About CSFFA
CSFFA (Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association) is a Canadian registered non-profit society, https://www.csffa.ca/. The society manages annual awards, inductions to our Hall of Fame, and development grants for new writers. Membership to the society is open to all Canadian Citizens and Permanent Residence. Our board members are fans from across Canada, Board of Directors (names, photos, bios). Note: CSFFA is pronounced Kiss-Fa
Sign-up for our monthly newsletter at: https://www.csffa.ca/about/subscribe-to-our-newsletter/.
The Aurora Awards, https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/, are for excellence in the field of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. CSFFA’s members nominate and vote for works done by Canadians. The awards have been given out since 1980.
CSFFA Hall of Fame, https://www.csffa.ca/the-csffa-hall-of-fame/, inducts three nominees who have made great contributions to the genres. Each year a jury from across Canada chooses inductees from a list of candidates submitted to us by CSFFA members.
Interviews: For interviews about the Aurora Awards (Clifford Samuels) or for the Hall of Fame (David Clink) please contact Mickey Mikkelson at Creative Edge Publicity mickey.creativeedge@gmail.com / 403.464.6925.
Voting is open for the 2025 Aurora Awards
Voting is now open for this year’s Aurora Awards. CSFFA members have until 11:59pm EDT on July 19th, 2024, to submit their ballot. Members vote online using a ranked voting form. They rank all nominated works by order of preference, starting where “1” is their preferred candidate.
Voters’ Package: CSFFA members can download our voters’ package which contains e-versions of all nominated works. It’s there to help members make informed decisions when they vote. The voters’ package is only available until July 12th and has been provide by our nominees and their publishers. For more details: https://www.csffa.ca/2025/06/voting-is-open-for-the-2025-aurora-awards/.
Results of the vote will be presented during an online awards ceremony on Sunday August 10th starting at 5pm EDT. We will provide our YouTube and Facebook links in August on the CSFFA website.
CSFFA Hall of Fame
CSFFA is please to announce this year’s three inductees to our Hall of Fame. For more details about this year’s inductees, https://www.csffa.ca/the-csffa-hall-of-fame/latest-inductees/
Clint Budd
Clint has been involved in fandom for over 30 years. He was heavily involved with the Vancouver convention scene working on numerous VCONs and other fannish actives.
In the mid-2000’s Clint felt that the Aurora Awards were not getting the attention they deserved and with a group of like-minded friends from across Canada he created the awards society we have today. Clint arranged to have the society registered as a non-profit with the federal government as well as having a formal set of by-laws created.
Clint has been on the board of directors in a number of roles since the mid-2000’s. He inspired the CSFFA board to create the Hall of Fame award, incorporating the lifetime award winners. Clint managed the Hall of Fame jury for its first nine years and arranged to have a special trophy created to display all of the inductees.
Charles R. Saunders
Charles Robert Saunders (1946 – 2020) was a Black author and journalist and the founder of the “sword and soul” literary genre with his Imaro novels. During his long career, he wrote novels, non-fiction, screenplays, and radio plays.
Born in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, US, in 1946, he earned a psychology degree from Lincoln University. In 1969, when the US draft summoned him to fight in Vietnam, he instead moved to Ontario, Canada. The experience of exile led him to create Imaro, his hero of an alternative Africa called Nyumbani.
In 1985, Hal-Con invited Charles as a starring writer in their sci-fi and fantasy convention in Halifax. Charles quickly felt at home with the African Nova Scotian community and relocated to Halifax that same year.
His impact as a writer continues to grow after his death, as new generations discovers his work and find it to be life-changing.
Diane L. Walton
Diane L. Walton is one of the founding members of On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of Speculative Fiction. Since its beginnings in 1989 she’s been a driving force for the magazine. She has consistently adhered to the mandate that discovers and showcases quality works by predominantly Canadian writers and artists. She has been a mentor to the editors, helping them work together to foster the growth of emerging writers in speculative fiction by offering support and direction through constructive criticism, education, mentoring, and manuscript development.
Barb Galler-Smith (The Druids Saga, with Josh Langston) says: “She wrangles us all: editors, slush readers, copyeditors, artists, authors, subscriptions, layout artist, and distribution. She is so humble about the brilliant work she has been doing for many years. I believe she represents all the things good about Canadian science fiction.”
