Kessel Wins Nebula Award

As a fledgling science fiction author in the early 1980s, John Kessel got a boost when he won the prestigious Nebula Award for science fiction and fantasy writing. Twenty-six years and eight nominations later, the NC State English professor has done it again, taking home one of the most highly esteemed awards a science fiction author can receive.

Kessel won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette for Pride and Prometheus, a tale involving characters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. “It’s a story about the difficulty of finding the proper mate,” Kessel says, “and how initial impressions are not always the most trustworthy.” The award was presented April 25 in Los Angeles.

“I have achieved overnight success,” Kessel says. “I believe I now hold the record, 26 years, for the length of time between winning my first Nebula and my second.” He won his first Nebula for the novella Another Orphan, in 1982.The Nebula Awards are given to the best science fiction and fantasy novel, novella, novelette and short story, as voted on by active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.

Kessel has also found success as a mentor to aspiring writers at NC State, where he teaches American literature and fiction writing. One of his students, Josh Eure, won this year’s highly coveted Dell Magazines Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (formerly the Isaac Asimov Award).