The Dragon Award is a new award created by Dragon Con show runners to recognize the best in science fiction and fantasy books, comics, games and films. It was introduced as part of the convention's 30th anniversary celebration.
It’s more than just a trophy, though. The Dragon Award is also meant to recognize fans, and their opinions. According to Pat Henry, president of Dragon Con Inc., “There are many awards programs across fandom, but too many of them limit voting to members or small groups of so-called experts. We believed that the voice of the fan was not being fully heard.”
The process was simple. Fans nominated their favorite novels, comics, TV shows, movies, and games. A list of finalists was then generated based on the number of nominations in each category. Finally, fans voted for the winners. If you did not get to participate this year, you can begin making nominations for the 2017 awards in October of 2016. There is no cost to participate. All you have to do is register with an email address. More details can be found at http://awards.dragoncon.org.
This year, the inaugural Dragon Awards were held on Sunday, September 4, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel with game designer, author, and historian Bill Fawcett acting as MC. Fawcett began the ceremony by pointing out that our first accomplishments as human beings were the ability to manipulate fire, and create language. As a result, he felt it was fitting that a symbol of fire would be given to reward entertaining and innovative language.
In addition to Henry and Fawcett, there were several presenters who read the various nominations, and announced the winners. Presenters included Programming Senior Director, Regina Kirby; Young Adult Literature Fan Track Operations Director, Bev Kodak; co-founder and author, David Cody; American author, editor and e-publisher, Eric Flint; and science-fiction/fantasy author, David Weber.
Overall, the ceremony was a success. The audience was not as full as expected, and not all of the nominees were able to attend. However, it was nice that their voices could still be heard when their acceptance speeches were read aloud in their absence. Everything was conducted and proceeded in a professional manner, and I am excited to see The Dragon Awards grow in the coming years.
The award categories and winners are listed on the following pages: