The Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing is co-sponsored by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and Dell Magazines. As the publisher of two of the science fiction field’s leading magazines, Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Dell takes the magazines’ responsibility for discovering and nurturing new talent seriously. In addition to providing the Dell Magazines Award’s five hundred dollar first prize and prizes for the runners-up, Dell sponsors the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author that is bestowed during the annual Hugo-award ceremony. The Dell Magazines Award is also supported by the School of Mass Comunications, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. The judges for the award are Rick Wilber, who oversees the administration of the award, and who reads every single submission, and me.

This spring, I flew to Florida to meet a charming crew of finalists for the awards at the annual Conference on the Fantastic that is held in Ft. Lauderdale. One of the winners, Madeline B. Sheldon-Dante of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, could not be on hand to collect her honorable mention award for “Astep.” Fortunately, though, the rest of the finalists were able to attend the conference. As always, I had chosen my favorite stories from a blind read of the contestants. Still, there were a number of familiar faces among the winners. One of these was Amelia Beamer, a recent graduate of Michigan State University. Amelia (last year’s second runner-up) received an honorable mention for “The First Stone.” She is now working full time as an editorial assistant for Locus—SF’s leading trade magazine. Another honorable-mention finalist, Catherine Krahe, received a citation for her captivating fantasy, “Undine.” Cassie is a biology student at Illinois Wesleyan, who intends to pursue a Ph.D. in molecular biology and genetics.

One of last year’s honorable mentions, Michail Velichansky, an English major at the University of Maryland—College Park, was this year’s third runner-up for his horror story, “Evelyn.” I was happy to discover that Michail had recently sold this year’s tale to Fantastical Visions Vol. 4.

Our second runner-up, Alice Kim, is studying science and technology in society at Stanford University. Alice received her award for her chilling short story, “Are You Getting All of This?” In addition to her award certificate, both she and Michail will receive one-year subscriptions to Asimov’s.

Eliza Blair, our first runner-up, is a physics major at Swarthmore college. She received her award for the delightfully inventive tale about “Friends in Need.” Eliza was pleased to learn that she would also be getting a two-year subscription to Asimov’s.

This year’s winner, Anthony Ha, is an undergraduate in urban studies at Stanford University. He is the first repeat winner of our award. Last year, Anthony won first prize for “Orbiting,” which is now up at our website. This year, he received the award for his wonderfully claustrophobic tale of a journey “Around the World,” which is now up at our website. Anthony has one more year of school to go, so I may just see him in Florida next year!

In addition to attending panels and listening to academic papers and readings, the students were lucky enough to spend some time sitting around the pool with fellow authors like Brian W. Aldiss, Judith Berman, Suzy McKee Charnas, John Clute, John Crowley, Andy Duncan, Stephen Donaldson, Kathleen Goonan, Eileen Gunn, Joe Haldeman, Elizabeth Hand, Nalo Hopkinson, John Kessel, Ellen Klages, Kelly Link, David Lunde, Rudy Rucker, and Peter Straub.

Dell Magazines is proud to support these academic awards with IAFA. The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts is a worldwide network of scholars, educators, writers, artists, filmmakers, critics, editors, publishers, and performers who share an interest in studying and celebrating the fantastic in all art forms, disciplines, and media. I’m pleased that this year’s winners were a gifted group of people with much to add to the fantastic in the arts.

Please turn to page 135 for information on how to apply for next year’s award.