Silvia Moreno-Garcia among winners for Aurora Awards, celebrating Canadian science fiction & fantasy writing
Vicky Qiao | | Posted: October 26, 2021 3:46 PM | Last Updated: October 26, 2021
Mexican Gothic by B.C. writer Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of the winners of the 2021 Aurora Awards, which recognize the best in Canadian science fiction and fantasy books.
Mexican Gothic won the best novel category.
Mexican Gothic revolves around protagonist Noemí Taboada, who heads into a distant house in the Mexican countryside after receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin. With a mission to save her cousin from a mysterious room, Noemí digs deep into a family's dark past and unearths stories of violence and madness.
Born and raised in Mexico, Moreno-Garcia is also the author of novels Signal to Noise, Gods of Jade and Shadow, Untamed Shore, The Beautiful Ones and her latest, Velvet was the Night.
LISTEN | Silvia Moreno-Garcia discusses Mexican Gothic:
In an interview with Shelagh Rogers on The Next Chapter, Moreno-Garcia shared some of the inspirations behind Mexican Gothic, including the subversive horror films of Carlos Enrique Taboada.
"[Taboada's films] depart from this base of exoticism that is often demanded of [Mexican artists]... It was the possibility that you could do gothic in Mexico and that you didn't have to do it in a pastiche way, where you had to cram it with Day of the Dead imagery," Moreno-Garcia said in her interview.
"I also took some stuff from my family and also from just the time period [of the 1950s]. I was looking at what it might have been like to be a young woman of a certain means."
Moreno-Garcia's novel is one of 11 works to win a 2021 Aurora Award. You can find the full list of winners below.
- Best novel: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Best YA novel: Flights of Marigold by Susan Forest
- Best novelette/novella: Tool Use by the Humans of Danzhai County by Derek Künsken
- Best short story: All Cats Go to Valhalla by Chadwick Ginther
- Best graphic novel/comic: It Never Rains by Kari Maaren
- Best related work: On Spec, edited by Diane L. Walton
- Best poem/song: Nidhog by Jo Walton
- Best artist: Samantha M. Beiko, cover for Flights of the Marigold
- Best visual presentation: The Umbrella Academy
- Best fan writing & publications: Polar Borealis #13-16, edited by R. Graeme Cameron
- Best fan related work: When Words Collide, chaired by Randy McCharles
Established in 1980, the Aurora Awards are supported by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. The winners are nominated and voted by members across Canada.
Last year's winners included Julie E. Czerneda, Susan Forest and S.M. Beiko.