Starting in 2002, we added a new type of recognition: the Hall of Fame for Outstanding or Extraordinary Midsouth Fiction for authors who have a body of work that appeared in prior years.
Specifically, we decided to accept nominations for the Hall of Fame covering authors who have one (or more) published novel(s) and/or two (or more) published short stories or novellas and/or one movie or play available to the general public.
As with the Darrell Awards, either the work that leads to the nomination for the author must use the greater Memphis area as a significant setting and/or the author must be a resident of the greater Memphis area when the work appears.
In recognition of the outstanding service rendered to Midsouth fandom by Dalvan Coger, who passed away in 2002, we renamed the Darrell Award Hall of Fame as the Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award starting with 2003 inductees.
The big difference between the Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award and the Darrell Awards is that the Hall of Fame recognizes the author for a body of published work, whereas the Darrell Awards for Novel, Novella, Short Story, Young Adult Work and Other Media recognize the published work itself.
Also, an author can only be inducted into the Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame once, but can receive any one (or all five) of the Darrell Awards several times.
The Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame allows us to recognize outstanding authors who were overlooked previously, either because we simply did not know about their work or because they published before the Darrell Awards were instituted.
The first (and only) Darrell Award Hall of Fame Winner was Kathleen Ann Goonan, who was recognized in 2002.
The first Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award winner was Howard Waldrop (2003).
The second Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award winner was Dan Henderson (2004).
The third Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award winner was Michael Reisig (2005) .
The fourth Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award winner is Alan R. Rodgers. (2006).
The fifth Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award winner is E. E. Knight for his many works, including the Vampire Earth series, which began with Way of the Wolf (the 2004 Darrell Award Best Novel winner) and which is now up to several additional books, including Valentine’s Exile (and several more since). (2007)
The sixth Coger Memorial Hall of Fame inductee is Eric Flint, primarily for this River of War series, an alternate history series involving several well-known Tennessee characters and locations in Tennessee and Arkansas. (2008)
The seventh Coger Hall of Fame inductee is Nancy A. Collins, whose Sunglasses After Dark was set in Memphis and featured a character that was based on the much-beloved and dearly-missed late Memphis fan Claude Saxon. (2009)
The eighth Coger Hall of Fame inductee is Bryan Davis, a Memphis-area writer who had 3 multiple-book series of SF & F works in print when we discovered him. (2010)
The ninth Coger Hall of Fame inductee was Katherine Allred for her two comic space romances, Close Encounters and Close Contact. (2011)
The tenth Coger Hall of Fame inductee is Seanan McGuire (writing as Mira Grant) for Feed, a zombie apocalypse book with the Memphis Centers for Disease Control playing a pivotal role in the book. (2012)
The eleventh Coger Hall of Fame inductee is Justin Cronin for The Passage, a zombie apocalypse novel that opens in Memphis; and The Twelve, its sequel. (2013)
The twelfth Coger Hall of Fame inductee is Frank Tuttle for his several published collections of short stories (Wistril Compleat, Anthology 1: The Far Corners, and On the Road: Mallara and Burn), as well as his novella Passing the Narrows and other short stories published in many venues. (2014)
The thirteenth Coger Hall of Fame inductee is Jeff Crook for his body of work, including the sleeping and the dead. (2015)
The fourteenth Coger Hall of Fame inductee is A. Christopher Drown for his body of work, including many short stories published over several years. (2016)
The fifteenth Coger Hall of Fame inductee is Cinda Williams Chima for her body of work, including the Heir Chronicles series (2017).
The sixteenth Coger Hall of Fame inductee is Robin Burks for her trilogy of books: Zeus, Inc.; The Curse of Hekate; and The Return of the Titans. (2018)
The seventeenth Coger Memorial Hall of Fame inductee is Troy L. Wiggins for his body of work (including several published short stories) and for his role in founding Fiyah Lit Mag. (2019)
The eighteenth inductee is Rachel E. Carr for her Rules Undying series, which has 2 books that feature Memphis as a setting. (2020)
The nineteenth inductee into the Coger Memorial Hall of Fame (and 20th Hall of Fame winner) is Sheree Renée Thomas for her extraordinary contributions to literacy in so many ways (2022).
Please see her biography on the post where we announced her win.
Darrell Awards 