The Campbell Award

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I truly, without false modesty, did not expect to win this. I’m still in a state of utter giddy shock that I have the Campbell tiara on my head right now. It is so beautiful and I am deeply, deeply honored. I would have been happy to see any of the other nominees win, and I encourage you to pick up their novels.

Out of consideration for the audience, I did not take time to thank everyone that I wanted to thank. We would have been there forever. Here’s a partial list of people I want to thank.

My mom, who started my love for stories by reading to me.
Dad, who is my best story debugger.
My husband, of course, for reasons that I will enumerate to him in private.
My brother, niece and nephew, who got me writing again.
Mr. & Mrs. Kowal who have been so supportive, even though speculative fiction is a new and alien thing.
Ken Scholes, my literary dad, who believed in me enough to introduce me to his agent.
Who is now my uber-agent, Jennifer Jackson.
Joy Marchand who has brainstormed with me and shared the road.
Emily DeCola who lets me tell her stories.
Beth Wodzinski who doesn’t let me get away with crap.
Mr.Fisher, Mr. Allen and Miss Sarah who collectively give such insightful critiques that everyone makes me a better writer.
John Scalzi for being one of my dearest friends and being incredibly supportive.
Jay Lake and Elizabeth Bear for coming up with the idea of the Campbell tiara, which I love.
The three fellow nominees I’ve had the fortune to meet are David Louis Edelman (Infoquake), David Anthony Durham (Acacia) and Jon Armstrong (Grey). They are some of the classiest men I know. Go read their books.
Orson Scott Card, without whose Literary Bootcamp I would probably still be flailing trying to understand plot.
Damien Broderick from Cosmos, who bought “For Solo Cello, op. 12” and taught me what sensory detail meant to a story.
Jason Sizemore, for being an early and enthusiastic supporter of my short fiction.
The First Line, who bought my first story.
Strange Horizons, for buying “Portrait of Ari” which started my Campbell clock.
Everyone at Codex Writers Group.
All the Inkslingers.

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111 thoughts on “The Campbell Award”

  5. Patty

    !!!!!! Wow! Whooohoo! Terrific!
    Congratulations, Mary!
    Would you please post a photo of yourself looking giddy and wearing your tiara? :0)

  6. ebear

    Congratulations! And welcome to the club!

    Actually, the tiara was Jay’s idea; I just abetted and found the artist. And made Cory wear it, so it would be Fully Charged.

    (I think Ken introducing you to Jenn makes you my step-step-step client, since I introduced her o Jay…. your turn to bring home a lost writer now.)

  7. John Chu

    Congratulations! I’m sure I was one of many at ReaderCon who told you that you were the obvious choice, the best in a very strong field. (I’d stopped you in the lobby to ask about voice placement when doing podcasts.) This was as inevitable to me as Bear’s win for Tideline and Ted Chiang’s win for The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate. Each one justly deserved.

    I saw a picture of you wearing the Campbell Tiara over at The Whatever. How cool is that!

      1. John Chu

        Yes, the discussion was incredibly helpful. Thank you. I now have a far better idea of the mechanics of reading something longer than a paragraph.

        Congrats again! I’m so happy for you.

  11. Chang

    YEEHAH!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! VERY WELL DESERVED!!!

    You look stunning in that pic on The Whatever by the way. And stunned, too.

    Enumerate, eh? IS that what they’re calling it these days? 😉

  21. Mike F

    That’s great news! I like waking up to read something good for a change. I’m sure the excitement kept you up all night. Congratulations!

  29. Julia

    :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Now we are sure to see GH in print before the year’s out!

    *glomps* I love love love love the photo too. If anyone ever needed proof that you are too damn awesome, THIS is it. :DDDDDDD

  30. David Louis Edelman

    As I stated to you last night and am more than happy to reiterate here: congratulations! Well deserved, and may this be the first of many awards to come! (Oh, and trust me, everybody, she *did* look radiant in that tiara.)

  38. Maggie

    But of course it’s on your head. I never had any doubts.

    CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

    I bet you look fantastic.

  42. Rachel Ann Dryden

    :). Congratulations again, Mary! I bet it’s never going to get old, hearing that. When I first ‘met’ you online at Hatrack, back in 2004 I think, I remember immediately feeling that you were a fun person and that you cared enough about your writing career to put in the work and make it happen. And look where that attitude has taken you thus far. I have no doubts it will bring you to even more dizzying heights in the future, and I hope I’m there to see it happen. Also, it makes me feel like I better get a move on my own career :). You inspire me.

  45. Michele Lee

    YAYY!!! I can’t possibly post in big enough words to show how happy this makes me. You are a fantabulous writer. I hope to someday be half the writer you are 🙂 Of course you deserve it, and they’re going to keep coming too! Many congratulations and I look forward to keeping track of your victories and tale for many, many more years. 🙂

  57. Rob Vagle

    Congrats, Mary! Way to go!

    I’ll say congratulations again at the short story workshop in September on the Oregon coast.
    It’ll be an honor to be in the same workshop with the latest Campbell winner!

  58. Jules

    Congrats. Good to see the people from the old hatrack.com forums doing well… just saw one of James Maxey’s books in my local bookshop too!

    Jules

  59. RFLong

    Congratulations! And Yay! And It couldn’t happen to a nicer or more deserving person! And Wow! And I’m so excited! And I will shut up in a minute, I promise! Okay, I lied! WOOOOOOOOOT and Way to go Mary! 😀

    Seriosuly though. It’s fantastic and both EWH and I send HUGE congratulations.

  61. Todd Thorne

    Besides offering congratulations for the well deserved honor, I’ll add a note of thanks for being an inspiration, Mary. You give back a great deal in many ways to numerous, deserving people, and their fortunes are so much better as a result. A lot of us are extremely lucky to know you.

    So let’s see then…

    Puppeteer, check!
    Writer, check!
    Next up…?

    Hmmm. Ever consider running for Congress? They could seriously use some help.

  75. Allison

    Congratulations, Mary! That’s really exciting! Take care and have some fun 🙂
    PS-It was great meeting you and chatting at Readercon. Looking forward to next time.
    Cheers,
    Allison Hartman Adams

    1. Mary Robinette Kowal

      I will admit that photos of the tiara did help me decide which dress to wear, just in case. It’s funny how one can not expect to win and yet still make contingency plans, just in case.

    1. Mary Robinette Kowal

      Thank you, Joe! I had been looking forward to meeting you at the awards. I’ve heard nothing but good things about you and we have some friends in common. Will you be at World Fantasy?

      1. joe abercrombie

        Good things? All lies I’m sure. Don’t think I’ll be at World Fantasy this year, unfortunately.

        Comicon next year looks like the best chance of my making it to the States in the nearish future…

        2. joe abercrombie

          Haven’t been to one before, but my US publisher is talking about maybe getting me out to the San Diego one in July? Far from a done deal at this stage, though.

  88. Frank Wu

    Hey! We were there in the audience and right before they announced you as the winner we were cheering you on because Brianna and I both loved that Talebones story. Yeah! It was so exciting to see you win! And Brianna said you were, by far, the best dressed of all the winners.

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