Award: Original short fiction works (17,500 words or fewer) of imaginative literature (e.g., science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative fiction or like literature) published by a small press.
Eligibility: Works published for the first time in the English language in the previous calendar year.
Eligible venues:
1. Books: Stories published in a book by a small press. A small press is defined as a hard copy print or web publication house releasing from 3 to 25 titles in the year that the story is published.
2. Periodicals: Stories published in a periodical by a small press. Eligible paper periodicals are those with a circulation of fewer than 10,000 in the year that the story is published. Eligible web periodicals are those with fewer than 10,000 subscriptions in the year that the story is published. Periodicals must pay all authors in cash. If you are unsure about eligibility, contact the .
Ineligible: Any story published in a periodical owned by a major publishing house or media producer, prior to publication in a small press venue, is not eligible for this award. Any editor or publisher that is a member of WSFA and who have stories under their control which have been submitted to this award may NOT be on the Small Press Award Committee. They will not identify or promote stories directly to WSFA members or in WSFA meetings during the election period. Any violation of this restriction, in the judgment of the Awards Committee, will result in that story or stories being declared ineligible. Stories published by WSFA Press or written by authors who are WSFA members are not eligible for this award.
Who may nominate stories: Small press publishers and periodicals may nominate up to three (3) stories, published by themselves or others. A writer may nominate one (1) story, published by herself/himself or others. A WSFA member may nominate one (1) story.
Submission procedure: Nominated stories MUST be submitted in electronic form, in any of the common formats (e.g., doc, rtf, pdf). Nominations should be sent to the . Indicate date of publication and publisher, and any other relevant information (e.g., url), in the accompanying email. The accompanying email should indicate the name of the person or entity that holds the copyright to the story. The story WILL NOT be circulated beyond WSFA and will be housed on a secure, password-protected website.
Submission Deadline: 1 April 2010. NOTE: The deadline has been extended by 1 month for the 2010 award period (for works published in 2009)
Blind judging: Judging will be blind, that is the name of the author will be stripped from the story. Therefore, the story either should be sent in a format that allows us to edit the file to remove the author's name, or the name should be stripped from the story prior to submission. In the latter case, be sure to include the name of the author in the accompanying email message.
Judging procedure: Initial screening will be done by a committee of five WSFA members, who will produce a list of 5-10 finalists. Final voting will be done by the members of WSFA.
Award presentation: The award will be presented at the annual WSFA convention, Capclave, held each year in October in the Washington, DC, area. The award winner and the publisher will be notified prior to the convention.