CLARKE MATTER

Inside the new 2001-inspired anthology

Having spent the last 30 years celebrating the best in science fiction literature, the Arthur C Clarke Award is creating stories of its own. To mark the late author’s centenary, award director Tom Hunter has teamed up with NewCon Press to assemble an anthology of new short stories – all of them running to a not-at-all coincidental 2001 words.

“We wanted to do something special to mark Sir Arthur’s centenary year,” Hunter tells Red Alert. “We thought about ways to directly acknowledge Arthur’s own work while still leaving creative scope for stories that stretched across the full range of science fiction, just as the award itself does. The idea of a new collection with stories from Clarke Award-winning and shortlisted authors seemed like a winner.”

The list of authors includes Chris Beckett, Yoon Ha Lee, Emma Newman, Alastair Reynolds and Liz Williams.

“The great thing about a brief like this is it gave our authors a focus, but also creative space to play,” says Hunter. “And we’ve had fantastic stories from writers like Adrian Tchaikovsky, Becky Chambers, Claire North and Jeff Noon, as well as some non-fiction from people like Neil Gaiman, a past judge himself, talking about being a part of the award.”

A Kickstarter is now running to fund the book – for more details visit www. clarkeaward.com. Read more about Arthur C Clarke’s centenary on p68.