Hugo Nominations: Best Fan Writer

[coalescent]

Any person whose writing has appeared in semiprozines or fanzines or in generally available electronic media during the previous calendar year.

(Ballot)

Ah, this is a fun one. Potentially massively incestuous, of course, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Where to start, though? Langford, of course; as good as he's ever been. Matt Cheney, for writing the essential blog of the year (although Farah Mendlesohn's Inter-Galactic Playground is a close second, and PK's journey Through The Dark Labyrinth is always worth reading). Rick Kleffel should be noted for the amazingly enthusiastic and informative Agony Column. Claire Brialey's pieces in Banana Wings and Matrix have often been memorable--and yes, we still need more sf featuring otters in zeppelins. On livejournal, I never skip Geneva's posts, or Dan's (you appeared in Meta, Dan: you're eligible), or Tony's, or anything that goes up at Coffee & Ink.

But you can see (as if you didn't already know!) that my taste runs in a fairly sercon direction. Who else should I be thinking about?

[Other categories]

Comments

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

And do we want to consider blogging 'fan writing'? Are they really the same thing?

On this I'm more certain. Yes, fannish blogging is fan writing.

The question, though, is what constitutes fannish blogging? You rule out it just being fans writing blogs on the grounds of content, but I can think of examples of bloggers who may count themselves as fans, but whose blogs are, arguably, not fan-writing. Farah Mendlesohn's blog, for example, though it deals with science-fiction, could be intepreted as an academic blog and not fan-writing.

I'm not entirely sure what we're being asked to vote for, so I'm inclined to nominate what I like and if the WSFA think what I nominate doesn't fit whatever criteria they have in mind then they can ignore my nominations.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

The question, though, is what constitutes fannish blogging?

The same things that constitute fannish writing in general, obviously!

I'm not entirely sure what we're being asked to vote for, so I'm inclined to nominate what I like and if the WSFA think what I nominate doesn't fit whatever criteria they have in mind then they can ignore my nominations.

I think this is a sensible attitude. And what do you like ...?

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

Well, the writers I like and read on a regular basis are, in no particular order: You, Tony Keen, Claire Brialey, Mark Plummer, Farah Mendlesohn. I don't read Matt Cheney regularly, but I do read him occasionally and always like what I read.