The Ditmar Awards are now open for nominations!
The Ditmars are peer-voted awards presented annually at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention (Natcon) to recognise achievement in Australian speculative fiction community over the last year. Anyone involved in Australian fandom can nominate, then members of this year’s Natcon (Conflux 16) and last year’s virtual Natcon (Swancon) will vote for the finalists.
The works with the most nominations in each category will appear on the final ballot.
You can nominate in a range of categories:
Professional categories:
- Best novel
- Best novella or novelette
- Best short story
- Best collected work
- Best artwork.
Fan categories:
- Best fan writer
- Best fan artist
- Best fan publication in any medium
Special awards:
Read the full details in the Ditmar rules.
To give you some inspiration, there’s also a (non-exhaustive and unofficial) list of eligible people and works to nominate, to which everyone is encouraged to add to!
Nominations close at 11.59 AEST on Sunday, 15 August 2021.
Who can nominate?
To nominate a person or work for a Ditmar, you must be a natural person active in fandom, or a full or supporting member of Conflux 16.
You must include your name with any nomination. Where a nominator may not be known to the Ditmar subcommittee, the nominator should provide the name of someone known to the subcommittee who can vouch for the nominator’s eligibility.
Convention attendance or membership of an SF club are among the criteria which qualify a person as “active in fandom”, but are not the only qualifying criteria. If in doubt, nominate and mention your qualifying criteria.
The Ditmar subcommittee, which is organised under the auspices the Standing Committee of the Natcon Business Meeting, will rule on situations where eligibility is unclear.
How many times can you nominate?
You can nominate as many times in as many award categories as you like, although you may only nominate a particular person, work or achievement once.
How to nominate
- (The easiest and preferred option) through the online form.
- via email to ditmars@sf.org.au (ensuring you include your name, address and eligibility criteria)
- by post to Ditmars PO Box 338 Bull Creek Western Australia 6149 (ensuring you include your name, email address, address and eligibility criteria, and noting that postal nominations must be postmarked no later than Friday, 13 August, 2021).