Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award celebrates the best science fiction short story published the previous year.
(photo by Mark Zicree)
2023 Theodore A. Sturgeon Memorial Award Winner
LAWRENCE, KS – 28 August 2023
for immediate release
The J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction (CSSF) is pleased to announce this year’s winner of the 2023 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction short story published in 2022. The winning piece, selected by a jury of prominent science fiction writers and scholars, is Samantha Mills’ “Rabbit Test,” published by Uncanny Magazine.
Jurors (Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Pinsker, Noël Sturgeon, Taryne Taylor) described the work as a “powerful and powerfully relevant story about liberty and human rights in the face of encroaching fascism.” One juror said Mills’ story “absolutely wowed me when I first read it, and it holds up to reread. To me this does everything science fiction is supposed to do.” Among the qualities jurors praised was the way the protagonist’s personal story centered a structure that moves back and forth through history.
Samantha Mills is a Nebula and Locus Award-winning author living in Southern California with her family and cats. She has been short-listed for the Hugo Award and previous rounds of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award competition and included in The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2023. You can find her short fiction in Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, and others. Her debut novel, The Rise and Fall of Winged Zemolai, is coming out in 2024 through Tachyon Publications. For further details, including social media handles and a full list of published work, go to www.samtasticbooks.com.
CSSF will present the trophy and monetary prize to Mills at the Sturgeon Award Ceremony on Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 5:30 pm in the Hall Center for the Humanities (900 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS). The ceremony will feature a reception, opening remarks, presentation of the Award, a reading by Mills, and a Q & A session.
This year’s ceremony is part of the Gunn Center’s second annual Sturgeon Symposium, celebrating an international array of speculative literatures and communities. The theme, “Fantastic Worlds, Fraught Futures,” coincides with the anniversary of the publication of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, KU’s 2023-24 Common Book. The Symposium begins virtually on Wednesday, September 20 at 9 am and runs through Friday, September 22, with virtual and in-person sessions; it is free and open to the public. For the full program and registration link, visit https://sfcenter.ku.edu/sturgeon-symposium
Sturgeon Award
2023
1st “Rabbit Test” by Samantha Mills. Uncanny Magazine, November 2022.
2nd "Banbang Luksa" by Nicasio Andres Reed. Reckoning Press.
3rd "Slow Communication" by Dominique Dickey. Fantasy Magazine, February 2022.
2022
1st “Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story” by Nalo Hopkinson. F&SF, November 2021.
2021
1st "An Important Failure" by Rebecca Campbell. Clarkesworld, August 2020.
2020
1st "Waterlines" by Suzanne Palmer. Asimov's Science Fiction, July/August 2019.
2019
1st "When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis," by Annalee Newitz. Slate, Dec 2018.
2nd "On the Day You Spend Forever with Your Dog," by Adam Shannon. Apex, Dec 2018.
3rd "Nine Last Days on Planet Earth," Daryl Gregory. Tor.com, Sept 2018.
2018
1st "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue," by Charlie Jane Anders. Boston Review: Global Dystopias, Oct 2017.
2nd "And Then There Were (N-One)," by Sarah Pinsker. Uncanny, March 2017.
3rd "A Series of Steaks," by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. Clarkesworld, Jan 2017.
2017
1st "The Future is Blue," by Catherynne M. Valente. Drowned Worlds, ed. Jonathan Strahan, Solaris Books, 2016.
2nd "Touring with the Alien," by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Clarkesworld, April 2016.
3rd "Things with Beards," by Sam J. Miller. Clarkesworld, June 2016.
2016
1st "The Game of Smash and Recovery," by Kelly Link. Strange Horizons, 17 Oct 2015.
2nd "The New Mother," by Eugene Fischer. Asimov's, Apr/May 2015.
3rd "Gypsy," by Carter Scholz. Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2015.
2015
1st "The Man Who Sold the Moon," by Cory Doctorow. Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future,
eds. Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer, Morrow, 2014.
2nd "Shatterdown," by Suzanne Palmer. Asimov's Jun 2014.
3rd ""We Are the Cloud," by Sam J. Miller. Lightspeed Sep 2014.
2014
1st "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind," by Sarah Pinsker. Strange Horizons, July 2013.
2nd "Mystic Falls," by Robert Reed. Clarkesworld, Nov 2013.
3rd "The Weight of the Sunrise," by Vylar Kaftan. Asimov's, Feb 2013.
