StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith
Best Fan Artist: Brad W. Foster
And the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (presented by Dell Magazines): Seanan McGuire
This was taken from the Chronicle of Higher Education. While cuts are being made across the board in salaries and almost everything else at the level of actual teaching, the rising cost of tuition may have reached its ceiling. Private education is something now reserved only for the insanely wealthy, and maybe “public” education won’t be so public either at the unsustainable rate tuition is on the rise:
The public has become all too aware of the term “bubble” to describe an asset that is irrationally and artificially overvalued and cannot be sustained. The dot-com bubble burst by 2000. More recently the overextended housing market collapsed, helping to trigger a credit meltdown. The stock market has declined more than 30 percent in the past year, as companies once considered flagship investments have withered in value.
Full article here
Here’s a great site that I came across for anyone interested in copyright laws, especially as they apply to educational use.
Teaching Copyright
It looks like a foray into the detective genre, but the buzz is also that it’s leaving off the fantasy that Mieville has done so well for so long with steampunk work like Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council.
The complaints that I have read on fantasy fan sites are pretty predictable and baseless, centered on that age-old critique of a favorite artist selling out or thinking he or she is “too good” for the genre that earned them fame. Nonsense. Such a move is a welcome shift, an opportunity to explore another genre and widen readership interested in solid writing.
Mieville is an incredible prose stylist, no matter the genre, and it will be great to see what he does with the detective story. I fully expect to see the city take on a looming life of its own (one of the staples of Mieville).
The critical reviews that are starting to multiply on amazon are very promising.
I have my copy preordered, and will be offering more commentary soon after it arrives.
I am toying with a new look for the portal, at least until I can get this and the forums skinned alike. I am not sure that will ever happen, but I can always hope.
The content that I will add here will be relating to my classes, including general announcements, thoughts on teaching and lit, and maybe a review or two now and again.
Students who wish to get in touch with me can use the forums or email me.