Do you have a question about the Hugos that is not covered in our FAQ? If so, please ask it here and we will endeavor to answer it for you.
Please note, however, that we cannot issue definitive rulings about Hugo Award eligibility. Each year’s Worldcon establishes a Hugo Awards Administration Subcommittee the manages that year’s Hugo Awards. The Hugo Awards web site is not responsible for administering the Awards and therefore can’t give definitive answers about eligibility. If you have a question about whether a specific work is eligible and in which category, please contact the current year’s Worldcon and their Hugo Awards Administrators.
Hello,
I’m just curious whether the Hugo Award ceremony was going to be streamed on the Internet this year. I’ve tried looking for info, but haven’t found any, so I’m assuming not, but it would be cool to be able to see it live. This might not be the proper place to ask, but I figured you guys might know, haha. Anyway, thanks a bunch. I’m looking forward to learning the results.
Cheers,
Christopher Nickolas Carlson
Chicon 7 does indeed plan to live-stream video of the ceremony, and we here at The Hugo Awards web site will be providing text-only CoverItLive coverage of the event as we have done for the past couple of years. (The latter is more appropriate if you don’t have sufficient bandwidth for video streaming, don’t want the ads that UStream puts on video streams, or want the results a few seconds faster than the video stream, since the latter is usually delayed from seconds to minutes for technical reasons.) We’ll be posting an announcement here when we know the details. If you haven’t already done so, you can follow the RSS feed of our announcements or follow us on Twitter, where we also will be posting the results as they are announced.
Hello, I am researching about Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes.
I would like to know the exact year in which he received the Hugo Award. In his autobiography (Charlie,Algernon and I) and in his homepage, it says he won it in 1960, for the best short story of 1959, but in this homepage it says it was in 1967. I would appreciate if you can tell me which is correct.
Regards,
Leticia Kushida
Brazil
Leticia:
“Flowers for Algernon” won the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. The expanded novel was nominated for the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Novel, but did not win.
The rules of the World Science Fiction Society allow works to be nominated an additional time if they are substantially different, such as after a significant revision or expansion. Both the short story and the novel versions of the the work were nominated for Hugo Awards. The short story won in 1960, and the novel was nominated in 1967. I hope this clarifies the situation for you.
Dear Kevin, thank you so much. Your information helped a lot!!
Reegards,
Leticia
HI
DO YOU OFFER A LISTING OF winners only UNTIL present please?
could you please provide a link?
much appreciated
We list all past Hugo Award winners on our Hugo Award History Pages at http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/
Re: Related Works
Hello. Could a feature-length documentary film be submitted under the “Related Works” category? Has this ever happened? It would seem that documentaries don’t fit so neatly into the long form “dramatic” category.
Thanks.
That’s an interesting question. Every year the works that catch people’s eyes change somewhat, and of course WSFS tries to update the categories to keep pace. But questions like this still arise. To deal with this, each year a Hugo Awards Administrator is appointed. He or she is responsible for answering such questions, based on the existing rules, historical precedent and the will of the nominators/voters.
It seems reasonable to us that a documentary could be best located in the “Best Related Work” category, but it is not crystal clear and we are not aware of any historical precedent for this situation. Therefore we can’t give a firm answer.
We suggest that you contact this year’s Hugo Administrator at LoneStarCon 3 with your question.
I have a few questions about what categories certain publications fall under.
1. Toasted Cake is a fiction podcast that pays $5 for stories on the podcast. Because it pays any amount to authors, that makes it a semiprozine rather than a fancast, right?
http://www.toastedcake.com
2. Beam Me Up is a science fiction podcast and radio show. They don’t pay authors, which makes me think it might be a fancast. But since they also play their show on a radio station, it depends on whether the radio station provides more than 1/4 of the income. On the WRFR website it says “WRFR is entirely run by volunteers” which makes me think it might still qualify as a fancast, but I’m not totally sure.
http://www.beammeuppodcast.com/
http://wrfr.org/about.html
3. Journey Into… is a podcast. They don’t pay for flash fiction, which is the only work they take unsolicited. They do pay a small amount for longer work, which they solicit. Does the sometimes-payment make them a semiprozine or a fancast?
http://www.journeyintopodcast.blogspot.com
As with our earlier reply regarding Related Works, these are edge cases for which there is insufficient precedent to give a clear answer. Remember that while TheHugoAwards.org is the official web site of the Hugo Awards, we are not the administrators of the Awards and therefore anything we say is an advisory only and cannot be considered definitive. The people actually making the decision are this year’s Hugo Award Administration Subcommittee, and we suggest you contact them with your questions.
