The Gemmell Awards, one of the leading prizes in fantasy fiction, will be celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2018. Named after one of epic fantasy’s most renowned and influential authors, David Gemmell, each year the awards recognise the best novel, debut and artwork in the genre as voted for by the reading public.
The tenth running of the awards will be taking place at a prestigious prizegiving ceremony at the seventh iteration of Edge-Lit, Derby’s popular day of fantasy, science-fiction and horror writing, again running at the city’s QUAD venue. Over its existence the event has built up a strong following and welcomed Guests of Honour including Stephen Baxter, John Connolly, Joanne Harris, Claire North, Samantha Shannon and many more. It was also host for last year’s Gemmell Awards ceremony, where the awards were presented to Gav Thorpe for best novel, Megan E O’Keefe for best debut and Alessandro Baldasseroni for best fantasy artwork.
The tenth anniversary will see a range of exciting plans and activities taking place to celebrate a landmark running of the awards, and promises to be an unmissable ceremony and a very special addition to the Edge-Lit programme. The 2018 ceremony will also take in the launch of the Legends III anthology from NewCon Press, the third in a series of special anthologies in tribute to David Gemmell. The book will feature an impressive line-up of current fantasy authors delivering new epic fantasy stories, all presented in a very attractive edition. Alex Davis, Literature Officer for QUAD, said: ‘I was delighted that we had the opportunity to host the Gemmell Awards last year, and the fact that the tenth anniversary edition will also be taking place at Edge-Lit is fantastic news for the event. The partnership between the event and the awards can only grow and get stronger over time, and I can’t wait to see what next year will bring!’
Stan Nicholls, Chair for the Gemmell Awards, said: ‘It’s amazing that The David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy will be celebrating their tenth anniversary next year. Over the past decade the awards have attracted votes running into the hundreds of thousands, and we’ve been proud to present our unique trophies to a growing roster of established and emerging literary and artistic talent, as well as memorialising the author in whose name the awards were created. We could hope for no better venue in 2018 than as part of Edge-Lit 7.’
Edge-Lit 7 runs on Saturday 14th July at QUAD, Derby and tickets will be on sale shortly, with the Gemmell Awards ceremony taking place in the evening.
