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 2012 Ursa Major Awards, for the best anthropomorphic literature and art of the calendar year 2012 in eleven categories, closes on May 15. If you have not voted yet, you have a week left to do so on the Ursa Major Awards website.

In addition, the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association has closed the 2012 Recommended Anthropomorphic Reading List. Recommendations for the 2013 Reading List are now being accepted.

All fans are invited to recommend worthwhile anthropomorphic works in eleven categories (motion pictures, short fiction, dramatic short films or broadcasts, novels, other literary works, magazines, graphic stories, comic strips, published illustrations, games, and websites) first published during 2013, plus miscellaneous items. This List is often used by fans to nominate in the next year's Awards.

The Ursa Major Award finalists for 2012 are . . .

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...

The ALAA’s 2012 Anthropomorphic Recommended List will close on January 15, 2013, to allow for last-minute recommendations of last-week-of-2012 releases. The 2012 Ursa Major Awards nominations will open on January 17, the first day of Further Confusion 2013.

Go to the Ursa Major Awards website on January 17 to register for an online nomination form. You may cast up to five nominations in each of eleven categories: Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture, Best Dramatic Short Work or Series, Best Novel, Best Short Fiction, Best Other Literary Work, Best Graphic Story, Best Comic Strip, Best Magazine, Best Published Illustration, Best Website, and Best Game. If you do not have five nominees in any category, you may nominate less. To be eligible, a work must have been released during the calendar year 2012; must include a non-human being given human attributes (anthropomorphic), which can be mental and/or physical; and must receive more than one nomination.

If you cannot think of anything to nominate, you may refer to the 2012 Recommended List. That has at least five titles in each category, recommended by Furry fans. Remember, 2012 Recommendations are not nominations for the awards. Nominations of a work are separate. You may nominate a work that has not been recommended if it meets the eligibility criteria.

This article is enlarged from a chronology originally printed for an exhibition at L.A.con III, the fifty-fourth annual World Science Fiction Convention, 29 August–2 September 1996, at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California. It was originally published in Yarf! #46, January 1997. Yarf! published it separately online, where it has been a valuable Furry historical reference for fifteen years, with links to it from Wikipedia, WikiFur, the Furry News Network, and many other websites.

In February 2012, Yarf! disappeared without warning from the Internet, and all the links to this chronology stopped working. To restore it to the Internet, Flayrah has agreed to reprint it, slightly revised and with illustrations.

There is no single specific date or event that can lay claim to being the birth of furry fandom. However, there is general agreement that it was around late 1983 or early 1984 that furry fans coalesced out of SF fandom and comics fandom and began an independent identity.

There’s a new, decidedly adult-oriented furry fanzine in the works, and its currently seeking contributions. Its intentions are stated pretty clearly by the title: LFR, which stands for Lesbian Furry Rag. The editors are looking for stories, illustrations, and comics “of the girl-kissing-girl persuasion”, to quote them, and female characters of all body types are welcome. Ratings run from pretty and romantic to full-on erotica, with an emphasis on the pleasure of the ladies, rather than the “fetish” sort of lesbian scene meant to entertain straight males. Visit their Tumblr site to find out more about how to contribute and what they’re looking for.

image c. 2012 LFR

Voting for the 2011 Ursa Major Awards, for the best anthropomorphic literature and art of the calendar year 2011 in eleven categories, closes on May 4.

If you have not voted yet, you have one week left to do so on the Ursa Major Awards website.

The finalists are . . .

Voting for the Ursa Major Awards for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of 2011 is now open, and takes place until May 4. The winners will be announced at a presentation ceremony at CaliFur VIII in Irvine, CA on June 2. Anyone may vote, and you are encouraged to ask your friends to vote also — please help 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 2011; must include a non-human being given human attributes (anthropomorphic), which can be mental and/or physical; and must receive more than one nomination.

Read on for the nominees . . .

On the last day of 2011, the latest issue of ANTHRO — #32 — is uploaded and ready for your browsing pleasure! In honor of the season, this issue's cover image is a tastefully-colorized version of Lucius Appaloosius' classic ANTHRO CLAUS. And what (you may well ask) can be found behind that jolly old reindeer's portrait? Find out 'below the fold'!

After a thoroughly unscheduled hiatus of one year plus change, Anthro has returned to the internet. Zine-editor Quentin 'Cubist' Long promises that Anthro will continue to present "the good stuff", and that he has no intention of messing with a "successful, respected formula".

The 2012 Ursa Major Awards, for the best in anthropomorphic literature and art of 2011, will be presented in a ceremony at Califur 8, at the Irvine Marriott Hotel in Irvine, California on 1–3 June 2012.

The 2011 Awards were presented at Morphicon 2011 in Columbus, Ohio on 13 May 2011. The Awards have been presented at Califur once before, in 2007.

The winners of the tenth annual Ursa Major Awards for the best anthropomorphic/"funny animal" literature and art first published during 2010 have been announced at a presentation ceremony tonight at Morphicon in Columbus, Ohio.

See also: Last year's winners, the 2010 nominees and other UMA coverage.

Voting for the Ursa Major Awards for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of 2010 is now open, and takes place until April 17. Anyone may vote, and you are encouraged to ask your friends to vote also — please help spread the word!

There are five nominees in each of ten categories, except where there was a tie for fifth place.

To be eligible, a work must have been released during the calendar year 2010; must include a non-human being given human attributes (anthropomorphic), which can be mental and/or physical; and must receive more than one nomination.

Issue 28 of Anthro is online for your reading pleasure. This issue is dedicated to the memory of Michael W. Bard, a regular contributor who served, at various times, as the 'zine's co-editor; columnist; and occasional reviewer. The cover image, Silvermane Maintenance by Cuprohastes, incorporates two of Bard's favorite motifs -- science fiction, and anthropomorphic equines -- and the issue's editorial is devoted to Bard.

The rest of this issue's contents include stories by Billymorph, Corvus & ShadowWolf, Phil Geusz, Bill ‘Hafoc’ Rogers, and Carmen Welsh; the third installment of Michael Bergey's novel New Coyote; an interview with WikiFur's Laurence ‘GreenReaper’ Parry; and a variety of other high-quality anthropomorphic material.

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.