Cronquist, Arthur C.

Cronquist, Arthur C., 1919-92, American systematic botanist. He was the author of two introductory botanical textbooks, with Henry Allan Gleason: The Natural Geography of Plants (1964) and the Manual of Vascular Plants of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada (1963, repr. 1991). Cronquist was one of the main authors of Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest (5 vol., 1955-69). He is best known for his system of classification of the flowering plants (1981).

This article describes the Arthur C. Clarke Award. For the awards that recognise British space achievement, see Sir Arthur Clarke Award.

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987. The book is chosen by a panel of judges from the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and a third organization, currently SF Crowsnest. It is now administered by the Serendip Foundation. The winner receives a prize consisting of a number of pounds sterling equal to the current year (£2008 for year 2008). In recent years, the award has been presented on the opening night of the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival.

List of winners

• 1987: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• 1988: The Sea and Summer by George Turner
• 1989: Unquenchable Fire by Rachel Pollack
• 1990: The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman
• 1991: Take Back Plenty by Colin Greenland
• 1992: Synners by Pat Cadigan
• 1993: Body of Glass by Marge Piercy (published as He, She and It in the U.S.)
• 1994: Vurt by Jeff Noon
• 1995: Fools by Pat Cadigan
• 1996: Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley
• 1997: The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh
• 1998: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
• 1999: Dreaming in Smoke by Tricia Sullivan
• 2000: Distraction by Bruce Sterling
• 2001: Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
• 2002: Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones
• 2003: The Separation by Christopher Priest
• 2004: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
• 2005: Iron Council by China Miéville
• 2006: Air by Geoff Ryman
• 2007: Nova Swing by M. John Harrison
• 2008: Black Man by Richard Morgan

2008 awards

The winner of the 2008 award, announced on 30 April, was Black Man by Richard Morgan (Victor Gollancz). The full shortlist was:

• The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter (Faber and Faber)
• The Red Men by Matthew de Abaitua (Snowbooks)
• The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall (Faber and Faber)
• The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall (Canongate Books)
• The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod (Orbit Books))
• Black Man by Richard Morgan (Victor Gollancz)

The judges for the 2008 Award were Pat Cadigan and Francis Spufford for the Science Fiction Foundation, Niall Harrison and Claire Weaver for the British Science Fiction Association, and Pauline Morgan for SF Crowsnest.

External links

• Official Arthur C. Clarke Award site
• Reviews of current and previous winners
• Interview with Tom Hunter, Administrator of the Arthur C. Clarke Awards
• Most honored Clarke Award nominees
• Listing of current and previous winners with excerpts and summaries