Awards & Winners

John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

John W. Campbell Memorial Awards

The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, or Campbell Memorial Award, is an annual award presented by the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas to the author of the best science fiction novel published in English in the preceding calendar year. It is the novel counterpart of the Theodore Sturgeon Award for best short story, awarded by the same organization. The award is named in honor of John W. Campbell, whose science fiction writing and role as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact made him one of the most influential editors in the early history of science fiction. The award was established in 1973 by writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss "as a way of continuing his efforts to encourage writers to produce their best possible work." Locus Magazine listed it as one of the "major awards" of written science fiction. The winning novel is selected by a panel of science fiction experts, intended to be "small enough to discuss among its members all of the nominated novels". The initial members of the panel were Gregory Benford, Paul A. Carter, James Gunn, Elizabeth Anne Hull, Christopher McKitterick, Farah Mendlesohn, Pamela Sargent, and Tom Shippey. In 2008 Mendlesohn was replaced with Paul Kincaid, and in 2009 Carter left the panel while Paul Di Filippo and Sheila Finch joined. Nominations are submitted by publishers and jurors, and are collated by the panel into a list of finalists to be voted on. The minimum eligible length that a work may be is not formally defined by the center. The winner is selected by May of each year, and is presented at the Campbell Conference awards banquet in June at the University of Kansas in Lawrence as part of the centerpiece of the conference along with the Sturgeon Award. The award has been given at the conference since 1979; prior to then it was awarded at various locations around the world, starting at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1973. Winners are always invited to attend the ceremony. The Center for the Study of Science Fiction maintains a trophy which records all of the winners on engraved plaques affixed to the sides, and since 2004 winners have received a smaller personalized trophy as well.

Check all the winners of John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel presented under John W. Campbell Memorial Awards since 1973 .


Cory Doctorow

Honored for : Little Brother

Nominations 2009 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Greg Bear City at the End of Time
Nicholas A. DiChario Valley of Day-Glo
Cory Doctorow Little Brother
Ian R. MacLeod Song of Time
James K. Morrow The Philosopher's Apprentice
Neal Stephenson Anathem

Ian R. MacLeod

Honored for : Song of Time

Nominations 2009 »

Nominee Nominated Work
Greg Bear City at the End of Time
Nicholas A. DiChario Valley of Day-Glo
Cory Doctorow Little Brother
Ian R. MacLeod Song of Time
James K. Morrow The Philosopher's Apprentice
Neal Stephenson Anathem

Kathleen Ann Goonan

Honored for : In War Times

Ben Bova

Honored for : Titan

Robert J. Sawyer

Honored for : Mindscan

Richard K. Morgan

Honored for : Market Forces

Jack McDevitt

Honored for : Omega

Nancy Kress

Honored for : Probability space

Jack Williamson

Honored for : Terraforming Earth

Robert Charles Wilson

Honored for : The Chronoliths

Poul Anderson

Honored for : Genesis

Vernor Vinge

Honored for : A Deepness in the Sky

George Zebrowski

Honored for : Brute Orbits

Joe Haldeman

Honored for : Forever Peace

Paul J. McAuley

Honored for : Fairyland

Stephen Baxter

Honored for : The Time Ships

Greg Egan

Honored for : Permutation City

Charles Sheffield

Honored for : Brother to Dragons

Bradley Denton

Honored for : Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede

Kim Stanley Robinson

Honored for : Pacific edge

Geoff Ryman

Honored for : The Child Garden

Bruce Sterling

Honored for : Islands in the Net

Connie Willis

Honored for : Lincoln's Dreams

Joan Slonczewski

Honored for : A Door into Ocean

David Brin

Honored for : The Postman

Frederik Pohl

Honored for : The Years of the City

Gene Wolfe

Honored for : The Citadel of the Autarch

Brian Aldiss

Honored for : Helliconia Spring

Russell Hoban

Honored for : Riddley Walker

Gregory Benford

Honored for : Timescape

Thomas M. Disch

Honored for : On Wings of Song

Michael Moorcock

Honored for : Gloriana

Frederik Pohl

Honored for : Gateway

Kingsley Amis

Honored for : The Alteration

Philip K. Dick

Honored for : Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Arthur C. Clarke

Honored for : Rendezvous with Rama

Robert Merle

Honored for : Malevil

Barry N. Malzberg

Honored for : Beyond Apollo