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2008 Science Fiction Hall of Fame
12/05/2008 . Source: Jessica Martin 
EMP|SFM will hold its 2008 Science Fiction Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Those being honored this year are Betty and Ian Ballantine (Literature Category), William Gibson (Literature Category), Richard M. Powers (Art Category), and Rod Serling (Film, Television and Media Category.) The annual celebration starts at 8:00 p.m. in EMP|SFM’s Sky Church. Science fiction author Connie Willis will host the evening’s events.
Science fiction author, Jack Womack, will present the award to William Gibson, who is scheduled to be in attendance. David Hartwell, editor at Tor Books, will present Richard M. Powers’s award. Richard Gid Powers and family will accept the award on Powers’s behalf.
Author of The Twilight Zone Companion, Marc Scott Zicree, will present Rod Serling’s award. Anne Serling-Sutton, Serling’s daughter, will accept the award her father’s behalf.
As part of the induction, a display featuring personal artifacts and video footage from each inductee is added to the existing Hall of Fame exhibit. The inductees are featured in laser-etched images on the translucent, glowing Hall of Fame display.
Ian (1916-1995) and Betty (1919) Ballantine helped to form Bantam Books in 1945, and went on to launch Ballantine Books in 1952. Ballantine Books became known for simultaneously publishing books in hardcover and paperback, as well as being one of the earliest publishers of science fiction. In 1965, Ballantine printed the first authorized edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and in 1969 created the Adult Fantasy line, which reissued out-of-print fantasy works. Ian and Betty won two World Fantasy Awards, one in 1975 and 1984. Betty received a special Science Fiction Writers of America President’s Award in 2002 and a Special Committee Award from LACon IV in 2006.
Rod Serling (1924-1975) began writing scripts for television programs in 1951. His first major success was the script “Patterns,” written for Kraft Television Theater in 1955. Serling won an Emmy for Best Original Teleplay Writing for “Patterns” in 1956. In 1965, he wrote “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” for CBS’s Playhouse 90, and won an Emmy for Best Original Teleplay Writing and the first Peabody given for television writing. In 1959, CBS aired Serling’s best known work, “The Twilight Zone.” Over the course of its five seasons, The Twilight Zone won two Emmys for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama, and three Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation. In 1968, Serling co-wrote the screenplay for Planet of the Apes, and in 1970 NBC aired Serling’s final piece of television work, “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery,” which ran for three seasons. Two of his scripts from the show were nominated for Emmys.
William Gibson’s (1948) interest in science fiction began at an early age, but it was not until 1977 that he began writing. Gibson is noted for coining the term cyberspace in his 1982 short story Burning Chrome, which was published in Omni magazine. His debut novel in 1984, Neuromancer, popularized the term cyberspace, and is the most famous work of the early cyberpunk genre. Gibson won the Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel for Neuromancer, as well as the Phillip K. Dick Memorial Award. In 1990, another one of Gibson’s novels, The Difference Engine, became central to a subgenre of cyberpunk called steampunk. Two of his novels, Johnny Mnemonic, 1995, and New Rose Hotel, 1998, have been made into films. Gibson continues to write, and his most recent novel, Spook Country, was published last year.
Richard M. Powers (1921-1996) first began designing book covers in 1948, with a hardcover of Gulliver’s Travels for World Publishing Company. In 1950 he did his first hardcover science fiction work for Doubleday, which began his 20 years as Doubleday’s main cover artist. In 1953, Powers painted the cover of Star Science Fiction (BB#16) for Ballantine Books, and soon after became the unofficial art director for Ballantine Books. Powers’ covers were characterized by his abstract surrealist style, and influenced other science fiction artists to experiment with surrealism as well. Over the course of his career, Powers created over 1500 cover and interior illustrations, with more than 800 of those being in the science fiction genre.
Founded in 1996, the Hall of Fame was relocated from the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas to its permanent home at EMP|SFM in 2004. Induction nominations are submitted by EMP|SFM members. The final inductees are chosen by a panel of award-winning science fiction authors, artists, editors, publishers and film professionals.
Tickets go on sale May 12th 2008 for $40 to EMP|SFM members and May 15th 2008 for $50 to the general public.
More over at www.empsfm.org
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