Awards Season 2026 [2]

News item dated 11 June 2026

Much has been revealed since our first Awards Season post for 2026. See the list of links below for developments (as usually also recorded on the websites of various newsletters such as Ansible, File 770 and Locus).

A particular surprise for the SF Encyclopedia team was the announcement of David Langford as winner of this year’s SF Writers of America Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award, largely for work on the SFE. His co-editor John Clute had received the same award in 2012. Langford was unable to attend the SFWA Nebula ceremony in June, but his acceptance speech was as follows:

“There’s a famous story about a perpetual motion machine exhibited to awestruck crowds in New York in 1813. Unfortunately, one visitor was an engineer who noticed that the great wheel that turned forever seemed a little bit jerky in its motion. He started removing bits of woodwork, to reveal that the miracle of science was driven by an endless belt leading to a back attic, where an old man with a long beard was found turning a crank. Speaking as the cranky old guy in the back room of the Science Fiction Encyclopedia, I must say I’m thrilled to be exposed and outed like this. It’s a huge and unexpected honour to join the ranks of past Solstice winners. I even have connections with a few of them. My small press has published lots of uncollected criticism by Algis Budrys, who was remembered in this award’s first year. I was beta reader for many Discworld novels by my friend Terry Pratchett. Another old friend, John Clute, is co-editor of the Encyclopedia and patiently puts up with the jerky motions of the crank in the back room. Thank you all very much!”

Links