When Charlie was first writing that story, he thrust his Psion into my hands and said "here, read this!". I said "Email it to me, Charlie". Which he did.
Err . . . apparently Dave Langford's won the Best Fan Writer award every year since 1989. As well as 1985 and 1987. Isn't this the sort of think the Monopolies Commission's for?
It's weird. For some reason, the people who nominate in the Hugos don't pay a blind bit of attention to good fanwriting -- of which there is a great deal all over the place -- and, instead, consistently nominate a range of high-volume plodders and Dave. Dave has a high profile due to Ansible (http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/SF-Archives/Ansible/), though in fact his better writing is found in his apazine Cloud Chamber (http://www.ansible.demon.co.uk/cc/index.html), and in his occasional articles for other people's fanzines.
Recently, there's also been a trend for people to gain nominations by getting their friends to vote for them (at least two of the nominees are in that category this year). This is much frowned upon by traditionalists, precisely because it's easy to stuff the ballot in this way.
When it comes to voting time, the people who vote in the Hugos tend to look for exciting, interesting writers. And Dave is the only really tiptop writer on the list. So he wins every year. The winners of the Nova, or the Faan Award, for best fanwriter, are a better guide to who else is writing well in the field.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2002-04-20 02:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-04-20 03:13 am (UTC)I never read it, of course...
no subject
Date: 2002-04-20 06:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-04-20 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-04-20 10:03 am (UTC)It doesn't have last year's, but trust me - he won it that time too.
Why Langford wins the Fan Writer Hugo every year
Date: 2002-04-25 04:43 am (UTC)Recently, there's also been a trend for people to gain nominations by getting their friends to vote for them (at least two of the nominees are in that category this year). This is much frowned upon by traditionalists, precisely because it's easy to stuff the ballot in this way.
When it comes to voting time, the people who vote in the Hugos tend to look for exciting, interesting writers. And Dave is the only really tiptop writer on the list. So he wins every year. The winners of the Nova, or the Faan Award, for best fanwriter, are a better guide to who else is writing well in the field.