Writer refuses to accept Award money

[Ian Whates]

Huge respect to Colum Paget, winner of this year's James White Award (for emerging writers), presented during Sunday night's BSFA Award Ceremony at Eastercon. He refused the £200.00 prize money (provided by the BSFA), asking that it be added to next year's prize to help encourage further new talent.

A truly selfless and uplifting gesture that is one of my enduring memories of this year's con. It deserves to be applauded.

Colum can be found online here: http://thesingularitysucks.blogspot.co.uk/

[mosaix]

Originally Posted by Ian Whates

It deserves to be applauded.

Fully agree.

[Stephen Palmer]

Extraordinary. What a gesture

[Grizzgreen711]

Well, good for him. What a selfless act of respect for this industry. Hopefully this will encourage others around the world.

[HareBrain]

It's a generous act, but it could have unforseen consequences. Next year's winner might feel self-pressured to do the same thing (since they will be accepting his prize money as well as their own), and it might snowball into an amount no one will want to look greedy enough to accept.

[Stephen Palmer]

They could always accept it and donate it to charity.

[J-WO]

I was quite flabbergasted when I saw Colum Paget do this. And not a little impressed. Good on him.

[biodroid]

I don't know what this award is trying to prove but unless I am mistaken, £200 seems to be a little on the low side to be an incentive for new talent, if I convert it to my currency. I support Paget on his decision. I can only imagine writing a novel is very difficult and those who are aspiring to it are most likely trying to do it full time for obvious reasons. Go Paget!!

[J-WO]

Originally Posted by biodroid

I don't know what this award is trying to prove but unless I am mistaken, £200 seems to be a little on the low side to be an incentive for new talent, if I convert it to my currency. I support Paget on his decision. I can only imagine writing a novel is very difficult and those who are aspiring to it are most likely trying to do it full time for obvious reasons. Go Paget!!

The prize was for a short story, and £200 is more than most places'll give you for that. A brutish age we live in when that's the case but there you have it...

(I write short stories by the way. Can't you tell?)

[Stephen Palmer]

£200 is food for almost three months. Seems okay to me.

[Connavar]

Man there are many papers literary awards here that give £10 000 or more for best emerging author award. £200 is way too little.

Respect for Paget but i can see why he gave it away so the next winner can get more.

[Ian Whates]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Man there are many papers literary awards here that give £10 000 or more for best emerging author award. £200 is way too little.

Respect for Paget but i can see why he gave it away so the next winner can get more.

Con, the money for the James White Award is provided by the BSFA: a non-profit making organisation run by fans for fans, whose only source of income is the annual subscription paid by its members (£29.00 per year). The BSFA took over the running of the James White Award a few years ago when it would otherwise have folded, and they've continued to fund it from their meagre resources ever since because they believe in supporting emerging writers.

However, if you feel so strongly that the £200.00 prize money is too little, I'm sure they'd be more than grateful of any donation you'd care to make to increase the prize fund.

[Ursa major]

Becoming a BSFA patron would provide the association with the best part of £500, I believe, which would be a good first step.

[Ian Whates]

Good point, Ursa!

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by Ian Whates

Con, the money for the James White Award is provided by the BSFA: a non-profit making organisation run by fans for fans, whose only source of income is the annual subscription paid by its members (£29.00 per year). The BSFA took over the running of the James White Award a few years ago when it would otherwise have folded, and they've continued to fund it from their meagre resources ever since because they believe in supporting emerging writers.

However, if you feel so strongly that the £200.00 prize money is too little, I'm sure they'd be more than grateful of any donation you'd care to make to increase the prize fund.

Im not saying anything about BSFA, i dont know much about british awards and where the money come from. There are awards by non-profit organization here too but they get founded by foundations,culture organizations.

I was just surprised to see how little the author would have gotten, i thought first it was a zero too short. I reacted emotionally that a SF award should give more to emerging authors. Most awards here are for non-genre and not for SF,other genre awards. Not like its better here.