Compton Crook Award (1983-2010)

Nominees for the 2010 Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award, voted on by members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society and honoring the best first novel in science fiction, fantasy or horror, are:
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Dying Bites by D.D. Barant
Soulless by Gail Carriger and Johannes Cabal
The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

The winner receive $1,000, a plaque and will be invited to Balticon, the Maryland Regional Science Fiction Convention, May 28–31.

2009
Paul Melko has won the 2009 Compton Crook Award, also known as the Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award, for his novel, Singularity's Ring (Tor). Voted by the membership of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, the award honors the best novel of the year by a first-time novelist and carries a $1,000 prize.

Melko receives the award this evening at the opening ceremony of Balticon, aka the Maryland Regional Science Fiction Convention, sponsored by the Society.

The Compton Crook Award is presented to the best first novel of the year written by a single author: collaborations are not eligible: in the field of Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror by the members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, Inc., at their annual Baltimore-area science fiction convention, Balticon, held on Memorial Day weekend in the Baltimore, MD area each year.

This prize, named after a Towson State College Professor of Natural Science named Compton Crook, who wrote under the name Stephen Tall, and who died in 1981, was first awarded in 1983 for a work published in 1982.

Previous Winners:
* 2009 - Paul Melko, Singularity’s Ring
* 2008 - Mark L. Van Name, One Jump Ahead
* 2007 - Naomi Novik, His Majesty's Dragon
* 2006 - Maria V. Snyder, Poison Study
* 2005 - Tamara Siler Jones, Ghosts in the Snow
* 2004 - E. E. Knight, Way of the Wolf
* 2003 - Patricia Bray, Devlin's Luck
* 2002 - Wen Spencer, Alien Taste
* 2001 - Syne Mitchell, Murphy's Gambit
* 2000 - Stephen L. Burns, Flesh and Silver
* 1999 - James Stoddard, The High House
* 1998 - Katie Waitman, The Merro Tree
* 1997 - Richard Garfinkle, Celestial Matters
* 1996 - Daniel Graham Jr., The Gatekeepers
* 1995 - Doranna Durgin, Dun Lady's Jess
* 1994 - Mary Rosenblum, The Drylands
* 1993 - Holly Lisle, Fire in the Mist
* 1992 - Carol Severance, Reefsong
* 1991 - Michael Flynn, In the Country of the Blind
* 1990 - Josepha Sherman, The Shining Falcon
* 1989 - Elizabeth Moon, Sheepfarmer's Daughter
* 1988 - Christopher Hinz, Liege-Killer
* 1987 - Thomas Wren Doomsday Effect
* 1986 - Sheila Finch, Infinity's Web
* 1985 - David R. Palmer, Emergence
* 1984 - Christopher Rowley, War For Eternity
* 1983 - Donald Kingsbury, Courtship Rite