Dogpatch Press
Fluff Pieces Every Week
Tag: ask papabear
February 17, 2024
LAST DAY to nominate for the Ursa Major Awards; Nominations open for the Good Furry Award.
by Patch O'Furr
Ursa art by Foxenawolf.
For over two decades, the Ursa Major Awards have recognized the furry fandom’s favorite creations every year. For the 2023 awards, anything with anthropomorphic animals is eligible to win by popular vote. Want your favorite works represented?
Go HERE to nominate, and don’t wait, the deadline is today (February 17)!
November 13, 2023
Book review – Furry Planet: A World Gone Wild is an enjoyable tour of furries around the world.
by Dogpatch Press Staff
Welcome to guest writer Grubbs Grizzly.
Furry Planet is an Interesting Complement to Furry Nation – by Grubbs Grizzly
Six years ago, author Joe Strike released Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood Subculture (Cleis Press), a nicely comprehensive history of the furry fandom. Being very interested in the fandom, I naturally bought and read it. So, when Strike released Furry Planet: A World Gone Wild (includes History, Costumes, and Conventions) (Apollo), I of course purchased it as well.
The book is not what I expected.
Reading the title, I thought it was going to be more history, expanding upon the U.S.-focused first title with a history of conventions and furry culture in Europe, Asia, and other continents. In the book’s introduction, Strike even writes: “Furry Planet: A World Gone Wild remedies Nation’s oversight of the global furry community and in the following pages you’ll meet furs based worldwide who have been inspired by our misunderstood subculture….”
The first chapter, “It’s a Furry World,” starts off promising to stick to what I thought was the book’s premise with a brief look at the U.S. before moving on to a 28-page whirlwind tour of fandoms in the U.K., Europe, Russia, Singapore, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Most of the book after this, however, is about furriness outside the fandom. That is, how anthropomorphic arts have pervaded world cultures in everything from sculpture and paintings to film and performance arts.
June 19, 2023
The 2023 Ursa Major Awards and Good Furry Award feature the best of furry fandom
by Patch O'Furr
Check out the winners in 14 categories for the 2023 Ursa Major Awards. The awards feature the furry fandom’s favorite media and other anthropomorphic animal creations they love, with popular voting by anybody. This year there were 1350 voters, with their vote count broken down here.
- Dogpatch Press was voted Best Magazine. Thank you to everyone who votes, and the volunteer team who manages the voting process and sends physical awards. I’ll post a photo when it arrives.
- The best novel stood out as unlike other furry fantasy and romance nominees; it’s a young adult novel by an author of other non-furry writing with crossover appeal that isn’t locked to the furry scene. Watch for an upcoming article with the author.
- The best fursuit category had no award due to low participation, but there’s already eligible fursuits listed for the next awards.
See the current Recommended Anthropomorphics List — it is maintained year-round — you can discover and submit this year’s works eligible for the next awards now if you have something to share. This helps make community, discovery for new creations, and opportunity with campaigning. A nominee can win by simply mentioning it, because few do. Consider donating to support this service via paypal@ursamajorawards.org.
January 20, 2020
2020 Good Furry Award nominees announced, open for more submissions
by Patch O'Furr
The Good Furry Award is for furries (or groups of furries) who have shown themselves to be good citizens of the furry community and deserve recognition. It debuted in 2019 on the Ask Papabear advice column website, and Tony “Dogbomb” Barrett won. Check the tag for more about it.
Winners get $500 and a trophy. Three Honorable Mentions also get trophies. Nominations can be sent until May 31, 2020. After that, the furry community gets to vote, with winners announced in June 2020.
Below are the furries who have been nominated so far for the 2020 Good Furry Award.
You can nominate people through the end of May 2020 from this form.
As shared by submitters:
Furry Weekly
Furry Weekly is a long-running magazine on Furry Amino that has been running for nearly 3 years. They highlight all kinds of people in the community, including dancers, musicians, artist, writers, and more.
They are a nonprofit organization, and they haven’t been paid 1 cent for all their hard work. A little award to promote these amazing people will surely be an amazing thing for them.
July 16, 2018
The Good Furry Award, The Furry Book, and Joe Strike’s Furry Nation News from Anthrocon
by Patch O'Furr
Grubbs Grizzly of “Ask Papabear” has quite an established presence with many followers. Now he’s emerged from his cave to announce an award for other furries who demonstrate Outstanding Community Spirit.
Good furries are everywhere. But sometimes when fandom takes a look at itself and how it can be better, bad furries get attention. From circa-2000 Burned Furs, to Nazi Furs who have ruined furry conventions, troublemakers get more attention than they deserve. (None might be a fair amount.)
The Good Furry Award is coming to reward a fandom member each year for their community spirit. On top of benefit to one, the process of looking at nominees and their work is meant to promote much more conversation about good things that the vast majority of furries do for each other and outsiders alike.
The “Ask Papabear” website is now taking nominations for Good Furries: https://www.askpapabear.com/good-furry-award.html