SFFANZ News Page From now on, most of the news about SF, Fantasy and Horror which is of interest to New Zealand fans will be posted on our new News Blog. Click on the link below to visit the site. The News Blog will let you subscribe to the news service by joining an email list. You can also pick up an RSS feed; and you can even follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Or you can just bookmark the link and visit the News Blog whenever you wish to check for updates. Since it is a blog, you will also be able to post comments on the news items as well. We will continue to post significant SFFANZ related news here on the front page of the SFFANZ site -- particularly news related to the Sir Julius Vogel Awards. The News Blog itself will be reserved for items of more general interest, though there is obviously an overlap between these areas and some items may well be duplicated. We hope you enjoy this new facility. SFFANZ News Blog

Sir Julius Vogel Award nominations open in January 1st, 2021 WWe are opening nominations for the Sir Julus Vogel Awards in January 1st, 2021. These will be opened from our new webaite, sffanz.nz. So pop over there for full details!

Website address is changing to sffanz.nz We have been working slowly behind the scenes to move the SFFANZ website to a Wordpress site. This will enable better management, and a responsive and modern design. So, from now on, you can go to https://sffanz.nz for our new website. We are still adding and updating, and some things may not be there yet. Hence, this website will remain avalable for thge next month or so, until we are sure everything is transferred correctly. Email addresses will change as well, but old ones will still work for the forseable future...

Sir Julius Vogel Award Winners for 2020 have now been announced Click through for full information on winners. Congratulations to all the winners!

Sir Julius Vogel Award Finalists for 2020 have now been released The finalists for the 2020 Sir Julius Vogel awards have now been announced. Click through for full information on Finalists as well as information on voting, the SJV Voting Packet and the location of the awards ceremony. Also available via the above link is the ballot paper for your vote. Whether by email or post, your votes must reach us by 8PM, Saturday 4th July, 2020 (NZT).

Sir Julius Vogel Award Winners for 2019 have now been announced Click through for full information on winners. Congratulations to all the winners.

Sir Julius Vogel Award Finalists for 2019 have now been released The finalists for the 2019 Sir Julius Vogel awards have now been announced. Click through for full information on Finalists as well as information on voting, the SJV Voting Packet and the location of the awards ceremony. If you email or post your votes, they must reach us by 29th May, 2019. In all other cases, they must reach us by the close of voting at GeyserCon at 12 noon, Sunday 2nd June, 2019.

Sir Julius Vogel Award Nominations for 2018 calendar year are now being accepted Nominations for the 2019 Sir Julius Vogel awards are now being accepted. The nomination period will close at 8.00pm on 30th March 2019. The SJV awards recognise excellence in science fiction, fantasy, or horror works created by New Zealanders and New Zealand residents, and first published or released in the 2018 calendar year. Anyone can make a nomination and it is free! To make a nomination please go to this form. See the website for the categories and get busy reading NZ authors and watching NZ movies. You can click through to the Rules, Criteria and Categories for the Awards. And here is a link for Guidelines for nominations. The awards ceremony will be held at GeyserCon in Rotorua on Queen's Birthday weekend (May 31st to June 3rd 2019)

Sir Julius Vogel Award Winners for 2018 have now been announced Click through for full information on winners. Congratulations to all the winners.

Sir Julius Vogel Award Finalists for 2018 have now been released The finalists for the 2018 Sir Julius Vogel awards have now been announced. Click through for full information on Finalists as well as information on voting, the SJV Voting Packet and the location of the awards ceremony. If you email or post your votes, they must reach us by 27th March 2018. In all other cases, they must reach us by the close of voting at Conclave3 at 12 noon, Sunday 1st April 2018.

Sir Julius Vogel Award medallions announced We have created some medallions for use of winners and finalists of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards. These can ONLY be used in association with Finalist or Winners works. We will shortly have guidelines for usage. In the mean time, here are the two medallions. Thanks to Sally McLennan and Joel Liochan for their help in creating these.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2017 Winners The winners for the 2017 Sir Julius Vogel awards have now been announced. You can find full information on winners here.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2016 Issue in Best Collected Work Category SFFANZ regrets to announce that, due to an error in tallying ballots, the 2016 SJV for best collected work was inadvertently awarded to the wrong work. SFFANZ has contacted those affected to apologise for this error.  We have carried out a full recount of all the categories. We have found that the error had minimal impacts on most of the voting (i.e. the outcome wasn't affected) but  this did have an impact on the Best Collected Work category – when the ballots are correctly tallied, the winner is in fact Write Off-line 2015: The Earth We Knew, edited by Jean Gilbert and Chad Dick. As the ballots were received in a number of different ways (postal, email, and in the ballot box at the convention), an error was made in collating the votes received, and some votes were inadvertently misplaced – an error which our processes failed to identify until the day after the results were announced.  This error was nothing to do with our helpers who generously gave their time to scrutinize and count the ballots. The error happened before the counting stage We are very sorry for any distress this error has caused, and we are enormously embarrassed that this problem occurred. We will be examining the process we follow to determine how this error was able to happen and how it was able to go unnoticed until now, and will change the process to ensure it cannot happen again in the future.  You can find full information on winners here.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2016 Winners have been announced at AuContraire 2016 The winners for the 2016 Sir Julius Vogel awards have now been announced. You can find full information on winners here.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2016 Finalists The finalists for the 2016 Sir Julius Vogel awards have now been announced. You can find full information on Finalists here.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2016 Nominations for the 2016 Sir Julius Vogel awards are now closed. The Short List will be posted on the Sir Julius Vogel Award page in about two weeks, once final checks of the list has been made.

