Toronto-based ChiZine Publications (CZP) and its sibling webzine The Chiaroscuro/ChiZine.com are well-represented in the nominations for the 2011 Aurora Awards, an annual award that recognizes the best in Canadian fantasy and science fiction writing, artwork and fan activities.
Douglas Smith’s short story collection Chimerascope was nominated in the Best English Related Work while “Waiting for the Harrowing,” published in Chiaroscuro/ChiZine.com #45 and written by CZP’s Managing Editor Helen Marshall, received a Best English Poem/Song nomination. CZP’s Artist Director Erik Mohr was also nominated in the Best Artist (Professional and Amateur) category for his work designing covers for CZP titles.
In addition, CZP and Chiaroscuro staff received six nominations across four categories:
Best English Related Work — CZP Co-Publisher and Chiaroscuro “Figurehead-in-Chief” Brett Alexander Savory (along with John Robert Colombo) for editing Tesseracts Fourteen.
Best Fan Organizational — CZP Managing Editor Helen Marshall and Co-Publisher Sandra Kasturi, chairs of the Toronto SpecFic Colloquium.
Best English Short Story — CZP Marketing Director Matt Moore for “Touch the Sky, They Say”
Best English Poem/Song — CZP Co-Publisher and Chiaroscuro Managing Poetry Editor Sandra Kasturi for “Let the Night In;” Chiaroscuro Poetry Editor Carolyn Clink for “The ABCs of the End of the World;” and CZP Editor/ Chiaroscuro Poetry Editor Colleen Anderson for “Of the Corn: Kore’s Innocence”
“Congratulations to all the nominees,” says Brett Alexander Savory. “They truly demonstrate the strength of the Canadian genre community. We’re especially excited to be recognized for things that are sometimes under-appreciated. Our awesome covers by Erik Mohr are just as important for developing our identity as our titles.”
“And to have our staff recognized as writers is fantastic,” adds Sandra Kasturi. “It takes talented authors and poets in their own right to recognize and understand the kind of work we want to represent.”
In 2010, Robert J. Weirsema’s novella The World More Full of Weeping, published by CZP, was up for the 2010 Aurora Award in the Best English Related Work category.
For a full list of nominees, please see the Aurora Award website.
