HUGO Awards for Beagle and Ellison

Source: StarTrek.com

Peter S. Beagle — writer of the Next Generation episode “Sarek” — won his first Hugo Award on Saturday during the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Anaheim. Beagle won in the category Best Novelette for his story “Two Hearts,” a follow-up to his most famous work, “The Last Unicorn.”

In addition, previous Hugo Award winner Harlan Ellison — writer of “The City on the Edge of Forever” (and author of a book detailing his side of the controversy surrounding that script) — was surprised with a special recognition during the Hugo ceremony right after his presentation of the Best Short Story award.

Master of ceremonies Connie Willis presented a plaque to him reading, “This award is to Harlan Ellison in celebration of 50 years as a professional author with thanks from the committee and members, 2006.”

In his impromptu acceptance speech, Ellison mentioned that this would probably be his last convention, after decades of being a fixture at Worldcon. He also revealed that he will make a cameo appearance in his episode of Masters of Science Fiction which completed filming earlier this month in Vancouver under the direction of Jonathan Frakes (related story). Ellison’s installment of the anthology series is called “The Discarded,” based on his 1959 story and adapted for TV by himself and Academy Award nominee Josh Olsen. The series is expected to premiere in January 2007 on ABC.