Ditmar Awards

The Ditmars are the Australian Science Fiction Achievement Awards.

The name arose via a joke. At a committee meeting to decide the name of the proposed award, lengthy discussions had gotten around to considering people the award might be named after. Someone suggested that a person thus honoured might be persuaded to fund the awards.

Dick (Martin James Ditmar) Jenssen seized an opportunity to relieve tedium by hazarding that he, himself, would be willing to pay for the awards if they were named "Ditmar" awards. What, he was asked, is a Ditmar? "Digital Integrating and Tabulating Mechanism for the Advancement of Research", he told them.

His offer was accepted, and he subsequently found himself paying for the awards for some years longer than he'd anticipated.

Nowadays, the awards process for the Ditmar Awards involves separate rounds for nominations and votes, but back in 1970 there was just a single round of voting. Also, a points system was used to determine winners that year.

In 1982, the Australian Natcon, Tschaicon, was billed as "the First Australasian SF Convention", and the Ditmar Awards presented that year were, at least in theory, Australasian awards.

In 2002, and again in 2010, Ditmar received a Ditmar. (Another instance of a fan receiving an award named after himself may have been when Forrest J Ackerman received a Big Heart Award. That award, previously known as the E. Everett Evans Big Heart Award, was renamed the Forrest J Ackerman Big Heart Award.)

William Atheling, Jr. Award

The William Atheling, Jr. Award for Criticism or Review is a Special Category under the Ditmar Awards. "The Athelings", as they are known for short, are awarded for excellence in SF and speculative criticism.

They are named for the pseudonym used by SF author James Blish for his critical writing.

The award was first presented as part of the Ditmar Award ceremony, at Bofcon, the 15th Australian National Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne in August 1976.

Nowadays, the William Atheling, Jr. Award for Criticism or Review is considered a Ditmar Award. However, there was a time when the constitution governing the Australian Natcons referred to it as a separate award. It is still classified as a "special award."

The history of nominations for the award indicates that it has not always been restricted to Australians. In 1989, the last year in which there was a Ditmar Award for International Fiction, there were published eligibility criteria for the William Atheling, Jr. Award that required the work to have been published in Australia, but did not require the author to be Australian.

Ditmar Award for Best Fannish Cat

In 1991, a Ditmar Award for Best Fannish Cat was presented at SunCon (in Brisbane, Australia). The Business Meeting at that convention voted to demote the award from a Ditmar Award to a Special Award of the Convention. However, that decision was reversed at the Business Meeting of the following Australian Natcon.

According to Bruce Gillespie, “The person who was Chair of the convention in Brisbane stuffed up many aspects of the convention. She was also part of a non-Melbourne group who believed that every aspect of the Ditmars was a cruel plot by Melbourne fans to keep all the Ditmars for themselves. So she allowed members of the convention to vote for the categories as well as the items in the categories. Irresistible bait to Melbourne fans in general — who ganged up to include Best Fannish Cat in the categories.”

This still rankled as late as 2005, when a Swancon XXX progress report calling for nominations for the Tin Duck Award exhorted, “Please do not invent new categories. (e.g. No Best Fannish Cat. We’ve heard it before, and it wasn’t funny the first time).”

But Dudcon III, in 2010, revived Best Fannish Cat as a non-Ditmar Special Award of the Convention. Rules required nominees to be “natural members of the species Felis Catus” alive and resident in Australia at the time of the nomination.

In both cases, noted Gillespie, “the winners were very popular cats who had been met by many Melbourne fans. The general effect was to confirm the suspicion of Perth fans that Melbourne fans ‘did not take the Ditmars seriously.’”