Sir Julius Vogel Award Results for 2015 The results of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2015 are available here.

Email / Postal Voting for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2015 The email/postal voting form for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards of 2015 is now available here. Please note that you must be a member of SFFANZ or a member of Reconnaissance to vote for the Sir Julius Vogel awards. Ballot counting takes place at Reconnaissance, so you can vote there, or you can email or post your votes directly to SFFANZ. If you email or post your votes, they must reach us by 1st April 2015. In all other cases, they must reach us by the close of voting at Reconnaissance at 12 noon, Sunday 5th April 2015.

Final nomination list for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2015 The final nomination list together with a voting form for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards of 2015 is available here.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2015 The nomination period for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2015 has now closed. A list of nominated works will be published shortly.

Nominations closing soon for Sir Julius Vogel Awards Just a reminder that the nomination period for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards of 2015 closes at 8.00pm on January 31st.

Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2015 Nominations for the 2015 Sir Julius Vogel awards are now being accepted. The nomination period will close at 8.00pm on 31st January 2015. The awards recognise excellence in science fiction, fantasy, or horror works created by New Zealanders and New Zealand residents, and first published or released in the 2014 calendar year. Anyone can make a nomination and it is free! To make a nomination please email sjv_awards@sffanz.org.nz. See the website for the categories and get busy reading NZ authors and watching NZ movies. We have a list of New Zealand works that may be eligible for nomination here. The rules, criteria and categories for the Awards can be found by clicking this link. Guidelines for nominations can be found by clicking this link

Sir Julius Vogel Award 2014 Results The results of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2014 can be found here.

The final nomination list for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2013 is now available.

Nominations for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2013 are now closed. A final nomination list will be published shortly.

SFFANZ is now accepting nominations for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2013. The nomination period will close at 8.00pm on March 31st 2013.

An explanation of the procedures involved in processing nominations and administering the awards can be found here.

A detailed nomination FAQ can be found here.

The award rules and criteria can be found here.

Please send your nominations by email to sjv_awards@sffanz.org.nz or by post to:
    SJV Awards
    P.O. Box 13-574,
    Johnsonville,
    Wellington

Voting for the awards will take place at the 2013 National SF Convention Au Contraire

The results of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2012 are now available.

The final nomination list for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2012 is now available

Nominations for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2012 are now closed. A final nomination list will be published shortly.

SFFANZ is now accepting nominations for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2012. The nomination period will close at 8.00pm on March 31st 2012.

An explanation of the procedures involved in processing nominations and administering the awards can be found here.

A detailed nomination FAQ can be found here.

The award rules and criteria can be found here.

Please send your nominations by email to sjv_awards@sffanz.org.nz or by post to:
    SJV Awards
    P.O. Box 13-574,
    Johnsonville,
    Wellington

Voting for the awards will take place at the 2012 National SF Convention unCONventional

The list of winners of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2011 is now available here.

The final list of nominees for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2011 is now available here.

Nominations for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2011 are now closed. A list of nominees will be published shortly.

The Sir Julius Vogel sub-committee of SFFANZ is accepting nominations for science fiction and fantasy works first published or released in the 2010 calendar year. Details of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards can be viewed by clicking on this link.

Nominations open on January 1st 2011 and close on 31st March 2011 at 8.00pm.
Please email your nominations to sjv_awards@sffanz.org.nz

Please send one nomination per email and include as many contact details as possible for the nominee as well as yourself.

A detailed nomination FAQ can be found here

Rules and Criteria for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards
Rules and Criteria for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards (PDF)

Voting for the awards will take place at the 2011 National Science Fiction convention, Context.

Please support the works that you like by nominating them, even if you think (or know) that they have already been nominated - additional nominations still matter. The number of nominations a work receives may have a direct bearing on whether it makes it to the final ballot.

The Sir Julius Vogel awards will be open in January. The award is for any science fiction, fantasy or horror works created by a New Zealander and first published or released in the 2010 calendar year.

Anyone can make a nomination and it is free! See the website for the categories open and get busy reading NZ authors and watching NZ movies.

Past winners include Russell Kirkpatrick, Nalini Singh, Helen Lowe, Brian Falkner and Under The Mountain.

Nominations open on 1 January 2011 and close on 31 March 2011 at 8pm.

For more information about the SJV Awards, please go to the awards page.

