SF Crowsnest has the text of the speech given by the chair of the judges, Paul Billinger, at the award ceremonies prior to announcing the winner. We thought that FFO readers and contributors would find the judge's brief comments about the short list of contenders interesting. Flash Fiction Online announced the short list and winner, Ian R MacLeod, for Song of Time (PS Publishing), previously.

A bit of crowing for SF Crowsnest: one of the judges for the award was from their staff. Mr. Billinger is from the Serendip Foundation, the organization administering the award.

Since the speech is short, we'll give just one snippet, from Mr. Billinger's comments about the winner's novel:

Infused throughout is the love of music with some of the most evocative writing on the subject for many years. Coupled with rich, all too human characters, this subtle discourse on memory and identity is a novel to savour.