The 2017 Australian SF (“Ditmar”) Awards preliminary ballot has just been released, and I’m chuffed to see my novella “By the Laws of Crab and Woman” on the shortlist for Best Novella/Novelette. It is fantastic to see this story get such recognition, and I’m grateful to everyone who nominated it. Huge congrats to the other finalists, what a brilliant ballot!

http://wiki.sf.org.au/2017_Ditmar_preliminary_ballot

Best Novel

• The Grief Hole, Kaaron Warren, IFWG Publishing Australia.
• The Lyre Thief, Jennifer Fallon, HarperCollins.
• Squid’s Grief, D.K. Mok, D.K. Mok.
• Vigil, Angela Slatter, Jo Fletcher Books.
• The Wizardry of Jewish Women, Gillian Polack, Satalyte Publishing.

Best Novella or Novelette

• “All the Colours of the Tomato”, Simon Petrie, in Dimension6 9.
• “By the Laws of Crab and Woman”, Jason Fischer, in Review of Australian Fiction, Vol 17, Issue 6.
• “Did We Break the End of the World?”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Defying Doomsday, Twelfth Planet Press.
• “Finnegan’s Field”, Angela Slatter, in Tor.com.
• “Glass Slipper Scandal”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Sheep Might Fly.
• “Going Viral”, Thoraiya Dyer, in Dimension6 8.

Best Short Story

• “Flame Trees”, T.R. Napper, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, April/May 2016.
• “No Fat Chicks”, Cat Sparks, in In Your Face, FableCroft Publishing.
• “There’s No Place Like Home”, Edwina Harvey, in AntipodeanSF 221.

Best Collected Work

• Crow Shine by Alan Baxter, Ticonderoga Publications.
• Defying Doomsday, Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, Twelfth Planet Press.
• Dreaming in the Dark, Jack Dann, PS Publishing.
• In Your Face, Tehani Wessely, FableCroft Publishing.

Best Artwork

• cover and internal artwork, Adam Browne, for The Tame Animals of Saturn, Peggy Bright Books.
• illustration, Shauna O’Meara, for Lackington’s 12.

Best Fan Publication in Any Medium

• 2016 Australian SF Snapshot, Greg Chapman, Tehani Croft, Tsana Dolichva, Marisol Dunham, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Stephanie Gunn, Ju Landéesse, David McDonald, Belle McQuattie, Matthew Morrison, Alex Pierce, Rivqa Rafael, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Helen Stubbs, Katharine Stubbs and Matthew Summers.
• The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
• Earl Grey Editing Services (blog), Elizabeth Fitzgerald.
• Galactic Chat, Alexandra Pierce, David McDonald, Sarah Parker, Helen Stubbs, Mark Webb, and Sean Wright.
• Galactic Suburbia, Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts.
• The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond.

Best Fan Writer

• James ‘Jocko’ Allen, for body of work.
• Aidan Doyle, for body of work.
• Bruce Gillespie, for body of work.
• Foz Meadows, for body of work.
• Tansy Rayner Roberts, for body of work.

Best Fan Artist

• Kathleen Jennings, for body of work, including Illustration Friday series.

Best New Talent

• T R Napper
• Marlee Jane Ward

William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review

• Kat Clay for essays and reviews in Weird Fiction Review
• Tehani Croft & Marisol Dunham, for Revisiting Pern: the great McCaffrey reread review series.
• Tsana Dolichva, for reviews, in Tsana’s Reads and Reviews.
• Kate Forsyth, for The Rebirth of Rapunzel: a mythic biography of the maiden in the tower, FableCroft Publishing.
• Alexandra Pierce, for reviews, in Randomly Yours, Alex.
• Gillian Polack, for History and Fiction: Writers, their Research, Worlds and Stories, Peter Lang.