The Washington Science Fiction Association (of DC, not the state) has announced a new award for original short fiction published by a small press. The award will be presented annually to a story of 20,000 words or fewer published by a "small press." Small Presses are defined as book publishers who release from 3 to 25 titles a year, or a periodical with fewer than 10,000 subscribers.

(I initially read the book publisher category as only including original books, which would have made the SFBC eligible -- we published four original books in 2006, but a lot more than that if you count reprints.)

I'm not entirely sure the world needs more awards, but good luck to WSFA with this one. It seems terribly narrowly focused, but there are a lot of good stories being published by small presses recently, so they should be able to find enough works that qualify.

[via Locus Online]