Endeavour Award

For the Australian scholarship programme, see Endeavour Awards.

The Endeavour Award, announced annually at OryCon in Portland, Oregon, is awarded to a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by an author or authors from the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, British Columbia, The Yukon, and Alaska) and published in the previous year.^[1]

Annual presentation of the Endeavour Award is in November at OryCon for books published during the previous year.^[2]

OryCon

OryCon is an annual science fiction/fantasy convention, held annually in Portland, Oregon since 1979. OryCon's parent organization, Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. ("OSFCI") has announced plans to end support for the event after OryCon 45, to be held in October 2025.^[3]

On November 11, 1978, the Portland Science Fiction Society and Portland State University English department presented a one-day, seven-hour "Science Fiction Symposium" at the Smith Memorial Student Union.^[4] The organizers later established OSFCI, and presented the first OryCon the following year.^[5]

The convention canceled its 2020 event due to COVID-19 restrictions, returning in 2021, and declared a "hiatus" for future events, citing staff burnout and the challenges of pandemic-era planning.^[6] 2022 instead featured a free "Or-E-Con 2" virtual conference.^[7]

Award history

The Endeavour Award, named for HM Bark Endeavour, the ship of Northwest explorer Captain James Cook, was first presented in 1999.

It was funded by a collaboration of Portland, Oregon area writers and readers of science fiction and fantasy in 1996 and chartered by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI) tax-exempt non-profit corporation.

2020 Endeavour Award

Matt Hughes became the first Canadian winner of the Endeavour Award, for his 2019 slipstream historical novel What the Wind Brings.^[8]

2021 Endeavour Award

The Endeavour Award committee announced suspension of the 2021 Endeavour Award for books published in 2020, citing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.^[9] The award was revisited and a winner announced at Norwescon 45, held in SeaTac, Washington, on April 6–9, 2023.^[10]

2022 Endeavour Award

The 2022 Endeavour Award was announced at OryCon 43, held in Portland, Oregon, November 10–12, 2023.^[11]

Past winners

#	Year	Title	Author	Ref[2]
24	2022	The Bone Orchard	Sara A. Mueller	[11]
23	2021	How to Get to Apocalypse	Erica L. Satifka	[10]
22	2020 (tie)	What the Wind Brings The Witch's Kind	Matthew Hughes Louisa Morgan	[12]
21	2019	Blood Orbit	K. R. Richardson	[13]
20	2018	The Cold Eye	Laura Anne Gilman	[14]
19	2017 (tie)	Dreams of Distant Shores Lovecraft Country	Patricia A. McKillip Matt Ruff	[15]
18	2016	Edge of Dark	Brenda Cooper	[16]
17	2015	Last Plane to Heaven	Jay Lake	[17]
16	2014 (tie)	Nexus	Ramez Naam	[18][19]
		Requiem	Ken Scholes
15	2013	Goodbye For Now	Laurie Frankel	[19]
14	2012	City of Ruins	Kristine Kathryn Rusch	[19]
13	2011	Dreadnought	Cherie Priest	[20]
12	2010	Mind Over Ship	David Marusek	[21]
11	2009	Space Magic	David D. Levine	[22]
10	2008	The Silver Ship and the Sea	Brenda Cooper	[19][2]
9	2007	Forest Mage	Robin Hobb
8	2006	Anywhere but Here	Jerry Oltion
7	2005	The Child Goddess	Louise Marley
6	2004	Red Thunder	John Varley
5	2003 (tie)	The Disappeared Lion's Blood	Kristine Kathryn Rusch Steven Barnes
4	2002	Tales from Earthsea	Ursula K. Le Guin
3	2001 (tie)	The Telling	Ursula K. Le Guin	[23]
		The Glass Harmonica	Louise Marley
2	2000	Darwin's Radio	Greg Bear	[24]
1	1999	Dinosaur Summer	Greg Bear	[25]