The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is a lifetime honor presented annually by the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. Whil ...
(SFWA) to no more than one living writer of
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
or
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
. It was inaugurated in 1975 when
Robert Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
was made the first SFWA Grand Master and it was renamed in 2002 after the Association's founder,
Damon Knight
Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He is the author of " To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for ''The Twilight Zone''.Stanyard, ''Dimensions Behind t ...
, who had died that year.
[
The presentation is made at the annual SFWA ]Nebula Awards
The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...
banquet, commonly during May, but it is not one of the Nebulas—which recognize the preceding calendar year's best works of SF and fantasy, selected by vote of all Association members. SFWA officers and past presidents alone submit Grand Master nominations and the final selection must be approved by a majority of that group.[ The recipient is announced in advance, commonly during the preceding calendar year, which is the publication year and official award year for the Nebulas.
]
History
The Grand Master Award was originally limited to six per decade and six were presented in the ten years to 1984; twelve in the twenty years to 1994. All were 67 years old (Isaac Asimov) to 75 years old (Lester del Rey) at the time of presentation; Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester (December 18, 1913 – September 30, 1987) was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. He is best remembered for his science fiction, incl ...
had died at 74. Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name ...
was the first woman so honored, and only eight others have been selected since. Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American-Irish writer known for the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, ''Weyr Search'', 19 ...
was the first recipient named after the award had been renamed the "Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master" in 2003. From 1995 the award has been conferred annually with exceptions only in 2002 and 2011 (2001 and 2010 Nebula award years).[ ]Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels ('' Brown Girl in the Ring'', '' Midnight Robber'', '' The Salt Roads'', ''The New Moon's Arms'') and short stories such as th ...
was the youngest to receive the honor, age 59.
Starting in 1995, the SFWA also awarded the title of Author Emeritus Author Emeritus was an honorary title annually bestowed by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America upon a living writer "as a way to recognize and appreciate senior writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy who have made signif ...
"as a way to recognize and appreciate senior writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy who have made significant contributions to our field but who are no longer active or whose excellent work may no longer be as widely known as it once was." No more than one Author Emeritus was named each year, and the recipient was invited to speak at the annual Nebula Awards banquet. Fourteen were named in the 16 years to 2010 (the 2009 Nebula award year), none of whom had been named Grand Master—as remains true through 2013/2014. Its status as a consolation prize was one matter of controversy and by October 2013 the Author Emeritus webpage had been removed by SFWA.
Grand Masters
A total of 39 SFWA Grand Masters SFWA may refer to:
*Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association
*Scottish Football Writers' Association
The Scottish Football Writers' Association (SFWA) is an association of Scottish football journalists and correspondents writing for newspa ...
have been created in the 45 years from 1974/1975 to 2021/2022.[ Please note: The list below shows the year of the award ceremonies for each respective recipient, but the actual title of each individual award uses the preceding year.
* 1975 ]Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
(1907–1988)
* 1976 Jack Williamson
John Stewart Williamson (April 29, 1908 – November 10, 2006), who wrote as Jack Williamson, was an American science fiction writer, often called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of the first uses of the term '' gen ...
(1908–2006)
* 1977 Clifford D. Simak
Clifford Donald Simak (; August 3, 1904 – April 25, 1988) was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror W ...
(1904–1988)
* 1978 —
* 1979 L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biog ...
(1907–2000)
* 1980 —
* 1981 Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, and chess expert. With writers such as Rober ...
(1910–1992)
* 1982 —
* 1983 —
* 1984 Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name ...
(1912–2005)
* 1985 —
* 1986 Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008)
* 1987 Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)
* 1988 Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester (December 18, 1913 – September 30, 1987) was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. He is best remembered for his science fiction, incl ...
(1913–1987)
* 1989 Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...
(1920–2012)
* 1990 —
* 1991 Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey (June 2, 1915 – May 10, 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and scienc ...
(1915–1993)
* 1992 —
* 1993 Frederik Pohl (1919–2013)
* 1994 —
* 1995 Damon Knight
Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He is the author of " To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for ''The Twilight Zone''.Stanyard, ''Dimensions Behind t ...
(1922–2002)
* 1996 A. E. van Vogt
Alfred Elton van Vogt ( ; April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born American science fiction author. His fragmented, bizarre narrative style influenced later science fiction writers, notably Philip K. Dick. He was one of the ...
(1912–2000)
* 1997 Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under pen names.
...
(1916–2013)
* 1998 Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...
(1926–2001)
* 1999 Hal Clement
Harry Clement Stubbs (May 30, 1922 – October 29, 2003), better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre. He also painted astronomically oriented artworks under ...
