The Washington Science Fiction Association is pleased to announce the winner of the 2009 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction: “The Absence of Stars: Part 1” by Greg Siewert, published in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, edited by Edmund R. Schubert, Hatrack Publishing.

The award honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction. The award showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year. An unusual feature of the selection process is that all voting is done with the identity of the author hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story. The award consists of certificates for both the author and publisher as well as a trophy and $250 for the author.

The other finalists were:

“Drinking Problem” by K.D. Wentworth, published in Seeds of Change, edited by John Joseph Adams, Prime Books (August, 2008).

“Hard Rain at the Fortean Café” by Lavie Tidhar, published in issue 14 of Aeon Speculative Fiction Magazine, edited by Bridget McKenna.

“His Last Arrow” by Christopher Sequeira, published in Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Jeff Campbell and Charles Prepolec, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, (October, 2008).

“Silent as Dust” by James Maxey, published in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, edited by Edmund R. Schubert, Hatrack Publishing.

“Spider the Artist” by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, published in Seeds of Change, edited by John Joseph Adams, Prime Books (August, 2008)

“The Toy Car” by Luisa Maria Garcia Velasco, (translated from Spanish by Ian Watson) published in April 2008 edition of Aberrant Dreams, edited by Joseph W. Dickerson.

The winner is chosen by the members of the Washington Science Fiction Association and is presented at their annual convention, Capclave, held this year on October 16-18 in Rockville, Maryland. Present to accept their awards were Greg Siewert and Edmund R. Schubert, the editor of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. Also present to accept their Honorable Mention certificates were: James Maxey for his story “Silent as Dust” and John Joseph Adams editor of Seeds of Change accepting for Nnedi Okarafor-Mbachu and K.D. Wentworth.