2020 Sir Julius Vogel Awards

Are you aware of the Sir Julius Vogel awards? Sir Julius Vogel was a prominent early immigrant to New Zealand. Besides being New Zealand’s Premier in the 1870s, he wrote New Zealand’s first science fiction novel, published in 1889. The awards named after him celebrate excellence in science fiction, fantasy, and horror created by New Zealand citizens and residents. The awards (these futuristic little trophies) are handed out at the annual New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention.

This year, however, is special. The Vogel awards will be handed out this year at the 78^th World Science Fiction Convention, being held right here in Wellington, New Zealand. The publicity boost that will give the winners—and even the short-listed finalists—will be terrific.

So, since you’re here, reading my blog post, I’m asking you to nominate my novel The Blacksmith for Best Novel, if you’ve read and enjoyed it. Anyone can make a nomination. Literally anyone: all you need is an email address. You don’t have to be a New Zealand citizen. You don’t even have to be a New Zealand resident. If you can read this post, you can make a nomination. This is a fan-based award, and if there are too many nominations for the short list, the ones with the fewest nominations are dropped. So every nomination counts!

Making a nomination is quick, easy, and free. The form is here

This is all you have to enter to nominate The Blacksmith:

• Your email address
• Your name
• Whether or not you are an SFFANZ member (If you don’t know what this is, then “No”)
• Title of Work: The Blacksmith
• Author/Artist: Barbara Howe
• Category: Best Novel
• Publisher: IFWG Australia

That’s it! See, easy.

If you’ve read anything else by a New Zealand author that excited you and that was published in 2019, please consider making a nomination for them, too. There’s a (not necessarily complete) list of eligible works here.

Nominations close on 31 March 2020, but if you wait you’ll forget. Do it now!