You may also want to consult the Semiprozine Directory web site. While it is not an official site, it does have a good working list of likely Semiprozines (and discussion of edge cases).
Once again, our discussion here is only advisory in nature, and only rulings from the current year’s Hugo Award Administrators are definitive.
I’m afraid I don’t follow your logic on Fancast. Where in the definition of fancast does it state that they can’t pay anyone? It simply says non-professional. If fancast had a contributor pay clause there wouldn’t be the need for semiprozine to include “which does not qualify as a fancast” in its definition. By the looks of things an audio or video podcast would be a fancast if it would have been eligible for either fanzine or semiprozine in print.
I know the intent on this category was to move podcasts out of fanzine, but the actual implementation has removed them from both fanzine and semiprozine.
Neil:
That’s true, and is something I hadn’t considered in my initial reply because I thought that I knew what the makers of the original proposal intended to do. This is one of the reasons we warn folks that nothing we say here has the force of legislation, and that without an actual ruling on a real case by a Hugo Administrator, we can’t be sure exactly what’s going to happen.
It is likely that there may need to be clarifying legislation unless the WSFS Business Meeting really wants podcasts, etc. that are non-professional by definition but that might meet the semi-professional definition to be included in Fancast. That is a plausible reading, since Best Fan Writer and Best Fan Artist are both covered by Semiprozine and Fanzine.
Hello,
– probably this is not the right place to ask, but I try it anyway 🙂 –
is there a compilation or some kind of HUGO-winning stories?
I realise that the novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories are published by many different publishing companies, but maybe some of the bigger houses have had multiple winners over the years and maybe made “collector’s edition” of some kind.
Is there something you could recommend, maybe put together in consultation with you?
(Yes, I can search for myself on amazon and the like, but I’d like to have your “official” answer, please excuse if offending.)
Best greetings from Germany
Thomas
Thomas:
While there have been compilations of Hugo Award-winning fiction in the past, there have not been recent collections except for The Hugo Award Showcase, the first (and ultimately only) in a projected series of collections of Hugo Award-nominated-and-winning works. Should a publisher once again undertake publishing such compilations, we will announce it on this site.
That explains a lot. I have many “Hugo Awards” books that I used to buy, but noticed they stopped publishing them. That’s a shame. Now there is no way to read the collected stories the way we used to, to know what is being written. I guess the internet really has destroyed the publishing business. I will treasure the Hugo Awards books I have even more than I did before.
Hi,
I’d like to know if I can nominate an eligible project I crowdfunded , getting a sponsor or producer credit in return.
Thanks
We’re not sure what you mean about “getting a sponsor or producer credit in return.” Works are nominated for Hugo Awards by the thousands of members of the World Science Fiction Society, and works that receive sufficient nominations appear on the final ballot and are considered “Hugo Award Nominated” works.
Would a website such as B5Scrolls be eligible for consideration in either the Best Related Works or Best Fan Writer categories, or is it too specific in it’s content, or indeed too small. I feel the hitherto unknown information it contains by way of the interviews with so many Emmy award winning FX artist is quite revealing, and significant, on a number of separate levels that extend way beyond just the production of one televsion show.
Ann:
A website cannot be eligible for Best Fan Writer, because a Website is not a “writer.” Writing appearing on a web site can make that writer eligible for Best Fan Writer
Eligibility for the Hugo Award is managed by each year’s Hugo Award Administration Subcommittee, which is appointed by the individual World Science Fiction Convention, and is not managed by those of us here at TheHugoAwards.org. However, Hugo Award Administrators are unlikely to make a ruling about a specific web site, work, or person unless it receives enough nominations to otherwise appear on the ballot for that year.
Dear Hugo Awards,
I have been searching for a science fiction short story that I found in college a few years ago. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the title of the story along with the author’s name and the science fiction anthology it was found in.The short story was written in the early to mid 90’s. It involved Don Quixote magically being time warped into the modern era. He finds a Mexican-American soldier and the two begin a comical journey together. I remember that it was the funniest science fiction short story that I have ever read and I would love to be able to read it again. I would be grateful for any information. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Marc Mooney
What is the process for being the sculptor of the Hugo Award base? How and when are submission made, and how is the selection made?
Randy:
Most recent Worldcons have run design competitions to solicit designs for their Hugo Award bases. Loncon 3 announced this evening during the LoneStarCon 3 Hugo Awards Ceremony that they would be doing so. We don’t have the details handy at the moment, but when they’re available, we’ll post them to the site as an announcement.
