Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

Saturday 16th December 2017 marked the centenary of Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s birthday and, to celebrate that monolithic moment in science fiction history, the Clarke Award has joined forces with NewCon Press to publish a new short story anthology that both honours Sir Arthur and showcases new and exclusive work from some of the best science fiction writers in the world today.

“Tom Hunter [Director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award] and I hit upon the idea of 2001 over a drink or two (surprise surprise),” NewCon Press proprietor Ian Whates told Sci-Fi Bulletin. “We wanted to produce a special anthology to mark the centenary of Sir Arthur’s birth; something that would attract the biggest names in science fiction and was identifiable as a tribute to Sir Arthur without putting any onus on the contributors to emulate Sir Arthur’s style. Asking that every story should be exactly 2001 words struck us as appropriate.

“Authors have risen to the challenge and delivered some fabulous tales – to date we have stories from 10 winners of the Clarke Award and more than a dozen writers who have been shortlisted, and there may well be one or two more to come.”

The project was launched on Kickstarter, and has gained multiple backers. “We decided to use a crowd funding platform in order to raise awareness of the project and to ensure we could deliver the best book possible,” Whates notes. “We’ve been delighted with the response and hope that the project has some genuine momentum behind it. We’ll continue to update the rewards levels and will reveal further contributors as the pledges build.”

Authors already announced include Chris Beckett, Becky Chambers, Colin Greenland, Mathew De Abaitua, Yoon Ha Lee, Dave Hutchinson, Emmi Itäranta, Gwyneth Jones, Ian R MacLeod, Phillip Mann, Paul McAuley, Ian McDonald, Emma Newman, Claire North, Jeff Noon, Rachel Pollack, Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, Jane Rogers, Bruce Sterling, Allen Stroud , Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ian Watson and Liz Williams. The collection will also feature non-fiction pieces from the Arthur C. Clarke Award Chair of Judges, Dr Andrew M. Butler, and past Clarke Award jury member, 1991-1992, Neil Gaiman.

For more details on the various rewards, and to pledge please click here.