Beginning with the 2026 conference, the journal Science Fiction Studies (SFS) will sponsor a prize for best paper by a graduate student given at the Speculative Fiction Across Media (SFAM) conference.
To be eligible, nominees must be graduate students in good standing in any accredited academic program, and they must attend the conference to present their work. Members of the SFS Advisory Board will adjudicate the conference-length papers. All nominations should be sent to executivedirector@sfamla.org the day the SFAM conference concludes (for 2026, this is October 24), ideally with the paper attached. Any attendees of SFAM may nominate a paper for consideration and self-nominations are accepted. For nominations without the paper attached, the SFAM Board will contact the nominee to request a copy of the paper, which must be received within 5 days of notification for the essay to be considered.
The prize includes a $200 award and a commitment by SFS to consider an article-length version of the paper for publication. The paper must successfully pass through external review processes, but the SFS editors commit to working with the author through the revision process both before and after external review with the aim of producing a publishable paper.