Author discovery of the year
I’ve decided to imagine, just for fun, that I’m giving out an award for the most significant (to me) author I’ve discovered in a given year. The award is given to an author that I really like (ie. who writes brilliant books) who I haven’t read before (except possibly a small number of short stories).
Since 1999 I’ve been keeping track of the books I read in one spot. It would be a significant project to go back further than that.
This year’s winner is Ken Grimwood, author of the stunning Replay. Runner ups are Joanne Bertin for The Last Dragonlord, Alastair Reynolds for Revelation Space, and Gregory Maguire for Confessions of a Wicked Stepsister. It was a good year for new (to me) authors — further runner ups are Maureen F. McHugh, Marion Zimmer Bradley, James White, Julian May, and Jack Vance.
Here are all the winners and runner ups…
| Year | Winner | Runner ups | ||
| 2012 | Ken Grimwood | Joanne Bertin | Alastair Reynolds | Gregory Maguire |
| 2011 | Robin Hobb | Audrey Niffenegger | Richard Adams | George R. R. Martin |
| 2010 | Clifford D. Simak | Yves Meynard | Tim Powers | Harry Harrison |
| 2009 | Dan Simmons | Peter S. Beagle | Ray Bradbury | |
| 2008 | Connie Willis | David Mack | Jeanne Cavelos | John Scalzi |
| 2007 | Vernor Vinge | James Morrow | ||
| 2006 | Edward Willett | Elizabeth Kostova | ||
| 2005 | Stephen Baxter | Sean Russell | Christopher L. Bennett | |
| 2004 | Karin Lowachee | Peter Watts | Adam Roberts | Jasper Fforde |
| 2003 | Neal Stephenson | Ted Chiang | Stanislaw Lem | Candas Jane Dorsey |
| 2002 | Karl Schroeder | |||
| 2001 | Jim Munroe | Nalo Hopkinson | ||
| 2000 | Charles de Lint | J. Gregory Keyes | Kurt Vonnegut | Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz |
| 1999 | Robert Charles Wilson | Kim Stanley Robinson | L. Sprague de Camp | |