The 2018 Skylark award was presented at Boskone 55 to Dan Kimmel. Dan's friend, and the Boskone 55 NESFA Press guest, Nat Segaloff, spoke warmly about Dan, and presented the award to him. Dan seemed pleased and took to heart our annual warning about where not to store the Skylark Lens. After Boskone 55, Dan wrote us the following letter:

On Saturday I attended the award ceremony at Boskone and was happy to see that my friend Nat Segaloff, the NESFA Press Guest, had been given a role. This was Nat's first convention as a participant and he was having a great time. When he got up to announce the recipient of the Skylark Award, I was stunned when he said he was pleased to be giving it to his longtime friend# me. I still can't quite believe it although I have the award with my name on it and, per instructions, have carefully placed it "where the sun don't shine."

I came to fandom relatively late - in my mid-30s - and didn't start publishing fiction and non-fiction about SF, aside from my movie reviews, until my 40s. Although I attended my first Boskone twenty-five years ago, where I made the mistake of going to the first panel in my life and asking who the moderator was only to have the other panelists decide it was me, I still considered myself a relative newcomer.

Receiving the Skylark Award has disabused me of that notion. Like Humphrey Bogart and Sally Field when they won their Oscars, I was surprised and touched to realize how I was regarded by my friends and colleagues in the SF world. As Ruth Gordon quipped when she won her Oscar for "Rosemary's Baby" at age 72, "I can't tell you how encouraging a thing like this is."

What I find particularly moving is the pantheon you have placed me in. Like Wayne and Garth of "Wayne's World," I want to say, "I'm not worthy." Instead, I'll say thank you for what I consider a vote of confidence in me, and I hope I can live up to the high standards that the Skylark Award signifies.

With affection and gratitude,
Daniel M. Kimmel