Voting for the Ursa Major Awards for the Best Anthropomorphic Art and Literature first published during 2009 ends on April 18.

Anyone may vote, and you are encouraged to ask your friends to vote also. Visit the Ursa Major Awards web site to sign up to vote, or view the list of nominees.

On April 9, David Hopkins, the author of Jack, contacted the Ursa Major Award administrators to request that the work be withdrawn from consideration for the award in the category of Best Graphic Story. For technical reasons it must still appear on the ballot, but as the online voting system allows people to revise their choices at any time until the close of voting, those who have voted for Jack have the opportunity to select another nominee if they wish.

Voting for the Ursa Major Awards for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of 2009 is now open, and takes place until April 18. Anyone may vote, and you are encouraged to ask your friends to vote also. Visit the Ursa Major Awards web site for details on how to vote.

There are five nominees in each of the ten categories, except where there was a tie for fifth place, or fewer than five eligible nominees. To be eligible, a work must have been released during the calendar year 2009; must include a non-human being given human attributes (anthropomorphic), which can be mental and/or physical (for example the intelligent dogs in Up for the former, and Fantastic Mr. Fox for the latter); and must receive more than one nomination.

And the nominees are...

Nominations for the 2009 Ursa Major Awards for the Best Anthropomorphic Art and Literature close on February 28.

Anyone may submit up to five nominations for works first published during 2009 in each of the ten categories — Motion Picture, Dramatic Short Work or Series, Novel, Short Fiction, Other Literary Work, Graphic Story, Comic Strip, Fanzine, Published Illustration, and Game. It is not necessary to nominate for all categories.