Lem tribute nominated for literary award

Stanislaw Lem

“Stanlemian,” by Wojciech Orlinski, is a humorous short story that explains why the writer of Solaris and The Cyberiad was in fact Polish and not Russian.

The question of Lem's identity has indeed given rise to bizarre claims in the past. In 1973, American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick wrote a letter to the FBI suggesting that “Lem is probably a composite committee rather than an individual, since he writes in several styles,” alleging that the author was a product of “an Iron Curtain Party group.”

“Stanlemian,” which was translated by Danusia Stok, was published last year in a critically acclaimed collection of essays and short stories entitled Lemistry: A Celebration of the Work of Stanislaw Lem.

Meanwhile, a short story entitled “Spellmaker” by acclaimed Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski has also been nominated in the awards, in this instance translated by Michael Kandel, himself a noted translator of Lem's works.

The story was published in the recent collection A Polish Book of Monsters.

Both nominees are competing in a section for short works, while there is a separate section for novels.

Professor Gary K. Wolfe, President of US-based Association of Recognition of Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation, believes that the jury will have a tough time singling out the winners in both categories.

“I think this list proves that once you start looking for it, the diversity and quality of translated science fiction and fantasy are considerably greater than most of us had suspected, and I hope the nominations list calls attention to works too often overlooked by the usual awards processes,” he said in a statement.

The overall winners will be announced during Finncon, an international science fiction and fantasy convention in the Finnish city of Tampere on the 21 July. (nh)