2013
1st "The Grinnell Method," by Molly Gloss
2nd "Nahiku West," by Linda Nagata
3rd Eater-of-Bone, by Robert Reed
A special Sturgeon Award for Distinguished Service was presented to Frederik Pohl this year.
2012
1st "The Choice," by Paul McAuley
2nd "Six Months Three Days," by Charlie Jane Anders
3rd "The Paper Menagerie," by Ken Liu
2011
1st "The Sultan of the Clouds," by Geoffrey A. Landis
2nd "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon," by Elizabeth Hand
3rd "The Things," by Peter Watts
2010
1st "Shambling Towards Hiroshima," by James Morrow
2nd (tie) "Things Undone," by John Barnes
2nd (tie) "This Wind Blowing, and This Tide," by Damien Broderick
2nd (tie) "As Women Fight," by Sara Genge
2009
1st "The Ray Gun: A Love Story," James Alan Gardner
2nd "Memory Dog," Kathleen Ann Goonan
3rd "The Tear," Ian McDonald
2008
1st (tie) "Tideline," Elizabeth Bear
1st (tie) "Finisterra," David R. Moles
2nd (tie) "Memorare," Gene Wolfe
2nd (tie) "The Master Miller's Tale," Ian R. MacLeod
2007
1st "The Cartesian Theater," Robert Charles Wilson
2nd "A Billion Eves," Robert Reed
3rd "Lord Weary's Empire," Michael Swanwick
2006
1st "The Calorie Man," Paolo Bacigalupi
2nd "The Little Goddess," Ian MacDonald
3rd "Magic for Beginners," Kelly Link
2005
1st "Sergeant Chip," Bradley Denton
2nd "Voluntary State," Christopher Rowe
3rd "Mere," Richard Reed
2004
1st "The Empress of Mars," Kage Baker
2nd "Bernardos House," James Patrick Kelly
3rd "It's All True," John Kessel
2003
"Over Yonder," Lucius Shepard
2002
"The Chief Designer," Andy Duncan
2001
"Tendeleo's Story," Ian McDonald
2000
"The Wedding Album," David Marusek
1999
"Story of Your Life," Ted Chiang
1998
"House of Dreams," Michael Flynn
1997
"The Flowers of Aulit Prison," Nancy Kress
1996
"Jigoku no Mokushiroku," John G. McDaid
1995
"Forgiveness Day," Ursula Le Guin
1994
"Fox Magic," Kij Johnson
1993
"This Year's Class Picture," Dan Simmons
1992
"Buffalo," John Kessel
1991
"Bears Discover Fire," Terry Bisson
1990
"The Edge of the World," Michael Swanwick
1989
"Schrodinger's Kitten," George Alec Effinger
1988
"Rachel in Love," Pat Murphy
1987
"Surviving," Judith Moffett
- "Rabbit Test" by Samantha Mills in Uncanny Magazine, Nov. 2022
- "In the Beginning of Me, I Was a Bird" by Maria Dong in Lightspeed Magazine, Jan. 2022
- "Slow Communication" by Dominique Dickey in Fantasy Magazine, Feb. 2022
- "If We Make It Through This Alive" by A.T. Greenblatt in Slate/ Future Tense Fiction, Jan 2022
- "Babang Luksa" by Nicasio Andres Reed in Reckoning Press, Feb. 2022.
- "Ten Steps for Effective Mold Removal" by Derrick Boden in Apex Magazine, Sept. 2022
- "The City and the Thing Beneath It" by Innocent Chizaram Ilo in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb. 2022
- "A Hole in the Light" by Annalee Newitz in Sunday Morning Transport, Oct. 2022
- "Toronto Isn't Real and Other Metropolitan Anomalies” by A.D. Sui in Augur Magazine, Dec. 2022
- "Bonsai Starships" by Yoon Ha Lee in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Feb. 2022
“If the Martians Have Magic“, P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny 9-10/21)
“Philia, Eros, Storge, Agápe, Pragma”, R.S.A Garcia (Clarkesworld 1/21)
"The Album of Dr. Moreau", Daryl Gregory (Tordotcom)
“Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story”, Nalo Hopkinson (F&SF 11-12/21)
“Proof by Induction“, José Pablo Iriarte (Uncanny 5-6/21)
“The Metric“, David Moles (Asimov’s 5-6/21)
“Sarcophagus“, Ray Nayler (Clarkesworld 4/21)
“Bots of the Lost Ark“, Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld 6/21)
The Necessity of Stars, E. Catherine Tobler (Neon Hemlock)
The award was established by James Gunn and by the children of science fiction great Theodore Sturgeon in 1987.
