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There's a discussion/shouting match about the Aurealis Award judging going on at the moment, that I'm not going to link to because you all know who you are.
What surprises me though (and I'm probably being very naive here) is that no-one has floated the obvious solution(s) -
So, a little background for those who don't know/care about the current "controversies" - for me there are two:
a) Two judges went public (kinda, sorta) with their dislike of flash fiction and a supporter of flash fiction has accused them of shutting out flash fiction from the judging out of personal bias and generally unprofessional behaviour. No, I'm not going to link to the arguments - anyone feeling I've misrepresented it (or them) can argue in the comments
b) A graphic novel (at over 120 pages) was nominated and won best Young Adult short story. (The Arrival by Shaun Tan).
To my mind b) damages the credibility of the Aurealis Awards (which are, after all, the local equivalent of the Nebula Awards) more than a).
So, to a) first.
If there is a predominance of flash fiction amongst the eligible works for an Aurealis that year, then a separate award for flash fiction (just one - across all genres) should be instituted. Or maybe have one every year with the provision for a "no award".
My reasoning is, despite some protests to the contrary, an author is doing something fundamentally different in a 500 word story to a 2,000 word or more one. The comment has already been made that flash fiction is more analogous to a haiku, and in poetry competitions there is often a separate award for haikus, or they are ineligible because of length.
But for there to be an award, flash fiction must be a strong and recognisable part of the body of Australian fantastic writing, not just available from a few venues lest it become mere a best of (insert flash fiction website here) award.
Now b), similar solution.
I haven't read everything this year (or even much Australia fantastic writing) but Shaun Tan's The Arrival is a work of genius and it diminishes both it and the Aurealis Awards to be win an award in a category that's not really relevant. Does anyone really believe that the biggest audience for The Arrival is a YA one? And the argument that it qualifies for short story because there are only two words in it (i.e. the title) is ludicrous and diminishes the other, more qualified, nominees for YA short story.
Now, a bit of history here. Apparently there used to be two awards (the Convenor's award and the Peter McNamara award) and one would cover works that added greatly to Australian fantastic literature and the other went to a person that added greatly to Australian fantastic literature. Those awards were collapsed into one, and Bill Congreve won the Convenor's Award this year. And not before time.
However, this does kind of leave works like The Arrival and other non or meta-textual works out in the cold. I'd argue that Deborah Biancotti's Surrender 1: Rope Artist (sort of link) should be in a different category as well because of it's use of web technology.
So, in short, my argument is that there needs to be a Best Other Medium category (and a better name for it) in the Aurealis Awards to take into account The Arrival and Surrender 1: Rope Artist and movies and theatre pieces and television and comics and games and any other medium that could possibly add to the body of Australian Fantastic work.
Yeah, I know, a bitch to judge and it's not comparing apples with apples.
But, you know, we have to start somewhere, and there's going to be more and more work that needs to be recognised that will be outside the currently limited categories of the Aurealis Awards.
What surprises me though (and I'm probably being very naive here) is that no-one has floated the obvious solution(s) -
So, a little background for those who don't know/care about the current "controversies" - for me there are two:
a) Two judges went public (kinda, sorta) with their dislike of flash fiction and a supporter of flash fiction has accused them of shutting out flash fiction from the judging out of personal bias and generally unprofessional behaviour. No, I'm not going to link to the arguments - anyone feeling I've misrepresented it (or them) can argue in the comments
b) A graphic novel (at over 120 pages) was nominated and won best Young Adult short story. (The Arrival by Shaun Tan).
To my mind b) damages the credibility of the Aurealis Awards (which are, after all, the local equivalent of the Nebula Awards) more than a).
So, to a) first.
If there is a predominance of flash fiction amongst the eligible works for an Aurealis that year, then a separate award for flash fiction (just one - across all genres) should be instituted. Or maybe have one every year with the provision for a "no award".
My reasoning is, despite some protests to the contrary, an author is doing something fundamentally different in a 500 word story to a 2,000 word or more one. The comment has already been made that flash fiction is more analogous to a haiku, and in poetry competitions there is often a separate award for haikus, or they are ineligible because of length.
But for there to be an award, flash fiction must be a strong and recognisable part of the body of Australian fantastic writing, not just available from a few venues lest it become mere a best of (insert flash fiction website here) award.
Now b), similar solution.
I haven't read everything this year (or even much Australia fantastic writing) but Shaun Tan's The Arrival is a work of genius and it diminishes both it and the Aurealis Awards to be win an award in a category that's not really relevant. Does anyone really believe that the biggest audience for The Arrival is a YA one? And the argument that it qualifies for short story because there are only two words in it (i.e. the title) is ludicrous and diminishes the other, more qualified, nominees for YA short story.
Now, a bit of history here. Apparently there used to be two awards (the Convenor's award and the Peter McNamara award) and one would cover works that added greatly to Australian fantastic literature and the other went to a person that added greatly to Australian fantastic literature. Those awards were collapsed into one, and Bill Congreve won the Convenor's Award this year. And not before time.
However, this does kind of leave works like The Arrival and other non or meta-textual works out in the cold. I'd argue that Deborah Biancotti's Surrender 1: Rope Artist (sort of link) should be in a different category as well because of it's use of web technology.
So, in short, my argument is that there needs to be a Best Other Medium category (and a better name for it) in the Aurealis Awards to take into account The Arrival and Surrender 1: Rope Artist and movies and theatre pieces and television and comics and games and any other medium that could possibly add to the body of Australian Fantastic work.
Yeah, I know, a bitch to judge and it's not comparing apples with apples.
But, you know, we have to start somewhere, and there's going to be more and more work that needs to be recognised that will be outside the currently limited categories of the Aurealis Awards.