Hello,
Congratulations on an excellent Hugo Awards night at LoneStarCon, it was my first experience of such a thing and I had a fantastic evening. It was really well run and so lovely to see the winners bounding on stage with such enthusiasm and pride. A wonderful way to celebrate a wonderful genre.
I would like to know if you are considering an improvement to the communications process, in light of Mary Robinette Kowel finding out at the after-party that one of her works had been shortlisted but deemed ineligible? I understand there are difficulties around the categorization of various works and I don’t have the depth of knowledge to have an opinion at that, but I’m sure you can understand that this must have been very distressing for her to receive this information in such an unexpected and public way.
Even if the nominee disagrees with your decision, I’m sure they would greatly prefer to be advised in advance, rather than getting a horrible shock at what is supposed to be a celebratory evening.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sandra:
Those of us here at TheHugoAwards.org are not the people who actually administer the awards, so we don’t know who the winners (and in this case, disqualified nominees) are until the ceremony. The communication with nominees is done by each year’s Hugo Awards Administration Subcommittee, which is appointed by the individual Worldcon. Note, however, that the events you describe this year are being discussed in detail by the people involved and are “on the radar” of those who will be responsible for administering next year’s Awards.
The Best Novel award is given to works of 40000+ words; the Best Novelette is for works between 7500 and 17500 words. The Best Novella award fills in the gap, as it were, but has only been awarded since 1968. From 1955 to 1967, what category would a work of novella length (17500 to 40000 words) fit into?
John:
Early in The Hugo Awards’ evolution, there were no technical definitions for terms such as “Novel.” The 1963 version of the WSFS Constitution, for example, merely defined “Short Fiction” as “less than novel length,” and did not define what “novel length” was. Therefore, any work that wasn’t a “Novel” would have been classified as “Short Fiction,” including novella-length works until the written-fiction categories were subdivided and more technically defined.
I read a short story about 35+ years ago that I am trying to find. The premise is similar to that of ‘Divergent’ in that children are tested early in life and ‘streamed’ to professions for which they are particularly suited. The main character of the story, although intelligent and talented, is not particularly suited to any profession, and is ultimately imprisoned with others of his type. This is done to ensure that these people are not disruptive of society. He escapes, however, and after various adventures returns to the prison, the only place where he feels accepted and safe. Can anyone help me find the name and author of this story? Thanks in advance.
I missed the 1/31/14 date to become a supporting member and nominate but can I still sign up as a supporting member and vote?
Yes, while it’s too late to join and nominate, you will still be able to vote on the final ballot (when it’s issued) by joining Worldcon now.
Oh how exciting! Thank you so much for responding so quickly! I was so upset to think I had missed the deadline by one day when all I really want to do is read all these glorious stories & vote! So happy to learn I haven’t missed out!
Thx!
Excited!
This may have been asked before, if so, I apologize in advance.
My question: Is there, or are there any plans to offer, an award in honor of Isaac Asimov? Something like the Campbell Award–
(Possibly for winning the last Hugo in the last category after winning all others…is there anyone alive who’s done that?)
Thanks.
We here at TheHugoAwards.org are not aware of any specific plans for an award in Issac Asimov’s honor. Certainly the World Science Fiction Society has not entertained any such proposals.
Nobody has even come close to winning Hugo Awards in every category. Considering that the Awards cover the gamut from prose fiction to non-fiction to dramatized works to art, both professional and amateur, to amateur writing about SF/F/Fandom, it would be an astonishing achievement for anyone, even a polymath like the late Dr. Asimov, to have even qualified for every category.
That’s too bad. If there ever was a writer who deserved to have a Hugo-type award named after him, it’s Dr Asimov.
And Anne McCaffrey, the first woman to receive a Hugo Award!
I believe Pat Lupoff was the first woman to win a Hugo … 1963.
Two films that were meant to be nationally released in 2013 and then held back, just checking that they aren’t eligible for 2013 and indeed for 2014 – snowpiercer and Zero Theorem (the latter is definitely a top film!).
If the movies were first shown in public in 2013, then they are eligible for the 2014 Hugo Awards. If they received limited distribution — e.g. only shown once or something like that — in 2013, then any Worldcon member may introduce a motion to the WSFS Business Meeting at the 2014 Worldcon requesting that the works receive an additional year of eligibility due to limited distribution. (This requires a super-majority vote.) If the movies were intended to be released in 2013 but were not actually shown until 2014, then they are eligible for the 2015 Hugo Awards.
