At the 51st Annual Nebula Conference in Pittsburgh last week, Charlie Jane Anders, the cofounder and former editor of the sf/fantasy blog io9, took home the top literary prize granted by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) when her near-future apocalyptic sf/fantasy mashup, All the Birds in the Sky, was named Best Novel of 2016. More possible honors await for Anders's work, as it is also nominated for a Hugo Award and a Locus Award. [In an interesting side note, Annalee Newitz, who cofounded io9 with Anders, will be appearing at Library Journal's May 31 Day of Dialog program to discuss her first novel, Autonomous.] Seanan McGuire's acclaimed fantasy Every Heart a Doorway, won the Nebula for Best Novella; it, too, is nominated for a Hugo in the same category. Amal El-Mohtar's "Seasons of Glass and Iron," from the anthology of unconventional fairy-tale retellings The Starlit Wood, was honored as Best Short Story, and the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy went to David D. Levine's steampunk fantasy Arabella of Mars. LJ sf/fantasy co-columnists Megan McArdle and Kristi Chadwick were delighted by the winners. Chadwick raves, "I am thrilled for McGuire, of course, and Levine and El-Mohtar. Anders was a surprise win in such a fabulous list, but no less deserving." McArdle agreed. "The Nebula win for Anders was a great choice for a unique book that should have appeal outside of the genre." Across the pond, the 2017 short list for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, now in its 31st year and the most prestigious literary prize for sf in Britain, was released, honoring the six novels published in 2016. Nominees included Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize–winning The Underground Railroad, Lavie Tidhar's Central Station, Tricia Sullivan's Occupy Me, Emma Newman's After Atlas, Yoon Ha Lee's NInefox Gambit, and Becky Chamber's A Closed and Common Orbit. The winner will be announced July 24 in London. Chadwick had high praise for the Clarke nominees as incredibly diverse. "This has really been an exciting year for sf awards, and I am hoping the drama we have seen with lists the last couple of years [is] coming to an end and nominations are obviously going to works that speak to the breadth of the universe."Save Save Save