I made an awards eligibility post a few weeks ago, but it occurs to me that I should make one specifically for the Campbell, since it covers two years’ worth of work.
I am in my second qualifying year for the Campbell Award. My first professional sale was to Strange Horizons, for “Inventory,” which was published in January 2013. Since then, I’ve published 19 short stories in a mix of genre/non-genre magazines.
Last year, I included my three favorite stories from 2013 in the Campbell anthology.
- “Inventory” / Strange Horizons
- “Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU” / The American Reader
- “We Were Never Alone in Space” / Shimmer
(I also published one other genre story that wasn’t included in the anthology: “Real Women Have Bodies” at FiveChapters.)
In her NPR review of the 2013 Campbell anthology, K. Tempest Bradford recommended me for nomination, writing:
Carmen Maria Machado’s stories build and build until they surround and ensnare, and at the end you’re always glad to be all tangled up. My favorite, “Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU,” defies explanation. Call it postmodern, or fan fiction, or Lovecraft meets Dick Wolf — all labels fall short of capturing the essence of this story.
This year, the 2014 Campbell anthology will include:
- “California Statutes Concerning Defrauding an Innkeeper” / AGNI
- “Mothers” / Interfictions
- “The Husband Stitch” / Granta (recently selected for inclusion in Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 2)
In addition to these stories, I published three other speculative stories, including:
- “Observations About Eggs from the Man Sitting Next to Me on a Flight from Chicago, Illinois to Cedar Rapids, Iowa” / Lightspeed (also recently selected for inclusion in Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 2)
- “Help Me Follow My Sister Into the Land of the Dead” / Help Fund My Robot Army!
- “Ekphrasis” / Yalobusha Review
When it comes to my personal ballot, here are the other writers on my shortlist:
- Sam J. Miller (see “Kenneth: A User’s Manual” in Strange Horizons)
- Lara Donnelly (see “Chopin’s Eyes” in Strange Horizons)
- Alyssa Wong (see “The Fisher Queen” in Fantasy & Science Fiction)
- Usman Tanveer Malik (see “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family” in Qualia Nous)
- Lisa Bolekaja (see “Medu” in Long Hidden)
- JY Yang (see “Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points” in Clarkesworld)
- Isabel Yap (see “A Cup of Salt Tears” at Tor)