The Kitschies

Last night was the award ceremony for the Kitschies & I was lucky to attend. The Kitschies celebrate  - well I'll let Glen Mehn point to what they celebrate:



There were almost 200 books submitted to the award and the judges this year included Adam Roberts & Frances Hardinge. There were drinks consumed and friends greeted, new and old. All in all an excellent night. Many congratulations to all the winners & everyone on the shortlists.

There are 5 awards -

Red Tentacle

The Red Tentacle is awarded annually to the novel containing speculative or fantastic elements that best fulfills the criteria of intelligent, progressive and entertaining.

The winner of the Kitschies Red Tentacle for 2014 was Grasshopper Jungle, by Andrew Smith (Electric Monkey). Judge Kim Curran said, “We loved all the shortlist, and Grasshopper Jungle was, in the end, the novel with the biggest chance to actually blow a young person’s mind.”

The rest of the shortlist included:

• Lagoon, by Nnedi Okorafor (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Peripheral, by William Gibson (Viking)

• The Way Inn, by Will Wiles (4th Estate)

• The Race, by Nina Allan (NewCon Press)

• The Girl in the Road, by Monica Byrne (Blackfriars)

• Memory of Water, by Emmi Itäranta (HarperCollins)

• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers (Self-Published)

• The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara (Atlantic Books)

Golden Tentacle

The Golden Tentacle is awarded annually to the debut novel that best fits the criteria of progressive, intelligent and entertaining. The book must be the author’s first published work of novel-length fiction in any genre.

The Golden Tentacle went to Viper Wine, by Hermione Eyre (Jonathan Cape). The judges noted the audacity and craft of the novel.

The rest of the shortlist included:

• The Girl in the Road, by Monica Byrne (Blackfriars)
• Memory of Water, by Emmi Itäranta (HarperCollins)
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers (Self-Published)
• The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara (Atlantic Books)

The Inky Tentacle

The Inky Tentacle is awarded to the year’s finest cover art, as selected by a panel of visual arts experts from wide range of disciplines.

The Inky Tentacle for cover art went to Tigerman, cover by Glenn O’Neill (William Heinemann)

The rest of the shortlist included:

• The Ghost of the Mary Celeste, design by Steve Marking, lettering by Kimberly Glyder (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)
• A Man Lies Dreaming, cover by Ben Summers (Hodder and Stoughton)
• Through the Woods, cover by Emily Carroll and Sonja Chaghatzbanian (Faber and Faber)
• The Book of Strange New Things, cover by Rafaela Romaya and Yehring Tong (Canongate)

The Invisible Tentacle

The Invisible Tentacle is for progressive, intelligent and entertaining fiction that is natively digital.

The first-ever Invisible Tentacle went to Kentucky Route Zero, Act III, by Cardboard Computer.

The rest of the shortlist included:

• echovirus12, created/curated by Jeff Noon @jeffnoon, Ed @3dgriffiths, James Knight @badbadpoet, violet sprite @gadgetgreen, Richard Biddle @littledeaths68, Mina Polen @polen, Uel Aramchek @ThePatanoiac, Graham Walsh @t_i_s_u, Vapour Vox @Wrong_Triangle
• 80 Days, by Inkle Studios
• Sailor’s Dream, by Simogo

The Black Tentacle

The Black Tentacle is a special achievement award. It is handed out at the discretion of The Kitschies’ board, which is comprised of editors, authors, marketers and entrepreneurs.

The Black tentacle was won by Sarah Macintyre who sported a trademark hat as you can see in the photograph of Glen!

The award seems to go from strength to strength, looking forward to the 2015 runners already!