On my own behalf: The Tolkienist named jury member with two German fantasy awards

January has been starting off pretty well for me – I have been invited to be part of the jury for the German fantasy award Seraph, publicly presented at the Leipzig Book Fair, and with a competition run by one of Germany’s leading fantasy and scifi magazines, Nautilus, promoting self-publishing by publicising the winning novel.

The Seraph is an award promoting fantasy and science fiction novels and particulary debuts from German-speaking authors. It is given out by the Phantastische Akademie, an institution founded in 2011 to promote interest in said genres and their appreciation in public discourse. It is awarded annually at the Leipzig Book Fair and inclused a prize money of 2,000€ for best novel. It was first given out in 2012 and I have been a member of the jury in 2013 and 2014 for Best Novel; this year I will be judging the Best Debut:

• Alexander, Martin: Meister der Türme (Bastei-Lübbe)
• Böhm, Nicole: Seelenwächter (Greenlight Press)
• Daut, Tom: Die Sinistra (Oldigor Verlag)
• El-Bahay, Akram: Flammenwüste (Bastei-Lübbe)
• Gwisdek, Robert: Der unsichtbare Apfel (KiWi-Taschenbuch)
• Jahnke, Alex: Neuschwabenland (Edition Roter Drache)
• Reschke, Jan: Die Ummauerte Stadt (Papierverzierer Verlag)

If you want to stay informed about this award you can visit the official website or its Facebook account.

One of Germany’s leading publications on science fiction and fantasy is the Nautilus, published by Abenteuermedien Verlag in Hamburg. It is published monthly and gives you the best on books, films and games and always addresses special topics with in-depth articles in every issue. To promote self-publishing in Germany the magazine offers to publicise a 4-page extract right in the middle of the 60 page strong publication – this would look something like this:

The shortlist finalists are:

• Manuel Charisius: Weltenlied – Saga der Zwölf
• Laurin Dahlem: Gott der Nacht
• Tädeus M. Fivaz & Peter Segmüller: Die Chronik von Stahl und Feder
• Susanne Gerdom: Der Blaue Tod
• René Grandjean: Make new Memory oder wie ich von vorn begann
• Simone Keil: Patient Zweiundvierzig
• Sigrid Kraft: Ardeen Band 3 – Nimrod
• Wolfgang Oberleithner: Ätherpiloten
• Leonore Pothast: Das letzte Spiel
• Martin Riesen: Aussergewöhnliche Automatons
• Corinna Rindlisbacher: Karma und Sue
• Markus Tillmanns: Teufel

I’ll probably have to spend quite a bit of time on reading soon 🙂

However, I am very much looking forward to it! It is a pleasure and an honour – and good luck to all participants with these awards!

The good thing about being named jury member with two German fantasy awards? Great books to read! 🙂 The bad thing about it? You have to read a large number of books in a very short time! 😉 Nautilus, one of Germany’s leading fantasy and sciencefiction magazines, is promoting self-publishing with its award; Seraph by Phantastische Akademie is promoting best debut and novel from German-speaking authors. Looking forward to it all!

P.S. If I don’t post much in the next couple of days – you know why 😀 😀 😀