Maybe you can’t feel the sense of delight I got last week when I was notified that my novella, STARS THAT MAKE DARK HEAVEN LIGHT has been named a finalist in the very first 100 Year Starship Canopus Awards for “Previously Published Short-Form Fiction”.
According to the 100 Year Starship website, “the Canopus Awards are given to authors for outstanding inspirational and education contributions in order to promote the dream and goal of interstellar exploration. Our purpose is to encourage the artistic expression of the interstellar exploration via literature and graphic arts, including fiction, non-fiction, and ultimately, visual storytelling, and interactive storytelling…The works are also encouraged to focus on the pillars of 100 Year Starship’s mission: Audacious, Resilience, Inclusion, Enhancing Quality of Life, Discipline, Energy, and Knowledge.”
Maybe you think it’s not that big a deal to be named as a finalist for anything. Winning is more important, right? Not to me.
Yes, I’m proud of the story I wrote, which won the Writers of the Future Golden Pen Award this year. But look at some of the other names on the press release. Yes, they listed my legal name instead of my author name, Sharon Joss, but it’s me. Right up there with Alastair Reynolds. Kim Stanley Robinson. Catherynne M. Valente. and Ken Liu.
To be mentioned on the same page is an honor indeed.
The outpouring of congratulations from my friends and colleagues has been astonishing and heartwarming. Maybe you can’t see the bubbles in the bottom of that glass of champagne, but I’m celebrating.
