LFS President William H. Stoddard emceed the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, presented live on Zoom on Aug. 30, 2025. Here are his opening and closing remarks.
Welcome to the Libertarian Futurist Society’s annual Prometheus Awards ceremony, in which we recognize outstanding works of libertarian science fiction. We’ve held these ceremonies every year since 1982, when L. Neil Smith’s The Probability Broach won Best Novel.
What is “libertarian science fiction”? We take both parts of that label in an inclusive spirit.
On one hand, we look for works that are pro-liberty — that explore the question of what a free society is, how we get there, or why the loss of freedom is a disaster.
On the other, we take “science fiction” to encompass all the fantastic genres: fantasy, many sorts of horror, alternative history, dystopia, utopia, and others.
The man who has to apply these criteria and sort out these categories is our Secretary and the chair of the Best Novel committee, which selects each year’s finalists for that award: Michael Grossberg. Michael will be announcing and present this year’s award for Best Novel.
(Read the upcoming Prometheus Blog post of Grossberg’s Best Novel presentation to Michael Flynn’s In the Belly of the Whale.)
At the conclusion of the ceremony, following Kevin Flynn’s acceptance speech for Best Novel for his late brother Michael Flynn; libertarian theorist and Prometheus-nominated novelist David D. Friedman’s speech and presentation of the Prometheus Hall of Fame category; and Astrid Anderson Bear’s acceptance speech for her late father Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise, Stoddard returned for these final comments:
SUSTAINING THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS
The Prometheus Awards, now in their 46th year, wouldn’t have been sustained for so long without the continued support of Libertarian Futurist Society members in the United States and around the world.
This year, the LFS added two new higher membership levels: Silver Benefactor and Gold Benefactor, in part to help sustain the awards and the increasingly costly gold-coin prize that goes with each award and plaque.
Our membership-renewal cycle for 2025-2026 has only recently begun, but already we have one new Gold Benefactor that we wish to acknowledge and thank: Scott Bannister.
For more information about the LFS, the Prometheus Awards, the Prometheus Blog and the six levels of membership now possible to support all that, please visit our website at www.lfs.org
WATCH THE 45TH PROMETHEUS AWARDS CEREMONY
* Watch the full 45-minute video of the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, which was recorded, posted on YouTube and is available to see here.
ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in 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. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch 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.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