You can find full details about the nomination procedures and rules, including eligibility criteria here.

The minutes of the SFFANZ AGM held at Au Contraire on August 29th 2010 are now available on the SFFANZ web site.

Captain's Log is the newsletter of the publisher HarperCollins (New Zealand). Click on the link to visit the HarperCollins Voyager web site. There is a link from there to read the newsletter, to see further information about HarperCollins and to join the list to receive the Captain's Log.

The Concatenation seasonal SF news page has just been posted and is rather large (as it summarises the lead SF news from many countries). However the entries of New Zealand interest are:

http://www.concatenation.org/news/news9~10.html#au_contraire

Also of passing interest are:

http://www.concatenation.org/news/news9~10.html#specficnz

http://www.concatenation.org/news/news9~10.html#foreign

http://www.concatenation.org/news/news9~10.html#vogel

The Sir Julius Vogel Awards for 2010 have been announced. The results are available here.

The Realm is an official Science Fiction and Fantasy Facebook fan page set up by Hachette New Zealand to talk about all their great authors. It's just getting started, but in the coming weeks and months they'll have lots of things to post including promotions, freebies, reviews, publishing and event announcements, and sneak peeks to up-coming books with chapter samplers online!

Imagine worlds where strange creatures roam the hills of Miramar, desperate survivors cling to the remains of a submerged country, and the residents of Gisborne reluctantly serve alien masters.

Those are just some of the visions painted in a new volume of speculative fiction by kiwi writers to be launched later this month. Published by Wellington-based small press Random Static, A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction features work by best-selling author Juliet Marillier; poet, musician, and writer Bill Direen; and several Sir Julius Vogel Award winners, prominent writers, and talented newcomers.

Popular and award-winning Australian author Sean Williams, who will be in Wellington at the time of the launch, was impressed by his sneak preview, describing the anthology as "richly populated with the frightening and the fabulous, the thrilling and the thoughtful, the inspiring and the inspired."

Co-editor Anna Caro hopes the works in the collection will both provide points of familiarity to readers, and take their imagination to new places. "Many of the stories are set in New Zealand, present or future, and portray worlds which are both instantly recognisable and nothing like the country we currently live in. This anthology showcases some of the remarkable range of New Zealand's world-class speculative fiction writers."

A Foreign Country will be launched at 6pm on Friday 27 August at Au Contraire, the 31st National Science Fiction Convention (Quality Hotel, Cuba St, Wellington).

A Foreign Country can be ordered online from Random Static. The cover art can be seen here.

A Foreign Country ISBN: 978-0-473-16916-9

Super Awesome Mega Battle Tank is a science fiction comedy film series in 13 episodes. It has been written and directed by Bill O'Byrne and concerns the adventures of an inept three-man team from the Kiwi Space Patrol on a mission to recover a stolen New Zealand battle tank. You can read more about it at this site.

Storylines Trust and HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand are proud to announce an exciting new annual award on the children's literary scene - the Storylines Tessa Duder Award for unpublished writers of fiction for young adults, named in honour of one of New Zealand's best writers for young adults.

Unpublished writers looking for an opportunity to emulate the outstanding writing careers of Kiwi authors such as William Taylor, Kate De Goldi, Bernard Beckett or Tessa Duder herself will be excited by this new initiative.

The award has been set up in recognition of Tessa's outstanding contribution to children's literature, both in terms of publishing output and her tireless work in the area of children's literacy, particularly as one of the founding members of the Storylines Children's Literature Charitable Trust.

Full details and criteria for entry will be listed on the Storylines Tessa Duder Award page.

The Library and Information Association Of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) has announced the finalists for the Prestigious Children's Book Awards for 2010.

Some of the finalistsare also Sir Julius Vogel Award finalists. See this link for more information.

Many congratulations to the finalists from SFFANZ.

The winners of the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards have been announced. See this link for details.

Some of the award winners are also Sir Julius Vogel Award finalists. See this link for more information.

Many congratulations to the Children's Book Award winners from SFFANZ.

Here are two links to an interview with Nalini Singh on Women on Air, Plains 96.9 FM.

The first takes you to the website and gives you the option to listen online or download the file in MP3 format. (Press the "play" button to start listening).

The second should take you directly to the the mp3 version, which will then commence playing.

Following a poll of SFFANZ/Conscription members, it has been decided that New Zealand's 32nd National Science Fiction Convention will be ConText to be held in Auckland over Queen's Birthday weekend 2011. Catherine Asaro has been asked to be the guest of honour and Lynelle Howell has been asked to be the fan guest of honour.

38% of those polled responded, and every single response was in favour of the convention. The decision will be ratified at the next SFFANZ AGM.

ConText is being organised by Alan Parker.

Contact Details:

Web Site:
   http://context.sf.org.nz/

Email:
   enquiries@context.sf.org.nz

Postal Address:
  PO Box 74-013
  Market Rd
  Auckland 1543
  New Zealand

Phone:
   +64-9-9629806

We need YOU!