Have you guys considered making each book title in the nominations, as well as winners once they are announced, links to the author’s details page of that book, or to page that has a synopsis of the book and a link to where you can purchase it? When books are nominated as top fantasy books of the year etc, there are many out there who would be interested in reading details such as synopsis of the book, and possibly purchasing it. This would help those authors out even more so than just as it would draw more people to their website to purchase their works.
As you have it laid out now, it’s kind of a pain in the butt. I see a book I have no clue what it’s about. I have to then go and google search it, find a good site that has good detail on it, read up on it, maybe buy it, maybe not, then go back to your site, back to the award section, find the next book and rinse/repeat. Just a thought that would make your site more useful to the end user.
Brad: The Hugo Voter Packet, with in many cases the entire nominated work, will be available to members later this year.
I’m not just talking about this year, but past years as well. There is a history listing previous year nominees and winners, but none of the titles are linked to any page referencing the work, so outside of title and author we as potential readers have no clue what the book is about or if it fits our particular interests/style. It would be nice to see the titles be clickable links to more info about the works, and maybe even include things like commentary from the Hugo group about what in the book helped it to win the Hugo award for that year etc. Maybe a place whether others can review the book.
Just my two bits.
While your idea has merit, doing the necessary maintenance — and make no mistake about it, such a task would require considerable ongoing maintenance to keep up with the changes — is beyond the resources that we have here. Everyone here at TheHugoAwards.org, just like everyone else who works on Worldcon and its related activities, are volunteers with only so much time we can spend on these things. Are you volunteering to go collect the necessary links and keep them all maintained?
Heck, even the Academy Awards do not include the kinds of links you suggest, and they have significantly more resources than we do.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to Robert Jordan (James Rigney Jr.), his family or fans or to Brandon Sanderson, but how does The Wheel of Time qualify as an individual work, single book or film?
Per your rules:
“There are three main types of Hugo Award category:
1.Individual works, for example a single book or film, in which case the Award is given for that work:
“Year of Eligibility
All Awards are given for work in a given year. Individual works are eligible only in their first year of publication.”
“The Categories
The current list of Hugo Award categories is as follows:
◾Best Novel: Awarded for a science fiction or fantasy story of forty thousand (40,000) words or more.”
The Wheel of Time encompasses 15 books (including the prequel) with the first publication date recorded as January 1990 and the last as January 2013.
I would be entirely in favor of a Special Category being created, such as “Best Series of Novels” or “Lifetime Achievement” or “Novel Quotes Still Viable 30 Years After Publication.” However, to allow the nomination of a series of books appears to be against your stated rules.
When you are ready to add a “Best Series of Novels” or “Lifetime Achievement” category, I would like to nominate Anne McCaffrey and her much loved Dragonriders of Pern, Brain & Brawn Ship and Talents series as a perennial candidate.
As we pointed out in the 2014 Hugo Award finalist listing, “The Wheel of Time series was nominated as and ruled to be a multi-part serialized single work, as defined in Section 3.2.4 of the WSFS constitution.”
Please bear in mind that what you’re citing as quotation from our web site is a summary of the actual rules of the World Science Fiction Society as listed in the WSFS Constitution. As we say on the categories page, “In case of any ambiguity, the Constitution does, of course, take precedence.” The members of WSFS nominated the work, and this year’s Hugo Award Administrator (remember, those of us here at the web site don’t administer the awards; that’s done by each year’s Worldcon committee) did not overrule the will of the voters that inasmuch as none of the individual elements of the story had ever been nominated, the entire book series was a single serialized work as defined in the WSFS Constitution. There is ample precedent for multi-part serialized works to be nominated (albeit that a serialization has never actually spanned such a long period of time; most serials have at most crossed between two calendar years), which is why Section 3.2.4 is in the Constitution in the first place. (See the section about Serialized Works also located on the page you cited in your question.)
This decision is final and cannot be appealed, nor will we continue to argue it here. We are only reporting what the 2014 Hugo Award Administrator did in response to the will of the voters of the World Science Fiction Society.
The link you provided was for the 9/2/2012 Constitution (http://www.wsfs.org/bm/const-2013.pdf). The section you quoted was 3.2.6 in the 9/2/2012 version:
3.2.4: A work shall not be eligible if in a prior year it received sufficient nominations to appear on the final award ballot.
3.2.6: Works appearing in a series are eligible as individual works, but the series as a whole is not eligible. However, a work appearing in a number of parts shall be eligible for the year of the final part.
I don’t find a copy of the 2014 Constitution from the 2013 convention linked to the website or by web search.
