WSFA Small Press Award Winner Announced

Award Administrator Sam Scheiner announced the winner of the first WSFA Small Press Award this evening. The award, sponsored by the Washington Science Fiction Association, was presented this evening at WSFA's annual Capclave.

The winner of this year's award is "El Regalo" by Peter S. Beagle, which appears in his collection The Line Between (Tachyon Publications). "El Regalo" tells the story of a brother and sister and their discovery of the world of voodoo and magic. Beagle's acceptance speech, given by Michael Swanwick in his absence, is available in this article.

The award "honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction. The award showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year. An unusual feature of the selection process is that all voting is done with the identity of the author hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story."

The other finalists were:
"Ivy and Thorn" by Stephanie Burgis (published in the magazine Quantum Kiss)
"Moon Does Run" by Edd Vick (published in the magazine Electric Velocipede)
"A Penny a Word" by Rick Klaw and Paul Miles (published in the anthology Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard published by Monkey Brain Books)
"Port Custodial Blues" by Vera Nazarian (published in the magazine Helix)
"Queen of Stars" by Bryn Sparks (published in the magazine Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest)
"Through the Cooking Glass" by Vylar Kaftan (published in the magazine Raven Electrick)
"Tonino and the Incubus" by Peg Robinson (published in the magazine Helix)

We originally announced the creation of this award in this article in February.