(1922–2003)
* 2000 Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017)
* 2001 Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer (January 26, 1918 – February 25, 2009) was an American author known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories.
Obituary.
Farmer is best known for his sequences of novels, especially the ''World of Tiers ...
(1918–2009)
* 2002 —
* 2003 Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...
(1929–2018)
* 2004 Robert Silverberg
Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is an American author and editor, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a Gr ...
(1935–)
* 2005 Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American-Irish writer known for the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, ''Weyr Search'', 19 ...
(1926–2011)
* 2006 Harlan Ellison (1934–2018)
* 2007 James Gunn
James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker and executive. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1997). He then began working as a directo ...
(1923–2020)
* 2008 Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worke ...
(1939–)
* 2009 Harry Harrison (1925–2012)
* 2010 Joe Haldeman
Joe William Haldeman (born June 9, 1943) is an American science fiction author. He is best known for his novel '' The Forever War'' (1974). That novel and other works, including '' The Hemingway Hoax'' (1991) and '' Forever Peace'' (1997), hav ...
(1943–)[
* 2011 —
* 2012 ]Connie Willis
Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis (born December 31, 1945), commonly known as Connie Willis, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for particular works—more major SF awards tha ...
(1945–)[
* 2013 ]Gene Wolfe
Gene Rodman Wolfe (May 7, 1931 – April 14, 2019) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith. He was a prolific short story writer and nove ...
(1931–2019)[
* 2014 ]Samuel Delany
Samuel R. "Chip" Delany (, ) (born April 1, 1942), is an American author and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays (on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society). His ...
(1942–)[
* 2015 ]Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are '' Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, '' The Mote in God's E ...
(1938–)[
* 2016 ]C. J. Cherryh
Carolyn Janice Cherry (born September 1, 1942), better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has written more than 80 books since the mid-1970s, including the Hugo Award-winning novels '' Downbelo ...
(1942–)
* 2017 Jane Yolen
Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 350 books, of which the best known is ''The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. He ...
(1939–)
* 2018 Peter S. Beagle (1939–)
* 2019 William Gibson
William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...
(1948–)
* 2020 Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold ( ; born November 2, 1949) is an American speculative fiction writer. She is an acclaimed writer, having won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record (not counting his Retro Hugos). Her n ...
(1949–)
* 2021 Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels ('' Brown Girl in the Ring'', '' Midnight Robber'', '' The Salt Roads'', ''The New Moon's Arms'') and short stories such as th ...
(1960–)
* 2022 Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Ritchie Lackey (born June 24, 1950) is an American writer of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar. Her Valdemar novels include i ...
(1950–)
*2023 Robin McKinley
Robin McKinley (born November 16, 1952) is an American author best known for her fantasy novels and fairy tale retellings. Her 1984 novel ''The Hero and the Crown'' won the Newbery Medal as the year's best new American children's book. In 2022 ...
(1952–)
Recognition
In 1989, the anthology Grand Masters' Choice
''Grand Masters' Choice'' is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Andre Norton and Ingrid Zierhut. It was first published as the convention book for Noreascon Three in a limited edition hardcover by NESFA Press in August 1989. ...
was published, edited by Andre Norton and Ingrid Zierhut. Later three more anthologies honoring recipients of the Grand Master Award and collecting some of their short works have been published: ''The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 1
''The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 1'' is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Frederik Pohl. It was first published in hardcover by Tor Books in June 1999, and in trade paperback by the same publisher in August 2001. It has been tra ...
'' (1999), ''The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 2
''The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 2'' is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Frederik Pohl. It was first published in hardcover by Tor Books in April 2000, and in trade paperback by the same publisher in April 2001. It has been tr ...
'' (2000), and ''The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 3
''The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 3'' is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Frederik Pohl. It was first published in hardcover by Tor Books in June 2001, and in trade paperback by the same publisher in April 2002. It has been tran ...
'' (2001), all edited by Frederik Pohl. Collectively, they honor the first fifteen recipients of the award.
See also
* The Gandalf Grand Master Award
The Gandalf Awards, honoring achievement in fantasy literature, were conferred by the World Science Fiction Society annually from 1974 to 1981. They were named for Gandalf the wizard, from the Middle-earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien. The award was ...
for life achievement in fantasy writing was awarded annually by the World Science Fiction Society
Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, durin ...
from 1974 to 1981.
* World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
References
External links
"SFWA Grand Master Award"
in ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo, Locus and British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared in 1979 and 1993. A third, continu ...
''
Michael Moorcock at 2008 Nebula Award Ceremony
(flickr)
Harry Harrison and Robert Silverberg at 2009 Nebula award ceremony
(twitpic)
{{Science fiction
*
Science fiction awards