Concern re: 2015 Elgin Award nomination & voting procedures

[ajodasso]

Comments

[ajodasso]

Indeed.

Elgin eligibility

[fibitz]

I'm answering these concerns as the current Elgin Award Chair. Subject to approval of the SFPA president, SFPA award Chairs have some discretion as to the guidelines for each award; in the past, for instance, e-only books and self-published works were not eligible for any SFPA awards, but this is no longer the case. Other discretionary points have been what percent of the poems needed to be speculative (currently at least 50%), and whether books containing fiction were eligible (currently not

[ajodasso]

F.J., thank you very much for offering such a thorough perspective. I suppose my ultimate conclusion is that clarification of the guidelines' wording is definitely what's needed; I have, in fact, been encouraging the other individuals with whom I've been in contact to directly express their concerns just as I have done. My motivation for making this post was largely triggered by the lack of attention from the President and Vice President, as well as the all-around curt and dismissive manner in which the initial inquiry I made had been handled. Joshua Gage has already made some productive suggestions in a comment to my post on the SFPA Facebook page with regard to guidelines overhaul and guidelines clarification. That's a start!

More info

[fibitz]

This is the third sentence on the main Elgin Awards page: "The Elgin Awards, named for SFPA founder Suzette Haden Elgin, are presented annually by SFPA for books published in the preceding two years in two categories, Chapbook and Book." This was a change made last year.

The 2014 Elgin Award winners and nominees were, in fact, archived and linked at the top of the Elgin Award page. Through my oversight, the link to the 2013 page was omitted; this has just been rectified.

It disenheartens me when any difficulties, especially those easily remedied, are attributed to corruption or some kind of monstrous plot rather than to the fallibility of overworked volunteers. Which SFPA needs more of, did I mention? (the volunteers, not the fallibility …)

[ajodasso]

Thanks for highlighting this, too; the guidelines page probably does need to be comprehensively updated with everything relevant to this discussion in order to head off further confusion. With regard to volunteering, I'm currently occupied with mentoring new staff in the Poetry Department at Strange Horizons and also seeing to it that our reading periods, which have gone through some restructuring and shake-up with the hiring of said new staff, get through the transition. I anticipate being in the position to consider volunteering outside SH when 2016 rolls around and the high-residency MFA program I'm beginning in August is complete, so I will be keeping a keen eye on open chairs.