On Saturday, the SFF world had a double bill of award winner announcements of the Hugos and the Ignytes, and we are utterly delighted, grateful, shocked and amazed to be able to say that we were one of them, winning the 2023 Ignyte Critics Award.
Given the strength of nominees in the category, where we were alongside Aigner Loren Wilson, Bogi Takács, Christina Orlando and Nerds of a Feather contributor emeritus Charles Payseur, this feels absolutely phenomenal to say. It hasn't entirely sunk in. Every single one of them is amazing, and we were already extremely grateful to be in their company. To win? Just something else.
It is especially dear to our hearts to win an award from the Ignytes, knowing as we do how much good and critical work they, and FIYAH are doing in SFFH, shining a light on work from marginalised creators who might otherwise be overlooked. To put it in their own words, "to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre". That we might be considered, by their jurors and the voters, to be worthy of this? We cannot emphasise our gratitude enough, as well as our intent to continue to do our part to work towards crafting out the inclusive, diverse and wonderful genre space they seek to create.
As ever, it is critical to acknowledge that a fanzine is a machine of many parts. For the work that comprised our offering in 2022, we have the following names to thank and celebrate:
Paul Weimer
Arturo Serrano
Adri Joy
Joe Sherry
Roseanna Pendlebury
Elizabeth Fitzgerald
Joe DelFranco
Phoebe Wagner
Mike Newhouse-Bailey
Sean Dowie
Dean E.S. Richard
The G
Vance Kotrla
Every one of them contributed towards us being what we are and what we do, from book, film and comic reviews, to deep-dives on video games, to surgically critical essays, to social media engagement, to interviews, to extremely discursive discussion posts of the important books of the moment, coming together to make a whole that, we hope, we believe, does its best to provide insightful, thoughtful and meaningful critique of a broad swathe of the SFFH space. All of us love the genres we write about, and are a part of this wonderful community of reviewers, fans and creators, and our work in Nerds of a Feather is (a part of - many of our contributors are talented and multifaceted) our contribution back to the eternal conversation of that fandom.
We also want to highlight our new batch of 2023 inductees - Alex Wallace, Ann Michelle Harris, Chris Garcia, Clara Cohen and Haley Zapal (whom we also congratulate on her Hugo win as a part of the Hugo, Girl! podcast), who have been a huge part of what we've put together this year. We couldn't do it without you.
In lieu of thanking every single partner, cat, dog, parent, child, sibling, friend, colleague or rival-with-suspiciously-romantic-chemistry that we all have cheering us on behind the scenes, which would no doubt take us to at least novelette post length gratitude, I will end with once again simply reiterating our thanks, to the Ignyte jury, to the voters, and to our readers. We are honoured, and we are grateful, and we are absolutely over the moon. Thank you.