1991 Nominees for Best Fannish Cat

• Apple Blossom, humans: Elaine Cochrane & Bruce Gillespie
• Constantinople, human: Phil Wlodarczyk
• Emma Peel, human: Terry Frost
• Godzilla, humans: Ian Gunn & Karen Pender-Gunn
• Honey, humans: Gerald Smith & Womble
• Satan, human: Phil Wlodarczyk
• Truffle, humans: Mark Loney & Michelle Muijsert
• Typo (winner), human: Roger Weddall

2010 Nominees for Best Fannish Cat

• Tabby Allen, human: James Allen
• Felix Blackford, human: Jenny Blackford
• Peri Peri Canavan (winner), human: Trudi Canavan
• Flicker Gillespie, human: Elaine Cochrane & Bruce Gillespie
• Pazuzu Sparks, humans: Cat Sparks & Robert Hood

Stuffed Cane Toads

Another 1991 scandal that pitted insurgents from Melbourne against sercon fen elsewhere in the country was the SunCon Ditmar trophies. Melburnian Mark Loney made awards of mounted taxidermied cane toads (a poisonous introduced pest endemic to Queensland, where the con was held). He intended them as a joke, to be presented at the ceremony, with the real Ditmars to be given at the closing ceremony.

The cane toads were presented, but the actual Ditmars trophies weren’t ready by the end of con. The real ones would be distributed later at a Nova Mob club meeting, but this did not placate the outraged.

Special Awards

Convention reports from 1971 indicate that the two Special Awards presented in 1970 were considered to be Ditmar Awards.

Some Other Awards

The Ditmar Awards should not be confused with the Melbourne Science Fiction Club Achievement Award nor the Peter McNamara Achievement Award nor the Pat Terry Award for Humour in SF.

Award Results

Complete Ditmar Award Results

1969: Eighth Australian Science Fiction Convention, Melbourne

1969 Best Australian Science Fiction of any length, or collection

• Pacific Book Of Australian SF, John Baxter
• False Fatherland, A. Bertram Chandler (winner)
• "Final Flower," Stephen Cook

1969 Best International Science Fiction of any length, or collection

• An Age, Brian Aldiss
• Camp Concentration, Thomas M. Disch (winner)
• The Ring of Ritornel, Charles Harness

1969 Best Contemporary Writer of Science Fiction

• Brian Aldiss (winner)
• R. A. Lafferty
• Samuel R. Delany
• Roger Zelazny

1969 Best Australian Amateur Science Fiction Publication or Fanzine

• Australian Science Fiction Review, John Bangsund (winner)
• The Mentor, Ronald L. Clarke
• Rataplan, Leigh Edmonds

1970: Ninth Australian Science Fiction Convention, Melbourne

1970 Best Australian Science Fiction

• "Dancing Gerontius", Lee Harding (winner)
• "Anchor Man", Jack Wodhams
• "Split Personality," Jack Wodhams
• "The Kinsolving's Planet Irregulars", A. Bertram Chandler

1970 Best International Publication

• Amazing Stories
• Vision of Tomorrow (winner)

1970 Best International Fiction

• The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
• Cosmicomics, Italo Calvino (winner)

1970 Best Australian Fanzine

• SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie
• The Journal of Omphalistic Epistemology, John Foyster (winner)

1971: Tenth Australian Science Fiction Convention, Melbourne

1971 Best Australian SF

• After Ragnarok, Robert Bowden
• "The Bitter Pill," A. Bertram Chandler (winner)
• Squat, David Rome

1971 Best International Fiction

• Time and the Hunter, Italo Calvino
• "The Region Between," Harlan Ellison
• Tower Of Glass, Robert Silverberg
• No Award (winner)

1971 Best Australian Fanzine

• SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie
• The Somerset Gazette, Noel Kerr (winner)
• The New Forerunner, Gary Mason

1971 Special Awards

• SF in the Cinema, John Baxter
• Vision of Tomorrow, Ron Graham

1972: Syncon 2, Sydney

1972 Best Australian Fiction

• "What You Know", A. Bertram Chandler
• The Fallen Spaceman, Lee Harding (winner)
• "The Immortal", Olaf Ruhen
• "The Man Of Slow Feeling", Michael Wilding
• The Authentic Touch, Jack Wodhams

