Bradbury Award for B5

[B5JMS Poster]

Forwarded message to B5JMS list.
Originally From: mab at world.std.com (Michael A Burstein)

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SFWA To Give Bradbury Award to Babylon 5's J. Michael Straczynski

April 10 1999

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America President
Paul Levinson announced today that the authors'
organization would be awarding the Ray Bradbury
Award for Dramatic Screenwriting to J. Michael Straczynski
for his work on Babylon 5.

The award -- given at the SFWA President's discretion --
was last presented in 1992 by then SFWA President
Ben Bova to James Cameron, for his writing of Terminator 2.
Bova was the originator of the award, and Cameron was
its sole recipient until now.

"Science fiction has been leaping from the page to
the screen for the better part of this century," Levinson
observed.  "It's fitting that we give the Bradbury
Award to Joe Straczynski, whose extraordinary work on
Babylon 5 revolutionized science fiction on television in
the 1990s, much as Star Trek did in the 1960s."

Widely acknowledged as one of the most imaginative
and influential science fiction television shows in
years, Babylon 5 concluded its five-year first run
in 1998.  Straczynski conceived the series, and wrote
91 of its 110 episodes -- a tour de force in television
writing.  The entire series can now be seen again on
the TNT Cable Channel.

"The membership of SFWA voted overwhelmingly this past
Fall to reinstate the Dramatic Nebula Award," Levinson
noted.  "But eligibility for this award, chosen by
the membership, begins with work made available to the
public on January 1, 1999.  I thought it especially
appropriate, in these circumstances, to give the Bradbury
Award one more time. It signals to the world SFWA's deep
interest in dramatic media."

Straczynski will be coming to Pittsburgh on May 1 to
receive the Bradbury Award at the SFWA Annual Nebula
Banquet.  Hal Clement will receive SFWA's Grand Master
Award, William Tenn (Phil Klass) will receive SFWA's
Author Emeritus Award, and winners will be announced at
the same Nebula Awards banquet for best short story, novelette,
novella, and novel.  Tor editor David Hartwell will be guest
speaker, and Analog editor Stanley Schmidt will be toastmaster
at the ceremony.

Ray Bradbury, who gave his name to this award in 1992,
is himself a SFWA Grand Master, and no stranger to the screen,
small and large.  Movies have been made of his "Fahrenheit 451"
and "The Illustrated Man," and his "Martian Chronicles" was a
TV mini-series on NBC in 1979.  The story in that classic science
fiction narrative took place in 1999...

For more information, contact:
Dr. Paul Levinson
President, SFWA
phone: 914-428-8766
e-mail: President at sfwa.org

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