The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award

    
Theodore Sturgeon, the author memorialized with this award. Photo by Marc Zicree.

The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of the year was established in 1987 by James Gunn, founder of the J Wayne and Elsie M Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction, and the heirs of Theodore Sturgeon, including his partner Jayne Engelhart Tannehill and Sturgeon's children, as an appropriate memorial to one of the great short-story writers in a field distinguished by its short fiction.

Sturgeon, born in 1918, was closely identified with the Golden Age of science fiction, 1939-1950, and is often mentioned alongside Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and A. E. van Vogt as one of the four writers who established and led the way through that time. All four published their first SF stories in 1939, usually identified as the start of the Golden Age, and Sturgeon was famous for providing the heart.

In addition to fiction (his best-known novel is the classic, More Than Human), Sturgeon also wrote book reviews, poetry, screenplays, radio plays, and television plays, including two classic teleplays for the original Star Trek. He was a popular lecturer and teacher, and was a regular visiting author during Gunn's Intensive Institute on the Teaching of Science Fiction. Sturgeon died in 1985.

His books, manuscripts, and papers have been deposited at the University of Kansas, as he wished. See this page for news and information about the 2011 acquisition, valued at over $600,000.

For its first eight years (1987-1994), the Sturgeon Award was selected by a committee of short-fiction experts headed by Orson Scott Card. Beginning in 1995, then-assistant director of the SF Center McKitterick reorganized the Sturgeon Award to make it juried, with winners selected by a committee composed of James Gunn, Frederik Pohl, and Judith Merril. After the 1996 Award, Judith Merril resigned and was replaced by Kij Johnson, the 1994 Sturgeon winner. George Zebrowski served on the jury from 2005-2013. Also in 2013, Pohl retired from service to the Award, and Elizabeth Bear joined the jury. Andy Duncan served as juror from 2013-2018. Sarah Pinsker was added in 2019, and Taryne Taylor in 2020. Since 1999, one of Sturgeon's children has also participated in this process, usually Nöel Sturgeon. James Gunn served until his death in December, 2020.

The current jury consists of Elizabeth Bear, Kij Johnson, Sarah Pinsker, Nöel Sturgeon (Trustee of the Theodore Sturgeon Literary Estate), and Taryne Taylor.

Eligible stories are those published in English during the previous calendar year. Nominations come from a wide variety of science-fiction reviewers and serious readers, editors who publish short fiction, and often the jurors, as well. Nominations are collected during the winter by the award administrator (from 1995-2018 Chris McKitterick, and Jason Baltazar ever since) who produces a list of finalists based on nominators' rankings. The jury then reads all the finalists and debates their merits during the spring until they arrive at a consensus decision in May. The winning author is usually contacted in May and invited to attend the Conference; the winner often attends the last day or two of McKitterick's SF Writers Workshop, as well.

The Sturgeon Award is presented during the Conference Awards Banquet at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, as the focal point of a weekend of discussions about the writing, illustration, publishing, teaching, and criticism of science fiction.

Note: If you read deeply or broadly in the short-SF field and would like to be a part of the Sturgeon Award nomination process, drop a note at Gunn.SF.Center@gmail.com stating your interest. We're always looking for great readers to help diversify our nominations pool!

Starting in 2004, winners of the Sturgeon Award began receiving personalized trophies. The permanent Award, beside the new trophies in this photo, bears the names of every winner.

Click here to see a list of Sturgeon Award finalists.

Click here to see images of the Sturgeon Award trophy.

Heard of Sturgeon's Law? Click hear to read about it.

Click here to see Sturgeon's essay regarding "Ask the next question" and the trophy's design.

Click here page for information about his books, manuscripts, and papers deposited at the University of Kansas.

Theodore Sturgeon Resources

• The Theodore Sturgeon Literary Trust website is a fantastic resource for all things Sturgeon. It contains many stories, audio readings of Sturgeon's works, information about new and reprinted work (the Trust owns the copyright to his work), and much more - even a recipe!
• The Theodore Sturgeon Page contains a great deal of information about Theodore Sturgeon, including publications, reminiscences by friends and colleagues, a bio, photographs, and more.