Fairyland Wins the Andre Norton Award!
As we all know, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is a truly amazing piece of work: it grew from another remarkable work, Palimpsest, where it was only an idea* in a created world, a children's book that built a large part of the soul of November, our lonely, list-making beekeeper. Fairyland was a crowdfunded work, made possible by an author willing to engage with her audience. And Fairyland was responsible for helping that same author through a terribly difficult period in her family's life, as the current economic mess in the United States caught up with them.
Fairyland kept on being remarkable, even after the creatively powerful communal experience of it, even beyond the icons and the art and the jewelry and the community bonding. It attracted a publisher in Feiwel & Friends, and inspired that publisher to ask Catherynne M. Valente for a sequel. Finally, it blew us all away when it was nominated for a major industry award: the Andre Norton Award, a Nebula award with which the SFWA recognizes excellence in YA SFF for the previous year.
Well, my friends, in case you haven't heard: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making took the 2009 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy!
From among other excellent works - John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale, Lisa Mantchev's Eyes Like Stars, Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker, Ice by Sarah Beth Durst, Ash by Malindo Lo, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, and Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - Fairyland was chosen. Brava, Cat!
You can see a moved Cat, attired in a gorgeous orange dress by Claire Sanders, accepting the award below:
(Skip to minute 27 to see that part, unless you'd like to watch the whole broadcast.)
Also, in case you haven't seen it yet, you can read Cat's reaction to winning the Nebula at the following post: I Can't Believe That Just Happened.
The physical edition of (a beautiful! illustrated!) Fairyland seems to be scheduled for a May 2011 release; while the entirety of the text has been available freely online for over a year, the publisher requested that the closing sections of the book be removed in anticipation of the tangible edition. However, a full 15 chapters are still available online, along with all the associated audio files, icons and art in the Museum, and S.J. Tucker's haunting "September's Rhyme." I also hear that a site revamp with tons of new content is in the works, so keep an eye on this community and the site!
(If you'd like to read Cat's announcement concerning the removal of part of Fairyland, you can do so here.)
For now, I hope you'll all join me in being generally overjoyed at Fairyland being nominated for and winning the Andre Norton Award, and full of gleeful anticipation for the new things Fairyland to come!
* Well, mostly only an idea...
Fairyland kept on being remarkable, even after the creatively powerful communal experience of it, even beyond the icons and the art and the jewelry and the community bonding. It attracted a publisher in Feiwel & Friends, and inspired that publisher to ask Catherynne M. Valente for a sequel. Finally, it blew us all away when it was nominated for a major industry award: the Andre Norton Award, a Nebula award with which the SFWA recognizes excellence in YA SFF for the previous year.
Well, my friends, in case you haven't heard: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making took the 2009 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy!
From among other excellent works - John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale, Lisa Mantchev's Eyes Like Stars, Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker, Ice by Sarah Beth Durst, Ash by Malindo Lo, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, and Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - Fairyland was chosen. Brava, Cat!
You can see a moved Cat, attired in a gorgeous orange dress by Claire Sanders, accepting the award below:
(Skip to minute 27 to see that part, unless you'd like to watch the whole broadcast.)
Also, in case you haven't seen it yet, you can read Cat's reaction to winning the Nebula at the following post: I Can't Believe That Just Happened.
The physical edition of (a beautiful! illustrated!) Fairyland seems to be scheduled for a May 2011 release; while the entirety of the text has been available freely online for over a year, the publisher requested that the closing sections of the book be removed in anticipation of the tangible edition. However, a full 15 chapters are still available online, along with all the associated audio files, icons and art in the Museum, and S.J. Tucker's haunting "September's Rhyme." I also hear that a site revamp with tons of new content is in the works, so keep an eye on this community and the site!
(If you'd like to read Cat's announcement concerning the removal of part of Fairyland, you can do so here.)
For now, I hope you'll all join me in being generally overjoyed at Fairyland being nominated for and winning the Andre Norton Award, and full of gleeful anticipation for the new things Fairyland to come!
* Well, mostly only an idea...