1972 Best International Fiction

• To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip José Farmer
• "Continued On the Next Rock", R. A. Lafferty
• The Lathe Of Heaven, Ursula K. Le Guin
• Ringworld, Larry Niven (winner)
• A Time Of Changes, Robert Silverberg

1972 Best Australian Fanzine

• Scythrop, John Bangsund
• The Mentor, Ron L. Clarke
• The Fanarchist, David Grigg
• Chao, John Alderson
• SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie (winner)

1973: Advention 2, Adelaide

1973 Best Australian Fiction

• The Hard Way Up, A. Bertram Chandler
• "Let it Ring", John Ossian (John Foyster – winner)
• "Gone Fishing", David Rome
• "Budnip", Jack Wodhams

1973 Best International Fiction

• The Gods Themselves, Isaac Asimov (winner)
• The Gorgon Festival, John Boyd
• The IQ Merchant, John Boyd
• Dying Inside, Robert Silverberg

1973 Best Dramatic Presentation

• Aussiefan (winner)
• A Clockwork Orange
• Slaughterhouse Five
• Tales From The Crypt

1973 Best Australian Fanzine

• Chao, John Alderson
• Gegenschein, Eric Lindsay
• Rataplan, Leigh Edmonds
• SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie (winner)

1974: Ozcon, Melbourne

(The programme book for the 1990 Natcon, Danse Macabre, records that no Ditmar Awards were presented in 1974.)

1975: Syncon '75, Sydney

1975 Best Australian SF

• The Bitter Pill, A. Bertram Chandler (winner)
• The Soft Kill, Colin Free
• "The Ark of James Carlyle", Cherry Wilder

1975 Best International Fiction

• Protector, Larry Niven
• The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
• Frankenstein Unbound, Brian Aldiss

1975 Best Australian Fanzine

• Osiris, Del & Dennis Stocks (winner)
• Forerunner, Sue Clarke
• Fanew Sletter, Leigh Edmonds
• Chao, John Alderson
• Gegenschein, Eric Lindsay

1976: Bofcon, Melbourne

1976 Best Australian Fiction

• The Big Black Mark, A. Bertram Chandler (winner)
• "Way Out West", Cherry Wilder
• The Frozen Sky, Lee Harding (Ruled as ineligible, published in 1976)

1976 Best International Fiction

• The Indian Giver, Alfred Bester
• The Shockwave Rider, John Brunner
• The Forever War, Joe Haldeman (winner)
• Inferno, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
• "Down to a Sunless Sea", Cordwainer Smith

1976 Best Australian Fanzine

• Chao, John Alderson
• Fanew Sletter, Leigh Edmonds (winner)
• Mad Dan's Review, Marc Ortlieb
• Osiris, Del & Dennis Stocks
• Interstellar Ramjet Scoop, Bill Wright

William Atheling, Jr. Award

• Algis Budrys, Foundation & Asimov
• James Gunn, Alternative Worlds
• David Ketterer, New Worlds For Old
• George Turner, Paradigm and Pattern; Form and Meaning in “The Dispossessed” (winner)
• George Turner, Philip Dick by 1975

1977: A-Con 7, Adelaide

1977 Best Australian Science Fiction

• "The Ins and Outs of the Hadhya City State", Phillipa Maddern
• Kelly Country, A. Bertram Chandler
• Future Sanctuary, Lee Harding
• Walkers on the Sky, David Lake (winner)

1977 Best International Fiction

• A World Out of Time, Larry Niven
• The Space Machine, Chris Priest (winner)
• The Hand of Oberon, Roger Zelazny
• "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", Richard Cowper

1977 Best Australian Fanzine

• SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie (winner)
• Mad Dan's Review, Marc Ortlieb
• Enigma, Van Ikin
• South of Harad, East of Rhun, Jon Noble

