Tiptree Awards

[psocoptera]

I've had this tab about the 2018 Tiptree Awards open for like a month now. I thought it was interesting that of one winner ("They Will Dream In The Garden", Gabriela Damián Miravete) and eleven honor-listees I had heard of exactly one of them (and it was Dirty Computer). I guess the mainstream SF I read isn't doing cutting-edge work around gender? No, wait, I guess I did read one of the stories off of someone's 2018 recs list, "Me, Waiting, Hoping For Something More", which had a strong premise - two strong premises, actually - but as I recall didn't quite land for me somehow in how they came together and resolved, although reading it again I think I like it more. "Sandals Full of Rainwater", though, the other one available online, I have now read and is pretty great, so, recs for both, I guess. Anyways, I do wonder if the Tiptrees are deliberately trying to spotlight stuff that people aren't going to just stumble across in SH or Uncanny or Clarkesworld.

Comments

[elysdir]

Thanks for the links!

Two thoughts re deliberately trying to spotlight:

1. They get their list of works to look at via web submission form, so it may be that the people who tend to rec stuff to them are focused on less mainstream stuff. (Also, if you have stuff you want to suggest—including fanfic—please do submit via their form! https://tiptree.org/award/2019-james-tiptree-jr-award/recommend-works-for-the-2019-james-tiptree-jr-award)

2. Each year’s jury decides for themselves how to interpret the award’s criteria, so I suspect that each jury has somewhat different ideas about what they do and don’t want to highlight. I don’t know for sure whether the Motherboard advises them about what to focus on these days, but my impression in the past has been that the Motherboard is very hands-off about criteria.

[psocoptera]

Hm, good point about being able to suggest stuff! I could do that sometime!