AN EVENING AT THE KITSCHIES AWARDS

Last night, we were delighted to attend the fabulous Kitschies Awards, now in their fourth year. As usual the shortlists were interesting and informed and a great night was had by all — helped by that very fine Kraken rum of course ;) And you can see photos from the evening below. We were particularly delighted that author Frances Hardinge was shortlisted for the Red Tentacle: Best Novel category with her wonderful A Face Like Glass! And those great winning choices for 2012 were of course:

Winner of the Red Tentacle (Best Novel):
- Nick Harkaway’s Angelmaker (William Heinemann)
Winner of the Golden Tentacle (Best Debut):
- Karen Lord’s Redemption in Indigo (Jo Fletcher Books)
Winner of the Inky Tentacle (Best Cover art):
- Dave Shelton for his own A Boy and a Bear in a Boat
(David Fickling Books)
Winner of the Black Tentacle (Special Award):
The World SF Blog – the editorial team including Lavie Tidhar, Charles Tan and Sarah Newton.

And the full 2012 shortlists in each category can be found here.
- Red Tentacle shortlist
- Golden Tentacle shortlist
- Inky Tentacle shortlist

Jared Shurin and Anne Perry, the Award Directors, had these additional announcements at last night’s event: ‘The goal of The Kitschies is to encourage and elevate the tone of the conversation around genre literature and geek culture. Which is a rather pretentious way of saying that we don’t just want to push good books – we want to create more opportunities for people to talk about them. Er. Goodly. We’re not trying to pick the ‘best’ science fiction or even the ‘right’ book, but instead to celebrate those authors who are pushing themselves – and literature in general – to produce intelligent and progressive books while still staying true to genre fiction’s long tradition of providing great entertainment.

This year’s winners are a great example: they’re books that can be shelved anywhere in a bookshop, beg to be picked up, are a delight to read and spur amazing conversation. We’re really looking forward to our fifth year and the opportunity to spread tentacular cheer (and rum) to Brixton, Bristol and beyond!  Also, starting this year, we’re now open to digital-only submissions. Apparently these ‘ebook’ things are here to stay. Who knew?’

Exciting stuff there from the Kitschies collective! And the events they refer to will be one one at the Brixton Ritzy with Warren Ellis, Lauren Beukes & Ben Percy; the other at the Bristol Festival of Literature. So even more genreness (?!) to look forward to from the Kitschies team in the future. And here are some photos from the night: