Sri Lankan science fiction author Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and his writing partner Ronnie Virdi have been nominated for the 2018 Nebula Award.
One of the major honours within the science fiction and fantasy field, The Nebula Awards are an annual award handed out by the SFWA – The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
The Award honours the best writing in science fiction and fantasy novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories, as well as film, television, music, and young adult storytelling. This year also marks the first year that game writing will be honoured, which includes a broad list of works, including the interactive installment of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, God of War, and Rent-a-Vice.
Messenger by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and R.R. Virdi (Expanding Universe, Volume 4) has been nominated under the Novelette category.
“Given that it’s the golden age of fan fiction, it’s an absolute privilege to have been identified and nominated by a prestigious awards ceremony such as The Nebular Awards. The awards are judged by a jury of judges who have been in the industry for 20-30 years so even to be nominated for it means a great deal for me especially, because I’ve been doing this for around a year and a half,” said Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, speaking to The Sunday Morning.
“The story, ‘Messenger’ is written in collaboration with my partner Ronnie Virdi and is the start of a much larger series. He and I started around the same time and we share the same love for anime. We were basically tired of seeing the same old fan fiction stories that involved the usual aliens, hence why we thought of incorporating a streak of anime to it. So being from Sri Lanka, to be recognised by prestigious institute is a great honour,” he added.
The winners will be announced on May 18 at this year’s Nebula conference, which will be held from May 16–19 in Los Angeles, California.
For the complete list of nominations visit www.theverge.com