Now that’s very strange! When I checked that link, it was pointing to the correct version (as of the end of the 2013 Worldcon), and by the WSFS naming convention that should be the correct file (as of end of 2013 Worldcon), but it certainly is not now. (We here at TheHugoAwards.org do not have direct access behind the scenes of the wsfs.org web site, so I’ll send a message to that site’s webmaster to try and straighten that out.) In the meantime, Loncon 3 has the current (as of the end of the 2013 Worldcon) WSFS Constitution on their web site, and I’ll correct the reference here on the 2014 Hugo page.
It appears that the plain HTML version at is correct, but the PDF is still accidentally pointing to the previous year’s version.
My apologies for the confusion, and thank you for pointing out the issue.
We have a Hugo award trophy with the name Honey Wood on it. I searched through the years and found a Wally Wood awarded one in 1960 and the trophy is the same as I have. Is there a market for these older trophies?
Ray:
We are researching what you may have and am trying to direct other groups who are more likely to know specifics to you.
Kevin Standlee
Hugo Awards Marketing Committee
Ray,
Do you have any pictures you could send me (tim at smofs dot org) please?
Also, are you looking to sell or for a valuation? If selling, I’m interested in buying.
Tim
Progress to date: Honey Wood does not appear (as you found) as a winner of either the fan writer or fanzine Hugo. She was, however, secretary of the 1955 Worldcon (Fancy entry here: http://fancyclopedia.org/honey-wood ) so we suspect (subject to pictures) that this is an award made by the 1955 Committee using the Hugo trophy.
As such, this is almost more interesting if less valuable than a Hugo.
There is no usual market for these, but I’d certainly pay $100 for it, if it is what we think.
Thanks Kevin
The Hugo Award Voter Packet is available until August 1st. Does that mean that the already downloaded books will erase after August 1st or does it only mean that materials will no longer be downloadable after that time?
Thank you,
Nicole
The materials in the packet are standard e-reader and PDF documents, they will not erase themselves. Items in the packet are only available to voters to download and only while the voting period is open. Once the voting period closes, the download functions will be disabled.
It is possible this technology could change in future years, this is how it is done now.
Thanks Tim…I will check with the owner. Her name/nickname is Honey and she is in her 80’s.
Ray
Thanks, Ray. Wish her all the best from us, and we hope she’s in good health.
Tim
Tim if you would be kind enough to email me once again I have the information the Hugo award with Honey Woods name on it. She gave me a written statement on it and I scanned it but in this forum I can’t send attachments. I will tell you this Honey Woods was one of four people who designed the rocket ship Hugo award prototype in 1955 in Cleveland for the science fiction convention that year.
Ray
I have forwarded your message to Tim Illingworth.
Hi Ray
tim@smofs.org will find me.
Sounds fascinating…
Tim
Thank you Kevin.
Ray
Will Andy Weir’s book The Martian be eligible for the Hugo Award in 2015? It was originally indie-published, but then published by a commercial press in 2014. The rules seem unclear about this.
You’ll need to address your question directly to the 2015 Hugo Administrator (Select “Hugo Administrator” from the Committee List) to get a definite answer to this; however, the Hugo Award rules are pretty clear about the fact that first publication is what starts a work’s “clock.” The fact that a work is self-published, published by a small press, or by a large press isn’t relevant. Publication date is publication date, regardless of who publishes it.
Are self-published works (for example published on Amazon via KDP or CreateSpace) eligible for awards?
Sam: Yes, self-published works are eligible for the Hugo Award. The WSFS rules do not specify how a work is published, only that it is published.
I’m thinking of nominating “Aama Volume 1: The Smell of Warm Dust” in my Best Graphic Story ballot. Problem is, it was released in the US in 2014, but in the UK in 2013. Both are English-speaking countries. Is Aama eligible for this year due to the US publication? Or is it not?
Nana: Our reply to your other question about “Jodorowsky’s Dune” applies here as well: the first US publication of the work in 2014 gives the work an additional year of eligibility in 2015 due to the newly-adopted rule regarding publication outside of the US.
Is fanfiction, written for a current universe (in other words, not something in the public domain) eligible for any category?
WSFS rules do not concern themselves with the legal status of a work; it merely has to be a work of fiction.
Awesome, thanks Kevin!
Dear admin,
I recently noticed that some organization is offering rewards for people who vote for one particular science fiction. And clearly it have interest involved if that novel gets the Hugo award.
I believe this is unfair and if you think this is an issue I’ll email you with evidence.
Best
Tristy
Perhaps you would like to share your concern with us at info@thehugoawards.org.
Are fiction anthologies eligible for a category? I want to guess Related Works?
