TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Andy Duncan, associate director of Student Media at The University of Alabama, and Robert L. “Rick” McCammon, editor of The Crimson White UA student newspaper during the 1973-1974 academic year, won the Southeastern Science Fiction Achievement Awards’ top prizes for writing for 2003.

McCammon and Duncan are members of the University’s Media Planning Board, which oversees UA’s student-run media.

McCammon of Birmingham won Best Novel for “Speaks the Nightbird,” and Andy Duncan of Northport won Best Short Fiction for “The Big Rock Candy Mountain.” “Speaks the Nightbird” was published by River City Publishing of Montgomery in hardcover and by Bantam Books in two mass-market paperback volumes, “Speaks the Nightbird Vol. 1: Judgment of the Witch” and “Speaks the Nightbird Vol. 2: Evil Unveiled.” The novel, McCammon’s 13th, is a historical thriller about a witch trial in colonial South Carolina.

“The Big Rock Candy Mountain” was published in “Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists,” edited by Peter Straub and illustrated by Gahan Wilson. Duncan’s story is about a hobo’s adventures in the fantasy world depicted by the old folk song.

McCammon is a novelist whose best sellers include “Boy’s Life, Mine” and “Gone South.” His honors include a World Fantasy Award and five Bram Stoker Awards.

Duncan’s books include a collection, “Beluthahatchie and Other Stories,” and the upcoming anthology “Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic,” which he co-edited with F. Brett Cox. His stories have won two World Fantasy Awards and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. As assistant director of student media, Duncan advises the Corolla yearbook and the Marr’s Field Journal literary magazine and directs the Alabama Scholastic Press Association.

The SESFA Award, voted on by readers, is sponsored by the Web site Scifidimensions.com, which is edited by John C. Snider of Roswell, Ga. Writers born in or living in the Southeastern United States are eligible for the award. Duncan also won the 2002 SESFA Award for Best Short Fiction, for his novella “The Chief Designer,” first published in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine.

UA’s Media Planning Board includes students, faculty, administrators and media professionals. Its 2003-2004 chairman is Tom Jackson, editor of Equipment World magazine, published by Randall Publishing of Tuscaloosa.