One week left to vote for the 2012 Ursa Major Awards; 2013 Recommended Anthropomorphic List now open

Voting for the 2012 Ursa Major Awards, for the best anthropomorphic literature and art of the calendar year 2012 in eleven categories, closes on May 15. If you have not voted yet, you have a week left to do so on the Ursa Major Awards website.

In addition, the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association has closed the 2012 Recommended Anthropomorphic Reading List. Recommendations for the 2013 Reading List are now being accepted.

All fans are invited to recommend worthwhile anthropomorphic works in eleven categories (motion pictures, short fiction, dramatic short films or broadcasts, novels, other literary works, magazines, graphic stories, comic strips, published illustrations, games, and websites) first published during 2013, plus miscellaneous items. This List is often used by fans to nominate in the next year's Awards.

The Ursa Major Award finalists for 2012 are . . .

Best Motion Picture

Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

• Brave (Directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell, June 22)
• Ice Age: Continental Drift (Directed by Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier, July 13)
• Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (Directed by Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath, and Conrad Vernon, June 8)
• Rise of the Guardians (Directed by Peter Ramsey, November 21)
• Ted (Directed by Seth MacFarlane, June 29)

Best Dramatic Series or Short Work

TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.

• Crayon Dragon (Directed by Toniko Pantoja at the California Institute of the Arts, May 30)
• My Little Brony: Friendship Is Tragic (Collegehumor.com, Contributing Staff: Director Amir Cohen, February 28)
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by Jayson Thiessen and James Wootton, January 7 (s. 2, ep. 12) to December 29 (s. 3, ep. 10))
• Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos (Directed by Raman Hui, Produced by Dreamworks, on the Puss in Boots DVD, February 24)
• Simon's Cat (Directed by Simon Tofield, January 17 to December 7)

Best Novel

Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.

• Flight of the Godkin Griffin, by M.C.A. Hogarth (Sofawolf Press, June 18) [review]
• Flight of the Star Phoenix, by Bernard Doove (CreateSpace, November 7) [review]
• Freedom City, by Phil Geusz (FurPlanet Productions, February 24) [review]
• The Prince of Knaves, by Alflor Aalto (Rabbit Valley, March) [Mature Audiences; review]
• Sarin Barneby and All of the King's Jewels, by Alflor Aalto (Internet, June)

Best Short Fiction

Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.

• Dangerous Jade, by Malcolm Cross (FurPlanet Productions, January 12) [Mature Audiences; review]
• Hot Chocolate for the Unicorn, by Mary E. Lowd (in Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, issue 6)
• Magtwilla and the Mouse, by Mary E. Lowd (in Allasso, volume 2: Saudade [review], April 29)
• One Night in Nocturnia, by Mary E. Lowd (in Tails of a Clockwork World: A Rainfurrest Anthology [review], September)
• Shreddy and the Christmas Ghost, by Mary E. Lowd (in Anthropomorphic Dreams Podcast, episode 049, December)
• St. Kalwain and the Lady Uta, by Mary E. Lowd (in ROAR 4 [review], June 14)

Best Other Literary Work

Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.

• Housepets! (Book 3) Can Be Real Ladykillers!, by Rick Griffin (CreateSpace, collected webcomic, August 16) [review]
• Slightly Damned, Book One, by Sarah "Chu" Wilson (Ka-Blam, collected webcomic, July 30)
• The Streets of His City, and Other Stories, by Alflor Aalto (Rabbit Valley, short story collection, September 9) [wiki]
• The Ursa Major Awards Anthology, edited by Fred Patten (FurPlanet Productions, short story anthology, June 14) [reviews: 1 - 2 - 3]
• The Werewolf Calendar, 2012, by multiple artists (The Werewolf Calendar, calendar, 2012)

Best Graphic Story

Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.

• Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, by Amber M. Williams (Internet strips from #1274 to #1365)
• Furthia High, by QuetzaDrake (Internet strips from #281, January 2, to #321, December 18)
• Lackadaisy, by Tracy Butler (Internet strips, January 24 (Lackadaisy Brimstone) to 16 August (Lackadaisy Coercion))
• Slightly Damned, by Sarah "Chu" Wilson (Internet strips, #479, January 4, to #563, December 15)
• Twokinds, by Tom Fischbach (Internet strips from #641, January 4, to #705, December 25)

Best Comic Strip

Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.

• Faux Pas, by Robert and Margaret Carspecken (Internet strips from #1387 to #1505)
• Freefall, by Mark Stanley (Internet strips from #2133, January 2 to #2292, December 31)
• Housepets!, by Rick Griffin (Internet strips from January 2 to December 31)
• Precocious, by Christopher J. Paulsen (Internet strips from #1029 to #1394)
• Sandra and Woo, by Powree and Oliver Knörzer (Internet strips from #338, January 3 to #442, December 31)

Best Magazine

Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.

• Allasso, edited by Brian Lee Cook (Internet, also Createspace, Volume 2: Saudade, April 29)
• Anthro Dreams, edited by Will A. Sanborn (Internet podcast, Anthropomorphic Dreams Publishing)
• Flayrah, edited by Laurence "GreenReaper" Parry (Internet from January 1 to December 31) [staff]
• Fuzzy Logic (Internet podcast, Episode 29 to 70) [staff]
• Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe, edited by Gene Breshears (Issue 50, September) [staff]

Best Published Illustration

Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.

• Beth Sabretoothed Ermine, cover of Winter Games by Kyell Gold (FurPlanet Publications, September 27)
• Blotch, back cover of the MiDFur 2012 convention book (December 4)
• Dark Natasha, front cover of the MiDFur 2012 convention book (December 4)
• Henrieke Goorhuis, wraparound cover of the EuroFurence XVIII convention book (August 29)
• Kacey Miyagami, wraparound cover of Flight of the Star Phoenix by Bernard Doove (CreateSpace, November 7)
• Rukis, wraparound cover of Green Fairy by Kyell Gold (Sofawolf Press, March 15)

Best Game

Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.

• Dust: An Elysian Tail (Developer: Dean Dodrill/Humble Hearts; Publisher: Microsoft Studios, August 15)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Dawnguard (Developer and Publisher: Bethesda Softworks, August 2)
• Nordguard: The Card Game (Developed by Tess Garman & Teagan Gavet for Sofawolf Press, June 14)
• Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 (Developer: Game Freak; Publishers: Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, October 7)
• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (Developer and Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment, September 25)

Best Website

Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.

• [adjective][species] (about exploring furry fandom) [staff]
• Fur Affinity (Furry art and story community) [staff]
• Inkbunny (Furry art and story community) [staff]
• SoFurry (Furry art and story community) [staff]
• WikiFur (Furry encyclopedia) [staff]

Don’t miss this chance to vote for your favorites. The winners will be announced at a presentation ceremony at Anthrocon 2013, on July 4-7, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center at 1000 Fort Duquesne Boulevard, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222.

If you have seen anything that you liked during 2013 so far, be sure to recommend it.