In general, fiction anthologies are not eligible for any category. The individual works published in the anthology may be eligible in the appropriate “story” category if they first appeared in the eligibility year. If they are reprints of older stories, they are not eligible unless they have been substantially revised.
An expansion on a previous question regarding the records of top 15 also-rans (older than 2004-ish):
Are the records from previous years completely unavailable (ie, destroyed) or are plans/efforts underway to attempt to collect this data? I appreciate the work this involves and that all persons involved are volunteers, I only want to know if this is still in-progress or has been abandoned due to lack of viable leads. (And to assure TPTB that an interest in this information is out there. I think a listing of the top nominated works/persons a fuller understanding of the breadth of the SFF “community” (if such a term could be applied to this herd of cats) than a single winner. I am glad to see the lists posted where available.)
We are not actively chasing down older information, but when it becomes available, we post it to the site. WSFS rules have not always required the disclosure of the “They Also Ran” information, and in many years there was nothing more than the list of finalists and the final ballot counts.
If anyone has the information for prior years and could share it with us, we’d be happy to add it to the historical data.
I signed up to participate in the voting and was wondering when to expect the email packet with the nominees?
Would like to read all entries to make an inform decision instead of just randomly voting blind based on reviews of books found on line.
Regards,
Andrew Young
Andrew:
The Hugo Voter Packet typically takes several weeks to organize, due to the need to contact and obtain permission from all of the various rights holders. When this year’s Worldcon releases the packet, we’ll post an announcement here. Also note that TheHugoAwards.org doesn’t actually produce the package. This year’s package is being organized by the current Worldcon, and you should contact them directly with questions about it.
As we’re repeatedly warned people, the Hugo Voter Packet of nominated works is not guaranteed. Besides being dependent upon the goodwill of rights-holders to make the material available, it requires significant organizational resources of the individual Worldcon. Therefore, the availability of a Hugo Voter Packet cannot ever be guaranteed either now or in the future.
Thank you for your response.
Do the Hugo Awards people have an official response to PuppyGate?
Jim Oliver: The Hugo Awards web site is not a political organization, nor are we the people who actually administer the Hugo Awards. The Awards are administered by each individual Worldcon. TheHugoAwards.org is the central clearinghouse of information about the Awards. While we are aware of the controversy surrounding the 2015 Awards, saying anything official here on the web site could be interpreted as attempting to sway the individual voters’ opinions, and we’re not supposed to do this. We have answered questions about how the Awards work and we have expanded and we hope clarified our discussion of the Hugo Awards voting system, including (after many requests) a clarification of how the No Award option works.
I [don’t] have a [Hugo] question [per se] but here goes…..
In the 80’s (I think) I read a sci fi trilogy about a human solder that falls in with a group of alien [mercenaries] only to discover that they hold vast [knowledge]. These aliens are [lead by the] oldest woman in the group and when one elder woman wants to take over the clan of another her champion fights a duel with swords against the other champion. They also play a kind of sword throwing game where someone could die, it is thought of as a honorable death [They] wear black robes and have scars on [their] faces and look humanoid.
Any idea what book I am talking about? Would love to re-read it but [can’t] remember name or author.
[Substantial editing to attempt to figure out what the question was. We don’t know what work about which the person is asking. – ed]
Thank you either way….
C J Cherryh’s Faded Sun trilogy? Kesrith/Shon’jir/Kutath
I haven’t read them in a similar period…
Would The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22822839-the-thrilling-adventures-of-lovelace-and-babbage) be eligible for Graphic Story, Related Work, or no category, as most of the comics were published online prior to 2015?
This is a difficult question to answer. In general, serialized works become eligible in the year when the final part is published. Online publication counts as “published,” and the mere collection of previously-published-online material generally does not restart a work’s eligibility clock. You may want to contact the 2016 Worldcon’s Hugo Administrators; however, administrators are notoriously reluctant to issue hypothetical rulings, i.e. rulings on works that do not have enough nominations to qualify as finalists.
Has a separate award for non-English works been considered? I think (as I shortly argue in the link) that they’ve been rather drastically overlooked in the past (it’s a good sign that “Three-Body Problem” got a nom this year). It wouldn’t preclude them from the existing categories, but be an addition (just as a movie can, theoretically, win “Best Picture” and “Best Foreign Film” at the Oscars).
Selfishly, this would hopefully allow me to discover new works I wouldn’t normally hear about!
Thanks!
