The Cordwainer Smith Foundation was begun in 2001:

• to promote the celebration and study of the works of Cordwainer Smith (through the Cordwainer Smith awards, this website and its associated ezine, and other projects)
• to promote the understanding of the life of Paul M.A. Linebarger
• to keep alive the high ideals which are at the core of Cordwainer Smith's work.

At present the Cordwainer Smith Foundation is not a 501(C)3 non-profit foundation; in other words, we can't offer tax-deductible status for donations. We may apply for this status in the future, especially if significant donations are a possibility.

Officers of the Foundation include Smith's daughters, scholar Alan Elms, and consultant Ralph Benko.

The Awards

The first annual Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award was presented on Sunday, September 2, 2001, at the 59th World Science Fiction Convention, "Philcon," in Philadelphia, PA. Noted science fiction author Robert Silverberg presented the Award on behalf of the Cordwainer Smith Awards Committee and the Cordwainer Smith Foundation, during the evening of the Hugo awards. It was given to Olaf Stapledon.

See the menu on this site for pages on subsequent awards.

"The Cordwainer," as the award has been nicknamed, will go each year to a science fiction or fantasy writer whose work displays unusual originality, embodies the spirit of Cordwainer Smith's fiction, and deserves renewed attention or 'Rediscovery.'

Jurors for the award are four of the most distinguished and encyclopedic minds in contemporary science fiction, all Hugo winners themselves: Robert Silverberg, Gardner Dozois, John Clute, and Scott Edelman. They were free to choose any writer, living or dead, for the Award.