You would think it is impossible to top getting an Oscar, but Shaun Tan has managed it by winning the world's richest children's literature award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (worth 5m kroner or A$765,000).  As a comparison, the Man Booker International Prize is worth a mere A$93,620!  The decision to give him the award was anonymous.  The prize (like the Nobel prize) is given for a body of work.  (Who knows, the judges may have looked at the great work he did for Aurealis.)

The winners of this year's Aurealis Awards and the Peter McNamara Award will be announced in Sydney at the Aurealis Awards ceremony, sponsored by Harper Voyager, on the evening of Saturday the 21st of May. Details of the evening and a link to the online booking website are available at www.aurealisawards.com.  Early bird tickets are available for $29 per person until 16 April.  The venue's maximun seating capacity is 300, so make sure you don't miss out.  The night will begin with the HarperVoyager cocktail party at 6.30.  The after party (venue to be announced at the ceremony) will start at 10.00.  Dress is formal/cocktail.  Come and join us in a celebration of Australian speculative fiction.

SpecFaction NSW, organisers of the this year's Aurealis Awards have announced the finalists.  See http://www.aurealisawards.com/finalists2010.pdf.

Chimaera Publications congratulates Shaun Tan on winning the Academy Award for best animated short film with The Lost Thing.  We are proud to say Shaun's professional career started here, with his first cover for Aurealis in October 1990 for issue #2.  He went on to contribute covers, internal illustrations and graphics for a number of years, defining the look of Aurealis for over a decade.

The following Shaun Tan issues are still in stock (most limited): #2 (cover), #3 (cover), #4 (cover and internals, including one for the classic Michael Pryor story, "Softly They Go Feral in the Night"), #5 (all internals), #7 (cover and internals), #9 (internals), #10 (internals), #12 (cover and internals), #14 (internals), #15 (internals), #17 (cover and internals), #19 (internals) #22 (internals), #23 (internals), #25/26 (internals).  Issues #5 to #27/28 (October 2001) all featured internal graphics by Shaun Tan.

The following Shaun Tan issues are out of stock (with only 1 or 2 copies avalaible for bids from collectors): #6 (internals), #8 (internals), #11 (internals), #13 (cover and internals) and #20/21 (cover and internals).