To our knowledge, there has never been a category proposed for non-English-language works. Given the current electorate (the members of the World Science Fiction Society), it seems unlikely that there would be enough nominations to justify the category. However, you might consider contacting a future Worldcon committee and ask them to use their Special Category authority to create a one-time category for such works, in order to judge whether there was sufficient support among the members of WSFS for such a category.
in 1980 in Israel there was a series of books named “the best of the best, edited by Asimov. in one of them’ there was a short story about the wakeup call – the first sign that the “system” took over…
I’m trying for some time now to find this story. could you help me with the correct name?
Thanks –
Tamir
I’m afraid we’re not likely to be able to help with this request.
🙁 Thanks… 🙂
When will the “New Hugo Winners” be published ? A large number of stories have accumulated since the last collection (New Hugo Winners IV edited by Gregory Benford).
Thanks and regards.
We do not know. TheHugoAwards.org does not publish books. When we hear word of a new volume of the collection, we will post an announcement.
Thanks for this helpful site. Could not find the answer to question of when No Award has won and in which categories
No Award has won five times in the past, but to find it, you would have to go through the individual years and pull it out of the individual listings. The most recent case was 1977.
Kevin,
In the wake of “The Martian”, I have to verify this: is “Usu” by Jayde Ver Elst eligible for Best Novella in 2016? It was first published as an ebook in 2014, first self-released then under Smashwords, and then was published under Bad Dream Entertainment in 2015. Does Extended Eligibility apply?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25006763-usu
From the way that you describe the work, it would appear to have already exhausted its eligibility because it was first published in 2014, and therefore was eligible for the 2015 Hugo Awards. For the purpose of Hugo Award eligibility, it is irrelevant whether a work is self-published or published by someone else. Self-published works have been nominated for the Hugo Awards before.
Works that receive limited distribution can have their eligibility extended by resolution of the WSFS Business Meeting, but it would have had to have been the meeting that happened this year. Two works had their eligibility so extended this year.
I don’t know if this is your call, but could you consider adding these to the Third Party Recommendation Sites?
2016 Hugo Awards Spreadsheet (new one every year):
bit.ly/hugoaward2016
Hugo Award Eligible Art(ists):
http://hugoeligibleart.tumblr.com/
The reason we won’t include that listing is because the site changes locations annually. Create a static page that you update to point to each year’s new listings (rather than having us be responsible for noticing that something new is there) and we’ll consider adding it. You’ll note that the other sites we include all have a static address. We have to do this; otherwise, the pointers will go out of date without us constantly monitoring them.
Thanks for replying, Kevin.
This is just a tiny nitpick, but “Award” is spelled “Awrd” for the Hugo Eligible Artists link. No big deal, I just want to sleep tonight. 😛
Fixed now. I was still traveling home from Spokane, and rushing to get out of our hotel room in Ontario, Oregon, for the final 300 mile leg of our drive home, so I rushed the job. Thanks for pointing out the correction.
What happens to the trophies when there is a “No Award” for a category?
The decision on the disposal of unused trophies is at the discretion of the individual Worldcon committee. You would need to contact Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon, to ask them what they intend to do with any trophies commissioned but not used.
Note that the rocket is the same each year, so it is possible that they may give the rockets to a future Worldcon for use on future Hugo Award trophies.
With regards to film nominations for best short form and long form, is the year of eligibility determined when the film first premiers at a festival, or when it premiers for theatrical release? For example, I’m looking at “It Follows”: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3235888/releaseinfo?ref_=tt_dt_dt
Technically it premiered in 2014 at the Cannes Film Festival, and then showed at a lot of other festivals throughout that year. But it didn’t go into theatrical release (and thus, I imagine, become accessible to nearly anyone who’d be voting/nominating for the Hugos) until the next year, with its first release in France on February 4, 2015. (Other countries following shortly thereafter.)
Thank you!
First public showing of a movie would include film festivals. In the case you cite, the movie would appear to have been eligible for the 2015 Hugo Awards. The 2015 WSFS Business Meeting would have needed to pass a resolution extending its eligibility (they did so for “Predestination”). However, it’s now too late for that. I think the work has exhausted its eligibility.
Thanks, Kevin. I’m of the opinion the festival thing is something of a pitfall that should be filled in, particularly in the dawning age of limited theatrical release/simultaneous streaming video release. Would you mind if I pick your brain some time to try to figure out suitable language for a potential amendment? (Whether we agree it’s a problem or not. ^^)
I’m willing to help anyone compose proposals in the correct form and to guide them through the process of changing the rules. In this particularly case, you need to think about how you would define your terms. How do you define a “festival” in such a way that makes it mean what you want it to mean? Also bear in mind that a work should be shown at a “festival” that contains an appreciable portion of the likely voters (say, a Worldcon Film Festival). Whatever wording you come up with, think of ways to break it.
