%title Coyotl Awards Speech

* About the Cóyotl awards
    * I am Madison Scott-Clary, and I'm this year's awards chair, and welcome to the 2020 Cóyotl Awards ceremony.
    * The awards have a long history having spanned over ten years. There are have been many works nominated in that time — 152 total.
    * 2020 is the first year a new category has been added to the awards since 2013. This year we added 'best other work'.
    * Only three authors have ever had two pieces up for votes in the same category during a single year: Sarina Dorie for Best Short Story in 2012, Renee Carter Hall for Best Short Story in 2013, and Alopex for Best Anthology in 2013.
    * Kyell Gold has had the most works nominated for Best Novel at six novels (eight if you count his works as Tim Susman).
    * Kyell also has been nominated for Best Novella the most times with five nominations but is closely followed by Frances Pauli with four nominations.
    * The authors most nominated for Best Short Story are Mary E. Lowd and Sparf tied at three stories.
    * The late Fred Patten has edited the most nominated anthologies for Best Anthology with a total of four.
    * Gre7g Luterman is the only author to win a Cóyotl Award, a Leo Literary Award, and an Ursa Major Award in a single year for the same work (Fair Trade in 2019).
    * Renee Carter Hall has won the most Cóyotl Awards with a grand total of four. She is also the only author to win two awards in a single year, which happened during the inaugural 2011 Cóyotl Awards.
* Best Short Story
    * Short stories are the heart of the furry writing world, it seems, and for good reason. It's nice to be able to tell something from start to finish in only a few thousand words, there's always a market for shorter works, and it's a good way to feel that sense of accomplishment when you finish.
    * There are many different venues for short stories. Anthologies fill the furry publishing world, podcasts and magazines continue to thrive, and SoFurry remains a bustling hub of furry writing.
    * Because of that, there were many, many submissions for short stories to the reading list this year, and even with the ability to nominate only three short stories, there were a wide variety to choose from in order to narrow it down for the ballot.
    * The nominees this year were:
        * "The Battler" by Cedric G! Bacon in *Even Furries Hate Nazis*
        * "Water" by Utunu in The Voice of Dog podcast
        * "Summer Strawberries" by Mary E Lowd in The Voice of Dog podcast
        * and "Nazis Should Never Be Normal" by Nathan Hopp in *Even Furries Hate Nazis*
    * This year, I'm pleased to announce that the Cóyotl Award for Best Short Story in 2020 goes to "Water" by Utunu, as appearing on The Voice of Dog podcast!
    * Utunu has been making video games since the early 90s, and currently works at BioWare. He likes gaming (especially boardgames and good old-fashioned pencil & paper gaming), African fauna, playing squash and proper football, commissioning artwork, languages and linguistics, writing, worldbuilding, commissioning more artwork, long sentences, and the Oxford comma. Unfortunately he has time for very few of these.
    * His writing has appeared in Heat #15, Civilized Beasts, and soon FANG #11., and find him on Fur Affinity and Twitter (@WildDogUtunu).
    * You can find his short story "Water" on The Voice of Dog podcast, available from many fine podcasting services, or on thevoice.dog
    * Tweet: `The winner of the 2020 Cóyotl Award for Best Short Story goes to "Water" by @WildDogUtunu as heard on The Voice of Dog, spearheaded by @khakidoggy - part 1: https://www.thevoice.dog/episode/water-by-utunu-part-1-of-2 part 2: https://www.thevoice.dog/episode/water-by-utunu-part-2-of-2 #CóyotlAwards`
* Best Anthology
    * I've already mentioned that anthologies play a huge role within the furry writing world. They offer one of the biggest paying markets for authors throughout the fandom, and the draw for submissions is alluring.
    * Publishers such as FurPlanet, Bound Tails, and Goal Publications all have plenty of different anthologies available, whether they are recurring series or one-off topical collections of short stories.
    * As paying markets, they also provide a great step on the path to membership in the Furry Writers' Guild.
    * The nominees for best anthology this year were:
        * Difursity: Stories by Furries of Color edited by Weasel
        * Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements Vol. 1 edited by K. C. Alpinus
        * Boldly Going Forward edited by Sean Gerace
        * and Even Furries Hate Nazis edited by Kate Watts
    * For the 2020 Cóyotl Award for Best Anthology, please give a round of applause for *Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements, Vol. 1*, edited by K. C. Alpinus and published by Goal Publications!
    * A young phoenix whose flame burns brightest while in the service of others. A kelpie who will lure you to a watery ride, though it might be your last. A dragon who sees the best in everyone except the one who matters most…In the start of a brand-new anthology series, you can find 11 tales of the impressive, the haunting, and the courageous. May the wondrous worlds and fantastic creatures contained with it cause your spirit to SOAR!
    * Kirisis “KC” Alpinus, the happy-go-lucky dhole with a penchant for peaches, tea, hummus, and Asian cuisine. A magna cum laude graduate of Tuskegee University, she’s a Political Scientist by day, and eclectic author of erotica and neo-noir by night. SoFurry & Furaffinity: Kiris Twitter: @Darheddol
    * Goal Publications was originally created in late 2015 to publish A Glimpse of Anthropomorphic Literature, a furry webzine that even today serves as a great starting point for readers new to furry literature.
    * You can find SOAR at goalpublications.com, baddogbooks.com, or many other fine retailers.
