So this wonderful news arrived the other night: The Devil’s Alphabet is on the list of finalists for the Philip K Dick Award, the award for books published as paperback originals. The winner will be announced in Seattle at Norwescon on April 2, 2010.
When PKD died, Tom Disch founded the award in honor of the man. As Locus puts it, “The awards were created and named for the writer who, though increasingly renowned after his death in 1982, was published mostly in undistinguished paperback editions during his career.”
Let’s hear it for undistinguished paperback editions!
I tried to trick my way onto the ballot last year by inserting PKD as a character in Pandemonium. Somebody told me that was the way to do it. Turns out, you have to write something that doesn’t mention Dick at all. (Insert mandatory Dick joke here.)
Seriously, I’m honored to be on the list, for a lot of reasons, but especially because several of PKDs books inspired me, and some of the previous winners and nominees include some of my favorite books. You can see all the covers of the books at SF Signal’s site. I swiped some of their html, because it includes the links to some of their reviews:
- Bitter Angels, C. L. Anderson (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
- The Prisoner, Carlos J. Cortes (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
- The Repossession Mambo, Eric Garcia (Harper) [See SF Signal’s review]
- The Devil’s Alphabet, Daryl Gregory (Del Rey) [See SF Signal’s review]
- Cyberabad Days, Ian McDonald (Pyr) [See SF Signal’s review]
- Centuries Ago and Very Fast, Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press)
- Prophets, S. Andrew Swann (DAW Books) [See SF Signal’s review]
Daryl Gregory 
Steal our HTML? Why, that’s why we’re here! Apparently. 🙂
Oh, and congratulations! 🙂
Will you be joining us at the award ceremony at Norwescon?
Hi Don! I’m trying to figure out how I can get there, but it’s not looking good, schedule-wise. It’s that whole opposite-side-of-the-country problem. I’d love to come, though — I’ve heard great things about Norwescon, I love Seattle, and I’ve got friends out there I don’t get to see enough.
And John D — more people should swipe from you! SF Signal is such a great resource.
Folks, if you’ve never stopped by there, the site’s stuffed with articles and interviews and reviews. I especially recommend the Mind Meld feature, where they regularly survey writers, editors, artists, and other professionals on a given topic. http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/cat_interviews/mind_meld.html
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