Kevin, I’ve recently just learned that the 1941 Retro Hugos are happening next year. In my scramble to find works to consider, I came across La invención de Morel (The Invention of Morel), a novella that was/is highly praised and influential, but doesn’t appear to have had an English release until 2003. Would it be eligible for the Retro Hugos, at least in its Spanish form? Is it possible for the English translation to be eligible?
Nana:
Assuming that the novella was published in Spanish in 1940, it is eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novella. Works need not be published in English to be eligible for the Hugo Award. When published in English translation, the works get another year of eligibility; thus the work was eligible for the 2004 Hugo Award as well.
Thanks for answering my Video Game question.
I just need clarification on one thing for this one: only the Spanish text is eligible for next year? Not the English one? Could it be translated, if nominated?
The Spanish text is what would be eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugo.
Worldcons don’t publish copies of the nominated works. If someone wants to issue a translation of the work, that’s up to them and whoever owns the rights, if it’s still in copyright. It wouldn’t be the Worldcon’s job to issue a translation, if that’s what you mean.
Unrelated question to the other one I asked today.
To my understanding, a “Best Video Game” category was initially proposed in 2006, but did not receive enough votes to actually stay permanent. If someone were to, quasi-rhetorically-speaking, attempt to try and start this, or a “Best Interactive Presentation” category again, what would they have to do? What proposals do you recommend making? Where could they even start?
(Let me just add that I can’t afford to go to any of the Business Meetings. If I DID make a proposal, someone would have to go for me as proxy.)
Nana:
Each Worldcon has the right to add a one-time Special Category. The 2006 Worldcon used this authority to trial a Best Video Game category, but the response was so disappointing that they canceled it for lack of nominations. Based on this experience, the most likely way you should start is to convince an individual Worldcon to try again. That is, it’s not the Business Meeting where you start; it’s Worldcon committees. They can add a one-time category of Best Video Game on their own authority. If it does well enough to at least make it to the final ballot, you would have a better case of proposing adding it as a permanent category.
Proxies are not allowed at the Business Meeting. Each member represents him/herself alone. You don’t have to attend the Business Meeting to propose changes; even supporting (non-attending) members can propose changes. Any two members (supporting or attending) can propose changes. You have to be there in person to debate and vote upon those changes. If a trial of Best Video Game is successful (assuming you convince a Worldcon to try it), you and at least one other member of a Worldcon could propose adding it as a permanent category. If two consecutive Worldcon Business Meetings vote in favor of the change, it becomes a permanent category.
But as you note, the last test a decade ago was a dismal failure. If you really think things have changed sufficiently in ten years that would justify another test, start asking Worldcons to trial the category again and see what happens.
So, should I literally contact the people in charge of MidAmericon II about it? How do you set up a trial category? Are there any differences between it and a regular category that I should know about besides the obvious? How many votes does a trial category need to count on the ballot?
Yes, you need to literally contact the committee of MidAmericon II and ask them if they will trial the category. It is completely their decision, and nobody can force them to do so. Also note that WSFS rules would require them to also put it on the 1941 Retro-Hugo Awards ballot, absurd as that would be.
The rules regarding the Additional Category are at Section 3.3.17 of the WSFS Constitution. There are no differences between it and a regular category other than it’s not a permanent category. The way you set it up is for the Worldcon to decide to present it; they then add it to the ballot, and thereafter it behaves like any other category.
There is no absolute number of votes that any category (trial or otherwise) needs to make the final ballot. The actual rule is Section 3.6: “At the discretion of an individual Worldcon Committee, if the lack of nominations or final votes in a specific category shows a marked lack of interest in that category on the part of the voters, the Award in that category shall be canceled for that year.” This is a judgement call by the current Administrators, and can apply to any category, not just an Additional Category.
The nominating figures for the 2006 Hugo Awards show that only 58 people nominated in the Best Video Game category, and only one work received more than ten nominations. For comparison, the most popular permanent category (Best Novel) received 430 votes and the least popular (Best Fan Artist) received 154. This suggests that a category that cannot muster at least 35% of the members who nominate actually casting a ballot in that category (Video Game had only 13%) is not going to make it to the final round.
Can I get a Hugo Award replica? If so, how much would it cost?
Replicas of Hugo Award trophies are not available. The trophies are custom-made each year, and the rockets themselves are manufactured in small batches to cover the actual number of awards presented annually. We do not sell Hugo Award trophies.