1977 William Atheling, Jr . Award

• George Turner, "Theme as an Element of Fiction"
• George Turner, "The Jonah Kit" (winner)
• George Turner & Peter Nicholls, "Plumbers of the Cosmos"

1977 Special Committee Award

• "The Ins and Outs of the Hadhya City State", Phillipa Maddern

1978: Unicon IV, Melbourne

1978 Australian Science Fiction, Best Novel

• The Right Hand of Dextra, David Lake
• The Wildings of Westron, David Lake
• The Weeping Sky, Lee Harding
• The Luck of Brins Five, Cherry Wilder (winner)

1978 Australian Science Fiction, Best Short Fiction

• "Albert's Bellyful", Francis Payne (Yggdrasil, Feb. 1977) (winner)
• "Ignorant of Magic", Phillipa C. Maddern (View From The Edge)
• "The Two Body Problem", Bruce Barnes (View From The Edge)
• "The Long Fall", A. Bertram Chandler (Amazing, July 1977)

1978 Best International Fiction

• In the Hall Of the Martian Kings, John Varley, F&SF, Feb. 1977
• The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien (Allen & Unwin) (winner)
• Our Lady Of Darkness, (aka The Pale Brown Thing) Fritz Leiber, (Berkeley Putnam/F&SF, January–February 1977)
• A Dream of Wessex, Chris Priest (Faber)
• "The House of Compassionate Sharers", Michael Bishop (Cosmos No 1)
• The Silver in the Tree, Susan Cooper (Chatto & Windus)
• Gateway, Frederik Pohl (Gollancz or Ballantine)

1978 Best Amateur Australian Publication (Fanzine)

• Yggdrasil, Dennis Callegari & Alan Wilson
• Enigma, Van Ikin (winner)
• Minardor, Marc Ortlieb
• Fanew Sletter, Leigh Edmonds
• Epsilon Eridani Express, Neville J. Angove

1978 William Atheling, Jr. Award

• George Turner, "The Martial Art of SF Criticism", Yggdrasil, Feb, May & August 1977
• Andrew Whitmore, "The Novels of D.G. Compton", SF Commentary, No 52 (winner)
• Robert Scholes & Eric S. Rabkin, Science Fiction: History Science Vision, O.U.P
• George Turner, "The Silverberg Phenomenon", SF Commentary, No 51
• Van Ikin, "Review of 'Going'"

2020: Swancon 2020, Perth

The convention was cancelled due to Covid-19. There were insufficient nominations for the Best Artwork and Best Fan Artist categories. The awards ceremony was held online with short notice on 19 September 2020. The date conflicted with Rosh Hashana, which meant that neither the Best Novel nor the Best Short Fiction winners could participate.

2020 Best Novel

• Claiming T-Mo, Eugen Bacon, Meerkat Press.
• The Year of the Fruit Cake, Gillian Polack, IFWG Publishing Australia (winner).

2020 Best Short Fiction

• "into bones like oil", Kaaron Warren, Meerkat Press.
• "Whom My Soul Loves", Rivqa Rafael, in Strange Horizons, 11 November 2019 (winner).

2020 Best Collected Work

• Collision, J. S. Breukelaar, Meerkat Press.

2020 Best Fan Publication in Any Medium

• Be The Serpent podcast, Alexandra Rowland, Jennifer Mace and Freya Marske (winner-tie)
• SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie (winner-tie).

2020 Best Fan Writer

• Bruce Gillespie, for writing in SF Commentary.
• Elizabeth Fitzgerald, for reviews in Skiffy and Fanty (winner).

2020 Best New Talent

• Freya Marske (winner).

2020 William Atheling, Jr. Award for Criticism or Review

• Eugen Bacon, for Writing Speculative Fiction, Red Globe Press.
• Grant Watson, for reviews on FictionMachine (winner).

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Award

Website

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