Darrell Awards
The Darrell Awards are intended to promote literacy in the Mid-South by recognizing the best published regional science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The Awards consider a work regional if the author lives in the Mid-South or if the work prominently features the Mid-South. The awards are named after Dr. Darrell C. Richardson, founding member of Memphis Science Fiction Association (MSFA). Nominations are open until the 1st of each February. The Darrell Awards Committee select the winners, with the winners announced at MidSouthCon annually.
History
The Darrell Awards were begun in 1996 by the Memphis Science Fiction Association (MSFA) and are now sponsored by the Mid-South Science Fiction & Fantasy Association (MSSFFA). They were named in honor of Dr. Darrell C. Richardson, a member of First Fandom and one of the founding members of MSFA. Darrell, who was most well-known for his involvement in Edgar Rice Burroughs fandom, much approved of the honor and made a nice donation to MSFA in support of the effort after we got the ball rolling.
In 1997, the first 2 Darrell Awards were presented at Midsouthcon, held that year in Tunica, Mississippi. One went to D.B. Smith for best short stories of the previous 2 years and one went to Gary L. Holleman for best novels of the same time period.
The following year (1998), there was no Midsouthcon held and MSFA decided to present the Darrell Awards anyway -- we bestowed them at Borders Books & Music Cafe in Germantown, TN -- winners Jack McDevitt for _Eternity Road_ (best novel of 1997) and Stephen Climer for "By Any Name of Devil" (best short story of 1997). Kathleen Ann Goonan was a surprise guest who heard about the Awards and flew in for the ceremonies. Her novel _Mississippi Blues_ received an Honorable Mention (we had not yet figured out that we could give First Runner Up status).
From 1989 through 2007, the Darrell Awards have been presented at Midsouthcon in the hotel on the corner of Airways and Democrat (the hotel has changed names and owners so many times that we call it the Airport Generic Hotel -- currently it is some sort of Holiday Inn) in Memphis, TN. During this period, the categories have grown to include Other Media (for film, comics, games) and novellas (for longer short stories or shorter novels).
Starting in 2002, we added a Hall of Fame to recognize authors who had a body of work that either came out before the Darrell Awards started or that was more extensive than just one work. Kathleen Ann Goonan was the first inductee into the Hall of Fame, for her series of novels that had begun with _Mississippi Blues_, as well as her "Bride of Elvis" short story. The following year, 2003, we renamed the Darrell Hall of Fame Award to the Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame in memory of Dalvan Coger, a long-time member of MSFA who had passed away around that time.
In September of 2006, Dr. Darrell Richardson passed away. The Darrell Awards are, thus, now given in memory of Darrell.
Currently, we are planning to issue a book commemorating the first decade of the Darrell Awards and the Coger Hall of Fame so that these wonderful stories can be shared again with the world.
For more info, please see [1]http://darrellawards.org.
Categories
- Best Midsouth Novel
- Best Midsouth Novella
- Best Midsouth Short Story
- Best Midsouth Other Works
External links
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