Otherwise Award

The Otherwise Award, originally known as the James Tiptree Jr. Award, is an American annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender. It was initiated in February 1991 by science fiction authors Pat Murphy and Karen Joy Fowler, subsequent to a discussion at WisCon.

In addition to the award itself, the judges publish an Honor List, which they describe as "a strong part of the award's identity", "used by many readers as a recommended reading list".<ref name="Tiptree 2016">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2024, the award administrators announced that they would be switching from a single winner each year to a shortlist of three to six winners.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The award was originally named for Alice B. Sheldon, who wrote under the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. Due to controversy over the appropriateness of naming an award after Tiptree, the committee administering the award announced on October 13, 2019, that the award would be renamed the Otherwise Award.<ref name=":0" />

Background

Choice of the Tiptree name

By choosing a masculine nom de plume, having her stories accepted under that name and winning awards with them, Alice Sheldon helped demonstrate that the division between male and female science fiction writing was illusory. Years after "Tiptree" first published science fiction, Sheldon wrote some work under the female pen name "Raccoona Sheldon"; later, the science fiction world discovered that "Tiptree" had been female all along. This discovery led to widespread discussion over which aspects of writing, if any, have an intrinsic gender. To remind audiences of the role gender plays in both reading and writing, the award was named in Sheldon's honor at the suggestion of Karen Joy Fowler.

Controversy and name change

In 2019, controversy arose over the appropriateness of naming an award after Tiptree. In 1987, Alice Sheldon shot and killed her ailing husband Huntington Sheldon before killing herself in the same manner. Although some have called the killing a "suicide pact" based on Sheldon's personal writings, others characterize the act as "caregiver murder"—i.e., the murder of a disabled person by the person responsible for caring for them. In light of these allegations, the Tiptree Motherboard received requests to change the name of the award. On September 2, 2019, in response to these requests, the Motherboard made a statement that "a change to the name of the Tiptree Award is [not] warranted now"; but nine days later, on September 11, they announced that the award "can't go on under its existing name".<ref name="sep2019">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On October 13, 2019, the Tiptree Motherboard released an announcement stating that the Tiptree Award would become the Otherwise Award. The name refers to "the act of imagining gender otherwise" at the core of what the award has always honored, as well as being "wise to the experience of being the other". The title also draws from the Black queer scholarship of Ashon Crawley around what is termed "otherwise politics".<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to the statement, "Otherwise means finding different directions to move in—toward newly possible places, by means of emergent and multiple pathways and methods."<ref name=":0" />

Administration

The Tiptree award is administered by the Tiptree "Motherboard".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Fundraising efforts for the Tiptree include publications (two cookbooks), "feminist bake sales", and auctions. The Tiptree cookbook The Bakery Men Don't See, edited by WisCon co-founder Jeanne Gomoll, was nominated for a 1992 Hugo Award. Tiptree Award juries traditionally consist of four female and one male juror (the "token man").<ref>Merrick, Helen. The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms Template:ISBN Seattle: Aqueduct Press, 2009; pp. 172–176</ref>

In 2011, the Tiptree Motherboard received the Science Fiction Research Association's Thomas D. Clareson Award for Distinguished Service for its "outstanding service activities – promotion of SF teaching and study, editing, reviewing, editorial writing, publishing, organizing meetings, mentoring, and leadership in SF/fantasy organizations".<ref>"Tiptree Motherboard Receives Clareson Award" Template:Webarchive Locus Online August 29, 2011</ref>

Anthologies

Selections of the winners, various short-listed fiction, and essays have appeared in four Tiptree-related collections, Flying Cups and Saucers (1999) and a series of annual anthologies published by Tachyon Publications of San Francisco. These include:

• Flying Cups and Saucers: Gender Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by The Secret Feminist Cabal and Debbie Notkin (1999)
• The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1 edited by Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, and Jeffrey D. Smith (2005)
• The James Tiptree Award Anthology 2 edited by Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, and Jeffrey D. Smith (2006)
• The James Tiptree Award Anthology 3 edited by Karen Joy Fowler, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, and Jeffrey D. Smith (2007)

Winners

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Year	Author(s)	Work	Publisher	Ref.
1991	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	William Morrow
	Template:Sort	White Queen	Victor Gollancz Ltd
1992	Template:Sort	China Mountain Zhang	Tor
1993	Template:Sort	Ammonite	Del Rey Books
1994	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Broken Mirrors Press
	Template:Sort	Larque on the Wing	AvoNova
1995	Template:Sort	Waking the Moon	HarperPrism
	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Random House
	Template:Sort	Motherlines	Berkeley-Putnam
	Template:Sort	Walk to the End of the World	Ballantine
	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Walker & Co.
	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Bantam Books
	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Doubleday
1996	Template:Sort	Template:Sort
	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Random House
1997	Template:Sort	Black Wine	Tor
	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Small Beer Press
1998	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Tor
1999	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Tor
2000	Template:Sort	Wild Life	Simon & Schuster
2001	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Red Deer Press
2002	Template:Sort	Light	Victor Gollancz Ltd
	Template:Sort	Template:Sort
2003	Template:Sort	Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls	HarperCollins
2004	Template:Sort	Camouflage	Ace
	Template:Sort	Not Before Sundown (Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi) Published in the United States as Troll – a love story	Peter Owen Publishers
2005	Template:Sort	Air	St. Martin's Griffin
2006	Template:Sort	Half Life	HarperCollins
	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Spectra Books
	Template:Sort	James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon	St. Martin's Press
2007	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Faber and Faber (UK 2007); HarperCollins (US 2008)
2008	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Walker & Co. (UK); Candlewick Press (US)	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort	Filter House	Aqueduct Press	<ref name=":1" />
2009	Template:Sort	Cloud and Ashes: Three Winter's Tales	Small Beer Press
	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Hakusensha (Japan); VIZ Media (English-speaking world)
2010	Template:Sort	Baba Yaga Laid an Egg	Canongate Books	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2011	Template:Sort	Redwood and Wildfire	Aqueduct Press	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2012	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Roc Books	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort	Ancient, Ancient	Aqueduct Press	<ref name=":2" />
2013	Template:Sort	Rupetta	Tartarus Press
2014	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Penguin Random House	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort	My Real Children	Tor	<ref name=":3" />
2015	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Dell Magazines	<ref name="Tiptree 2016" />
	Template:Sort	Lizard Radio	Candlewick Press	<ref name="Tiptree 2016" />
2016	Template:Sort	When the Moon Was Ours	Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin's Griffin	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2017	Template:Sort	Who Runs the World?	Macmillan	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2018	Template:Sort	Template:Sort	Latin American Literature Today	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2019	Template:Sort	Freshwater	Grove Press	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2020	Template:Sortname	Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon	Aurelia Leo	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2021	Template:Sort	Light from Uncommon Stars	Tor Books	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort	Sorrowland	MCD Books	<ref name="Otherwise 2021" /><ref name=":4" />
2022	On hold			citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2023	On hold			citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2024	Template:Sort	In Universes	HarperCollins	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Template:Sort	"Kiss of Life"	FIYAH	<ref name=":5" />
	Template:Sort	Rakesfall	Macmillan	<ref name=":5" />
	Template:Sort	Walking Practice	HarperCollins	<ref name=":5" />

See also

• Gender in speculative fiction
• Sense of Gender Awards
• Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction
• Women in speculative fiction
• Women science fiction authors

External links

• Template:Official