The Kitschies

Just in case you don't already know, the Kitschies (sponsored by The Kraken Rum) are a set of annual awards that celebrate those books which best elevate the tone of genre literature - the most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works. Basically the titles that do the science fiction and fantasy community proud.

There are four judging categories: Red Tentacle (Novel), Golden Tentacle (Debut), Inky Tentacle (Cover) and the Black Tentacle (Discretionary). Winners receive a cash prize in addition to a lovingly hand-crafted Tentacle trophy, not to mention a bottle of The Kraken's fine ink-black liquid.

A record number of submissions have been received for the 2011 Kitschies - a total of 152 books from 38 different publishers. The finalists in each category will be announced tomorrow - Friday 13 January - and the winners will be announced on 3 February at the SFX Weekender, the UK's largest science fiction convention.

And there's only 19 hours to go until the shortlisted finalists are announced at 3.00pm tomorrow...