This bit of news ran today in the New York Times.  I’m mentioned in the article, but not quoted, alas. But hooray for free publicity!

April 1, 2006 -Spilogale, Inc. (publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) announced today that it would sponsor a new juried award designed to recognize “excellence” in unpublishable manuscripts.

 

The Slushy P. Slusherton Memorial Award, or “Slushy,” is named in honor of an anonymous, struggling writer who, in the ’40s and ’50s, used the pen name “Slushy P. Slusherton” and did not include his real name or contact info, in order to preserve his anonymity.  “If you wrote as badly as he did, you’d keep your name off your manuscripts too,” award administrator Gordon Van Gelder said.  “This guy’s stories made ‘The Eye of Argon’ look like Shakespeare.” 

 

Van Gelder said that the award was created to help inspire “a healthy dose of fear” in authors, who up until now have been submitting stories with impunity, no matter how wretchedly awful they were.  “I’ve been severely traumatized by slush pile stories–so severely that I had to hire an assistant just to triage it for me.  I’ve read some slush that, years later, still causes me to wake up screaming,” Van Gelder said, then added: “Maybe this award can help change that, can keep the next generation of editors from suffering what I’ve had to endure, and maybe, just maybe, that can somehow lead to a better tomorrow.”

 

The jury will be comprised of a rotating panel of experts, which will consist mainly of assistant editors and interns.  This year’s panel will include slush readers John Joseph Adams (F&SF), Douglas E. Cohen (Realms of Fantasy), and Brian Bieniowski (Asimov’s). 

 

“You’d think the award would be a deterrent,” Cohen said, “but it won’t be.  It’s only a matter of time before some knucklehead will mention in his cover letter that in addition to being nominated for a Pushcart Prize, he’s also a Slushy Award-winner.”

Editors of magazines and anthologies may nominate works for through Slushy P. Slusherton Society website — www.slushylives.org — or by bringing the manuscripts to Spilogale, Inc.’s office and throwing them over the transom.

 

Eligible works must have been submitted between Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2005
. Works must be written in English (or in a reasonable facsimile thereof).  The awards will be presented to at Slushycon 1, held July 26-29, 2006 at the Queen Maud Convention Center in Antarctica.

 

For general information about the Slushy P. Slusherton Society, visit their website at www.slushylives.org.