Two well-known libertarian science fiction authors, each recent winners of Prometheus Awards, have been confirmed as VIP presenters at the next Prometheus Awards ceremony in 2022.
Authors Travis Corcoran and F. Paul Wilson, both multiple Prometheus Award winners, have graciously agreed to each present one of the two annual awards categories at the online event, set for 2-3 p.m. Saturday (EDT) August 13, 2022.
LFS President William H. Stoddard, who chairs the Hall of Fame finalist judging committee, will emcee the hour-long Zoom-produced awards show and introduce Wilson.
LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg, who chairs the Best Novel finalist judging committee, will introduce Corcoran, while LFS President William H. Stoddard, who chairs the Hall of Fame finalist judging committee, will introduce Wilson.
CORCORAN TO PRESENT BEST NOVEL
Travis Corcoran will speak about the importance of libertarian science fiction, especially in today’s world, before presenting the Best Novel category.
Corcoran won his first Prometheus Award for The Powers of the Earth (in 2018) and his second Prometheus Award for its sequel Causes of Separation (in 2019).
Part of Corcoran’s projected four-volume ongoing Aristillus series, the two novels focus primarily on an anarcho-capitalist lunar colony, struggling to sustain its libertarian and free-market system while defending itself from attack by authoritarian Earth governments.
Corcoran has started working on the next two novels in his exciting series, which reportedly will expand to include settings on Mars, the Earth, the moon and through our solar system.
(Read Stoddard’s Prometheus-blog Appreciation of Corcoran’s novels, which follow in the footsteps of Robert Heinlein’s Prometheus-winning libertarian sf classic lunar novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but as Stoddard explains, critiques Heinlein’s novel and goes beyond it in some ways in being more explicitly libertarian and in realistically exploring the challenges of sustaining such a society under stress.)
WILSON TO PRESENT BEST CLASSIC FICTION
F. Paul Wilson, last year’s Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction winner for his short story “Lipidleggin,” will discuss various themes related to liberty, libertarianism and science fiction and his own illustrious and bestselling career before presenting the Hall of Fame category.
Over the past 43 years, Wilson has won five competitive Prometheus awards, matching the number awarded to the late Poul Anderson and only exceeded by the seven Prometheus awards given by LFS members to the late Robert Heinlein – all for Best Classic Fiction.
Wilson has won Best Novel awards for Wheels within Wheels (the first Prometheus winner in 1979) and Sims (in 2004).
(Read the Prometheus-blog appreciations for Wheels within Wheels, an sf murder-mystery set in Wilson’s future interstellar universe of the LaNague Federation, and Sims, about the struggle of a genetically engineered and self-aware hybrid of humans and chimpanzees for freedom, respect and recognition of their basic rights.
Wilson also has received Prometheus Hall of Fame awards for Healer (in 1990) and An Enemy of the State (in 1991), which together with Wheels comprise his La Nague Federation trilogy.
Wilson’s LaNague trilogy has been hailed as one of the most explicitly libertarian sf trilogies or series ever written. (Read Michael Grossberg’s combined blog Appreciation of both novels.)
Wilson also has the distinction of being one of only four authors (along with Poul Anderson, L. Neil Smith and Vernor Vinge) to have received the Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Wilson was a guest of honor at both LFScons at Columbus’ Marcon in 2001 and 2015, and most recently was the Prometheus Awards Guest of Honor at the Columbus 2020 North American Science Fiction Convention, where LFScon III was held as a mini-con.
The Libertarian Futurist Society is honored to have both past Prometheus Award winners as its awards presenters in 2022 – which we hope might evoke some of the tradition and glamour of other awards shows where past winners return to present different award categories.
AWARDS SHOW SET FOR AUG. 13
Even as the pandemic increasingly shifts into an endemic, the Libertarian Futurist Society will continue its recent practice of producing its annual awards show online – via Zoom in an hour-long presentation at 2-3 p.m. Saturday Aug. 13, 2022 (Eastern Daylight Time).
This means that LFS members – as well as the general public – will be able to watch the 2022 Prometheus Awards ceremony from the comfort of your own home via computer or smart-phone.
Look for another awards-show update here by early August – and stay tuned.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of winners, finalists and nominees – for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to the full set of published appreciation-reviews of past winners.
* Watch the videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital, and in some ways even more powerful than politics in the long run, by sparking innovation, better ideas, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights and differences.
Through recognizing the literature of liberty and the many different but complementary visions of a free future via the Prometheus Awards, the LFS hopes to help spread better visions of the future that help humanity overcome tyranny, slavery and war and achieve universal liberty and human rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.
