Campbell Award for best new writer

Last week e-mails went out to nominees for all things Hugo and the (affectionately known as) not-Hugo, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Which is not a Hugo, but it's part of the same nomination and voting process. My letter came in and, as you do, I just stared at it for a few hours, sure that they had the wrong person and that they'd sent it to the wrong address. Somehow! I'm actually certain this isn't a thing that happens - they're too efficient and competent for that. But the mind isn't always a rational thing....

The Campbell ballot this year comprises

• Ramez Naam  
• Sofia Samatar  
• Wesley Chu
• Max Gladstone
• Benjanun Sriduangkaew
  

This is very humbling company! Please imagine my face as a row of exclamation marks. Like so -> !!!!!!!!!!!! The eyes will have to be stars. Ramez Naam and Max Gladstone were exceptionally lovely - I'd just twitter-met them and they were already offering to drink to me at Worldcon. (I believe I'll get to pick the drink, the more lethal the better; please send suggestions!) Huge congratulations for all of them, and also to Ann Leckie, Aliette de Bodard, Rachel Swirsky, Foz Meadows, Kameron Hurley. Two of my favorite editors are up for short form editor - Jonathan Strahan and Neil Clarke - so that's a yay! Beneath Ceaseless Skies up for semiprozine again, most deservingly!

My only expectations with the Campbell was only a concern I might be a disappointment to people who did nominate me for the Campbell. As it turns out, I don't have to disappoint! To say I'm humbled by this support for my writing would be an absolute, inadequate statement. It was an honor just to see my name on people's ballots - that was delightsome enough on its own - but to be an actual finalist...! It's beyond an honor, and it overwhelms me more than I have words to express. Thank you everyone who nominated me, and I'd especially like to thank writers who've lent me unending courage - to write, to be: Ann Leckie, Kameron Hurley, Aliette de Bodard, Seth J. Dickinson, Lavie Tidhar. Editors who have been incandescently kind and shown me a world of possibilities: Neil Clarke, Scott H. Andrews, Sean Wallace, Jonathan Oliver, Jonathan Strahan, and more.

And finally: innumerable thanks for a very dear one for incredible patience, support, and being there. (And also all the nieces who cheered me on when writing, and burst into huge rounds of applause when I told them all this, even if they aren't too sure what it is about. Erm, that and my writing's still not age-appropriate for them, now that I think...).