    * Tweet: `The winner of the 2020 Cóyotl Award for Best Anthology goes to Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements, Vol. 1, edited by @SwirlyTales and published by @goalpublication - https://www.goalpublications.com/store/p121/soar-one.html #CóyotlAwards`
* Best Other Work
    * For the first time, the Furry Writers' Guild is proud to announce an award for best other work, a new category in 2020.
    * Writing takes many forms beyond just words on a page, especially as technology makes other formats more and more attainable to independent authors. I am always fond of saying that authors should experience and learn from formats other than just books. It is a good way to round one's education.
    * Formats such as graphic novels help you understand how best to pair words with images in a delightfully evocative style. Formats like audiobooks and podcasts let your words be heard, broaden your audience, and perhaps even give new voices to your characters. Formats such as interactive fiction turn your readers into a participant, letting them experience more directly the lives and actions of your protagonist.
    * This year, the nominees for best other work were:
        * The Voice of Dog, a short-story podcast organized by Khaki
        * and Fox Spirit: A Two-Tailed Adventure, a work of interactive fiction by Amy Clair Fontaine
    * The winner of the 2020 Cóyotl Award for best other work goes to "The Voice of Dog"!
    * This podcast started soon after the COVID-19 pandemic began closing down vast swaths of the world as a way for readers to find new stories. With its focus on uplifting works, it has been a bright spot to my week, as well as for many others. Khaki and the other readers breathe life into works, taking on characters, and letting us read even when we're driving!
    * While the podcast is the work of many constituent authors and a good number of other readers, recognition must still be given to Khaki for spearheading this effort, with nearly 200 episodes now. Khaki is a retired writer, editor and publisher who once founded Bad Dog Books, FANG and ROAR, won an Ursa Major for writing Heathen City and who now embraces the furry fandom through story readings at The Voice Of Dog podcast and photography. Twitter: @khakidoggy
    * You can find the podcast at thevoice.dog
    * Tweet: `The winner of the 2020 Cóyotl Award for Best Other Work goes to The Voice of Dog, spearheaded by @khakidoggy - https://thevoice.dog #CóyotlAwards`
* Best Novella
    * Novellas, sitting at that comfortable spot between short story and novel, are a convenient way to explore more themes than a short story night while also providing room for a brisker read and a faster pace of completion. In those 20-50k words, the author has enough space to create a fully fledged story with a broader cast of characters, a firmer sense of structure, and a more involved plot.
    * With the growth of e-books, the novella has enjoyed something of a resurgence as a single longer work that might otherwise be too short on its own to be published in a paperback.
    * This year, the nominees for best novella are:
        * Rightful Salvage by Frances Pauli
        * What Makes a Witch by Linnea Capps
        * Dude, Where's My Pack? by Kyell Gold
        * and Soup of the Moment: A Tale of Barsk by Lawrence M. Schoen
    * I'm pleased to announce that the 2020 Cóyotl Award for best novella goes to Rightful Salvage by Frances Pauli.
    * A strange ship lands on Paris V, ten years after the plague world has been abandoned by all except one left behind General Labor android unit. All GL wants is to be free, but when the crew of the Sleuthstar discovers her stowed away on board, she's confronted by a trio of suspicious ursines and a very uncertain future. Can GL convince them to let her earn her passage? Can she find her place among the Sleuthstar's crew? At this point, she'd settle for not being thrown out of the airlock.
    * Frances writes furry novels and short stories and posts her work on social media under the name Mamma Bear. Her website is francespauli.com
    * You can find Rightful Salvage on goalpublications.com, baddogbooks.com, and many other fine retailers.
    * Tweet: `The winner of the 2020 Cóyotl Award for Best Novella goes to Rightful Salvage by @MothinDarkness published by @goalpublication - https://www.goalpublications.com/store/p122/rightful-salvage-paperback.html #CóyotlAwards`
* Best Novel
    * This brings us to our final award of the year, best novel.
    * Novels are a big undertaking for just about everyone. It takes a lot of time, energy, planning, and attention to detail to pull together a story that spans tens or hundreds of thousands of words.
    * This year, the nominees for best novel are:
        * Love Match (Book 3) by Kyell Gold
        * Ritual of the Ancients (Changing Bodies: Book 1) by Ian Madison Keller
        * Disbanded (Serpentia Book 1) by Frances Pauli
        * A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
    * The 2020 Cóyotl Award for best novel goes to A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher.
    * Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance. But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…
    * T. Kingfisher is the vaguely absurd pen-name of Ursula Vernon, an author from North Carolina. In another life, she writes children’s books and weird comics. She has been nominated for the World Fantasy and the Eisner, and has won the Hugo, Sequoyah, Nebula, Alfie, WSFA, Coyotl and Ursa Major awards, as well as a half-dozen Junior Library Guild selections. This is the name she uses when writing things for grown-ups. Her work includes multiple fairy-tale retellings and odd little stories about elves and goblins. When she is not writing, she is probably out in the garden, trying to make eye contact with butterflies.
    * You can find A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking on argyllproductions.com and from many other fine booksellers.
    * Tweet: `The winner of the 2020 Cóyotl Award for Best Novel goes to A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by @UrsulaV published by @argyllbooks - https://argyllproductions.com/product/a-wizards-guide-to-defensive-baking/ #CóyotlAwards`
* Wrapping up 
