It being Easter weekend, conventions are going on all around the world. The Australians, as is their wont, are getting in first. At Swancon this year’s Aurealis Awards have been announced.
I mention this because I am absolutely delighted to see that Glenda Larke has won the Sara Douglass Book Series Award for her Watergivers trilogy (my review here). Epic fantasy is one of those things that tends to miss out on awards because it comes in such long forms, and epic fantasy by women suffers the usual issues of cultural erasure. Glenda is one of the best in the field, and it is very pleasing to see her work recognized at last.
By the way, if you are having trouble with one of those daft people who say that it is “unrealistic” to have women having active roles in epic fantasy novels, you might want to point them at this excellent essay by Kate Elliott.
Back with the Aurealis Awards, I also note that the Convernors’ Award for Excellence has been won by Letters to Tiptree, edited by Alex Pierce and Alisa Krasnostein. I am somewhat biased in this case, because I have an essay in the book.
A full list of this year’s Aurealis Award winners can be found here.
I noticed that the usuall naysayers that pop up when women post things about the real variety of roles women had at different times in different cultures and that there is no historical reason not to include women in active roles stayed away from Kate Elliot’s post 🙂
Thank you, Cheryl. You are pretty special yourself!