The William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review are a Special Category under the Ditmar Awards. "The Athelings", as they are known for short, are awarded for excellence in science fiction and speculative criticism, and were named for the pseudonym used by James Blish

James Blish

James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...

 for his critical writing.

1976

• Algis Budrys - Foundation & Asimov
• James Gunn - Alternative Worlds
• David Ketterer - New Worlds For Old
• George Turner - Paradigm and Pattern; Form and Meaning in "The Dispossessed"
• George Turner - Philip Dick by 1975

1977

• Susan Wood - Women and Science Fiction, Algol, 33, 1978
• John Bangsund - Parergon Papers 10, ANZAPA, Oct 1978
• John McPharlin - On The Ebb Tide of the New Wave, Auto Delerium, March 1978
• Lloyd Biggle Jr - The Morasses of Academe Revisited, Analog, Sept 1978

(...must be filled in—see listed reference)

1998

• Katharine and Darren Maxwell, for X-files episode reviews in Frontier #59
• Sean McMullen and Steven Paulsen
  Steven Paulsen
  Steven Paulsen is a prize winning Australian writer of science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction whose work has been published in books, magazines, journals and newspapers around the world...
  
  , Australian Contemporary Fantasy, Encyclopedia of Fantasy #173, Orbit

2000

There were some changes in the Ditmar Award rules in 2000; the first attempted halted; after a second nomination process the 2000 Ditmars and the Athelings were awarded in 2001.

Original ballot

• Van Ikin, Russell Blackford & Sean McMullen - Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction, Greenwood.
• Judith Buckrich - George Turner: A Life 1916-1997, M.U.P.
• Robert Hood - Articles in i.am ezine.
• Janeen Webb & Andrew Enstice, - The Fantastic Self, Eidolon Press.
• Jonathan Strahan & Steven Paulsen
  Steven Paulsen
  Steven Paulsen is a prize winning Australian writer of science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction whose work has been published in books, magazines, journals and newspapers around the world...
  
   - The Coode Street Review of Science Fiction

Final ballot, and winners (tie)

• Robert Hood - Writings in i.am website
• Tess Williams and Helen Merrick - Women Of Other Worlds
• Jonathan Strahan - Reviews in Locus
• Russell Blackford, Van Ikin and Sean McMullen - Strange Constellations: A History Of Australian Science Fiction
• Jonathan Strahan and Steven Paulsen
  Steven Paulsen
  Steven Paulsen is a prize winning Australian writer of science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction whose work has been published in books, magazines, journals and newspapers around the world...
  
   - The Coode St Review of Science Fiction
• Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction (1998, non-fiction by Sean McMullen
  Sean McMullen
  Sean Christopher McMullen is an Australian science fiction and fantasy author.-Biography:McMullen has a degree in physics and history from Melbourne University , a postgraduate degree in library and information science, and a PhD in Medieval Literature...
  
  , Russell Blackford
  Russell Blackford
  Russell Blackford is an Australian writer, philosopher, and critic, based for many years in Melbourne, Victoria. He was born in Sydney, and grew up in Lake Macquarie district, near Newcastle, NSW. He moved to Melbourne in 1979, but returned to Newcastle to live and work in 2009.-Writing career:As a...
  
   and Van Ikin
  Van Ikin
  Van Ikin is an academic and science fiction writer and editor. He is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Western Australia, and has acted as supervisor for several Australian writers completing their post-graduate degrees and doctorates - including science fiction and fantasy writers...
  
  )

2007

• Miranda Siemienowicz - Review of Paraspheres appearing in Horrorscope
• Justine Larbalestier - Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century
• Robert Hood - Man and Super-Monster: A History of Daikaiju Eiga and its Metaphorical Undercurrents. Borderlands #7
• Grant Watson - Bad Film Diaries - Sink or Swim: The Truth Behind Waterworld. Borderlands #8
• Kathryn Linge - Review Through Soft Air, ASif

External links

• Australian Ditmar Awards section of Inkspillers website
• current official Award rules