GOLLANCZ ANNOUNCE BAME SFF AWARD SHORTLIST

Gollancz and Ben Aaronovitch are delighted to announce the eight shortlisted titles for the inaugural Gollancz and Rivers of London BAME SFF Award:

Blood of the Wolf by Jaya Martin
Kali’s Call by Dolly Garland
Nowhere more Changeable than the Mortal Heart by Ewen Ma
Seeds of Heaven by Victor Ogana
The Principles of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson
The Reeves’ Guild by Kyla Jardine
The Scent of Cloves by Dan Buchanan
The Shape of the World by Amy Borg

There were 220 entries for the prize and the shortlist will be judged by actress Adjoa Andoh, New York Times bestselling author Dhonielle Clayton, founder of Illumicrate subscription box Daphne Tonge, Gollancz’s senior commissioning editor Rachel Winterbottom and Abi Fellows, literary agent at The Good Agency.

Nielsen’s results for science fiction and fantasy published in 2019 show almost double the amount of BAME British authors published in this genre but as the numbers were so small to start with, this only increases the authors represented from five to nine. These include authors such as: Tade Thompson, whose book ROSEWATER won 2019’s Clarke Award; physicist and broadcaster Jim Al-Khalili with SUNFALL, his first foray into sci-fi; and the second book from Zen Cho, who has won both the British Fantasy Award and a Hugo Award. Even with this increase, BAME authors are still less than 3% of British authors published in sci-fi and fantasy, lagging far behind the representation of authors of colour in the American market.

THE GOLLANCZ AND RIVERS OF LONDON BAME SFF AWARD was launched in October 2019 when Gollancz, the UK’s oldest science fiction and fantasy imprint, teamed up with Sunday Times Bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch, who founded and funded the award.

The winner and runners up will be announced at a ceremony in July, details to be confirmed.

For more information please head to: https://pages.hachette.co.uk/gollancz-bame-sff-award/