The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is a lifetime honor presented annually by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) to a living writer of fantasy or science fiction.
[1] The presentation is made at the annual SFWA Nebula Awards banquet, commonly during May, but it is not one of the Nebulas, which recognize the preceding calendar year's works and are selected by vote of all Association members.
SFWA officers and past presidents alone submit Grand Master nominations and the final selection must be approved by a majority of that group.
From 1995 to 2010, SFWA also awarded the title of Author Emeritus "as a way to recognize and appreciate senior writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy who have made significant contributions to our field but who are no longer active or whose excellent work may no longer be as widely known as it once was."
SFWA President Jeffe Kennedy said, "Over the years, so many creators have been passed over for the Grand Master nod, for one reason or another.
"[3] In 1989, the anthology Grand Masters' Choice was published, edited by Andre Norton and Ingrid Zierhut.