The voting for the 2012 Ursa Major Awards, for the best anthropomorphic literature and art of the calendar year 2012, is now closed. Voting took place from March 15 to May 15. 1,696 registrations were received, but only 1,113 people actually voted.

The winners will be announced at a presentation ceremony at Anthrocon 2013, held July 4–7, 2013 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The placing of the voting will be released at this time.

Registrations were received from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Grenada, Greece, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, the U.S.A., Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Vietnam. This includes the large number of registrants who did not in fact vote.

Voting for the Ursa Major Awards for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of 2012 is now open, and will continue until May 15. The winners will be announced at a presentation ceremony at Anthrocon 2013 in Pittsburgh, July 4-7.

Anyone may vote, and you are encouraged to ask your friends to vote also — please help to spread the word!

There are five nominees in each of eleven categories, except where there was a tie for fifth place. To be eligible, a work must have been released during the calendar year 2012; must include a non-human being given human attributes, which can be mental and/or physical; and must receive more than one nomination.

Read on for the nominees...

Manma-chan, mascot of variety talk show Sanma no Manma (hosted by Sanma Akashiya) documents his trip to Anthrocon 2012. [Imuhata via baracudaboy/furrymedia]

Manma doesn't quite get the reception he expects as the "world's most popular mascot", but everything works out in the end. (Bonus video: Manma's masquerade performance.)

Here's almost twenty minutes worth of video with 1044 fursuits from Anthrocon 2012.

Watched the whole thing? Pick out a couple of neat moments or original and cool suits and post them in the comments. — See more: Another view from the other side and :20 earlier.

Eric Risher has posted a trailer for his documentary film, Through Fox's Eyes.

Eric's team raised $2,501 at IndieGoGo last September (though the last $336 came from "anonymous"), and will be in Pittsburgh this weekend to gather footage at Anthrocon 2012.

Read more: Fellow furry filmographer Curt Pehrson interviews Eric Risher about his project

I was preparing this announcement, but GreenReaper has given away part of it on Newsbytes.

Fred Patten, who has been writing Furry book reviews since 1966, and who edited the first anthology of anthropomorphic short fiction, Best in Show, in 2003, has edited two new anthologies of anthropomorphic s-f & fantasy that will both premiere in June 2012.

1. Already Among Us: An Anthropomorphic Anthology, will be published by Legion Publishing of Birmingham, AL on June 4. It will be available in a $18.95 hardcover and $9.99 trade paperback (x + 390 pages), and $8.99 Kindle version, with a wraparound cover by Roz Gibson.
2. The Ursa Major Awards Anthology: A Tenth Anniversary Celebration, will be published by FurPlanet Productions of Dallas, TX. It will go on sale at Anthrocon 2012 on June 14, as a $19.95 trade paperback, x + 380 pages, with a wraparound cover by Blotch.

Hundreds of furs worldwide have opened up their wallets, giving over $20,000 to a Pittsburgh man who has sold subs, wraps and t-shirts to Anthrocon attendees in recent years.

Business owner Fernando Decarvalho faces financial ruin; his eatery, Fernando's Cafe, was forced to announce its impending closure last month. Fans hope their money will keep it open until Anthrocon 2012, and beyond.

The donations are to be given to Fernando at a planned meetup today (April 21) at his cafe. Over 100 have signed up to eat at the restaurant; several plan to attend in fursuit.

Update: $21,000 was handed over by "Anthrocons"; WTAE coverage - event stream [Dobie] (donations handed over at 33:33). Fernando expressed his thanks, while noting that his landlord has another potential renter in negotiation for his space after June.

As Pittsburgh convention Anthrocon approaches this June, many furs are opening up their wallets, counting up their change, and announcing to friends whether they can be expected this year. Unfortunately Fernando's Cafe, a business dear to attendees, have done the same and found that they will be unable to stay afloat until then. The cafe intends to close its doors on April 27.

Results for the Summer 2011 International Furry Survey led by Dr. Gerbasi and Nuka were released last month, and some are quite surprising. The study attracted 1940 participants (179 'non-furry'). 45% came from Anthrocon 2011; the rest filled out the survey online.

The same team ran an online survey last January, and a follow-up at Furry Fiesta 2011.

This survey swept in members of several related groups, most of whom saw themselves as distinct from furries. 74.4% of participants identified solely as furry, while 8.8% claimed to be therians and 4.7% otherkin. 3.6% felt they belonged to both furry and one of these groups.

Significant differences were found between furries and therians, and male and female furs.

I wasn’t as proactive as I thought I would be, and I’m pretty sure I missed a couple posted during the first of September, so apologies there. Otherwise, here was last month’s Newsbytes.

Anthrocon announced Friday night that next year's convention had been moved up a week to accommodate a mystery event, at the request of the City of Pittsburgh.

The new dates are June 14–17, 2012. Anthrocon was duly rewarded for its flexibility:

Pittsburgh has been given a very rare opportunity to host an event that they have been wanting to host for many years. The only trouble was that the proposed event (and we won't say what it is until it is officially announced) would lie in part over Anthrocon's planned weekend. [...] As much as we love our adopted home city and would do anything in our power to support them, we were hesitant to change the date of our convention after having announced it.

Pittsburgh replied with, "What if we got you another hundred hotel rooms within walking distance of the Convention Center?" — We said, "Where do we sign?"

While the event has not been announced, it has been rumoured that the NHL Entry Draft, convened annually in late June, might be coming to Pittsburgh for the first time since 1997.

Pittsburgh radio personality Jim Krenn spent some time with furries at this year's Anthrocon.

The message from 102.5 WDVE's co-host? Furries like to party. (As do the production staff)

Another year has come and gone for Anthrocon's 4,400 attendees. But what did the media make of it all?

Local stations WTAE (video, slides) and WPXI (video) gave mostly superficial coverage, while the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (photos) went into a little more depth. [Higgs Raccoon, baracudaboy, Wild`Bill`TX]

The convention was also picked up by Reuters, who posted a short piece based on organizers' statements.

In a story likely to be repeated in 2012, furries were blamed for booking out local hotels. Conversely, Anthrocon's CEO complained of a lack of hotels, telling the Post-Gazette that "when downtown hotels became fully booked in mid-May, [registration] dropped off dramatically." This helps explain this year's growth rate of 3.8%, compared to double-digit increases in prior years. (Somehow the parade count rose over 19% to 854.)

Meanwhile, 10^th St. sub mogul Cory Robinson reported two months of business in five days:

We love furries. They're just people having fun, and they don't hurt anybody.

Those who missed out on taking the survey led by Nuka and Dr. Gerbasi at Anthrocon 2011 get a second chance, as it's now available online for both furries and non-furries.

In lieu of physical prizes, online participants will be invited to a $50 Amazon.ca gift certificate drawing. Those who completed the survey already are requested not to participate.

Results from February's survey are also available, and make interesting reading.

Anthrocon is requesting submissions for this year's conbook, and is offering a sweepstakes to attract artwork, fiction, photography, and articles for the publication. This year's theme is "The Anthropomorphic Institute Of Magic".

The lucky winner gets a supersponsor membership for 2011, or an upgrade if already a member.

All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. EDT April 23. It is not necessary to submit material to enter the sweepstakes, and there is no limit on the number of entries.