The Fan Activity Achievement Award (FAAN) were presented from 1976 through 1980 to recognize achievement by those who write, edit, and illustrate fanzines. The awards were revived in 1994 and have presented every years since, with the exception of 1996. The Best Fan Editor Award was only presented during the initial run of the award from 1977 to 1980. It was won in each of the first two years by Rob Johnson. Janice Bogstad and Jeanne Gomoll won the FAAN Award for Best Editor in both 1979 and 1980 for their editorial work on the fanzine Janus. They were also nominated in both those years (as well as 1978) for the Hugo Award.

Janice Bogstad began editing the fanzine Janus in 1975. She was joined in editorial duties by Jeanne Gomoll with issue 2 and the two co-edited the zine from 1975 through 1980, producing a total of 18 issues of the fanzine. The zine was nominated for the Best Fanzine Hugo three times, in 1978, 1979, and 1980. When Bogstad and Gomoll decided to stop editing the zine, the editorial duties to Diane Martin, who continued publishing another 8 issues between 1981 and 1990 under the auspices of SF³, although name of the fanzine was changed to Aurora. Following the publication of Janus, Bogstad began publishing the zine New Moon in 1981.

Gomoll helped established WisCon and has served as the President of SF³. In 1979, she was the fan guest of honor at ArmadilloCon 1. Following Janus, Gomoll published a variety of other fanzines and APAzines. Gomoll was instrumental in the establishment of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award She won the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund in 1987 to attend Conspiracy ’87, that year’s Worldcon in Brighton. Gomoll would be one of the Guests of Honor at Loncon 3 in 2014. Gomoll has been one of the driving voices in feminist science fiction since the 1970s. Working together with Bogstad, and several others, Gomoll also helped craft science fiction fandom in the 70s, 80s, and beyond.

Bogstad and Gomoll published two issues of Janus in 1979. The first issue, Janus 15, had a cover by Gomoll and included WisCon 3 reports from Phillip Kaveny, Jon Singer, and Bill Hoffman. The issue included three interviews, one of Elizabeth A. Lynn, by Debbie Notkin, and interviews with Suzy McKee Charnas and John Varley, both conducted by Bogstad. The issue also contained several poems by Terry Gary and Terri Gregory as well as a variety of movie and book reviews and essays by Kaveny, Ctein, and Richard S. Russell.

The second issue of the year had a cover by Joan Hanke-Woods. Bogstad interviewed Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Jo Clayton for the issue, which also included poetry, movie and book reviews and several reviews of Archon and X-Con.

In 1980 Bogstad and Gomoll jointly won the FAAN Award for Fan Editor, although their competition is not recorded. Mike Glyer won the Fanzine award that year for Scientifriction, so it is likely that he was at least considered for the Best Fan Editor category. Editors who were nominated for the Hugo for Best Fanzine included Charles N. Brown, Richard E. Geis, and Doug Fratz. Geis and Fratz would also have been suitable for consideration for the FAAN Award.

Update: Jo Van Ekeren has found a listing of the nominees, which included Mike Glyer, Terry Hughes, Jerry Kaufman & Suzle Thomkins, and Dave Langford.

 

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Steven H Silver is a sixteen-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for 8 years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. He began publishing short fiction in 2008 and his most recently published story is “Webinar: Web Sites” in The Tangled Web. His most recent anthology, Alternate Peace was published in June. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference 6 times, as well as serving as the Event Coordinator for SFWA. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.