Author: Kevin

Hugo Award Nominations Close March 31

~ Kevin

Nominations for the 2016 Hugo Awards, John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author, and 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards close at 23:59 Pacific Standard Time at the end of the day on Thursday, March 31, 2016. (That’s 06:59 GMT/UTC on April 1, 2016.) Anyone who was or is a member of the 2015, 2016, or 2017 World Science Fiction Conventions as of the end of January 2016 may nominate. Members may nominate up to five works in each category. Note that you can nominate as little as one work in one category. It is not necessary to fill out every space or to nominate in every category.

After nominations close, the Hugo Award Administrators will tally nominations, confirm eligibility, and begin contacting potential finalists. Under the rules of the World Science Fiction Society, every potential finalist must be given an opportunity to decline nomination to the shortlist. Once this process is complete, the current Worldcon, MidAmeriCon II, will announce the shortlist of finalists for each category. It typically takes several weeks to complete the eligibility and contact process. MidAmeriCon II said in a post on Twitter that the 2016 Hugo Awards shortlist will be announced on April 26. Voting on the final ballot will open May 15 May and close July 31.

Note that the people/works who appear on the final ballot are “finalists.” Historically the term “nominees” was used, but this term was officially deprecated by the World Science Fiction Society in favor of “finalist” in a change ratified in 2015. There appear to be some people who have been told by individual members that they’ve received one or more nomination votes in the nomination process, and have started billing themselves as “Hugo Award Nominees.” The term “Hugo Award Nominee” has no official meaning, and it does not mean that the work or person will be on the final Hugo Award ballot.

Contact Address Down

~ Kevin

The standard contact address for the Hugo Awards (info@) is currently not working. We are working with our list hosting provider to resolve the issue. Until this is fixed, you can contact us through the Ask a Question page here on the site. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Update, March 26: The issue with the list hosting is resolved. Thanks for your patience while we corrected the issues.

2016 Hugo Award Base Competition Announced

~ Kevin ~ 1 Comment

The 2016 World Science Fiction Convention (“MidAmericon II”) has announced an open competition to design the base of the 2016 Hugo Award. The deadline for submitting a proposed design is January 18, 2016.

The Hugo Award trophy consists of a rocket design standardized since 1984 on a design by Peter Weston and registered as a service mark by the World Science Fiction Society. Worldcon committees design the base, and most recent Worldcons have conducted competitions to select a design.

Full details including the specifications and submission guidelines, are on the 2016 Worldcon web site. Direct any questions about the competition to the 2016 Hugo Base Competition Subcommittee, not to the Hugo Awards web site.

2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony Replay Available

~ Kevin ~ 3 Comments

A replay of the live video streaming of the 2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony, including the pre- and post-show analysis and interviews, is now available through Livestream.com.

The large initial demand to watch the live coverage of the 2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony exceeded the capacity purchased by the 2015 Worldcon, and therefore replays of the ceremony were not available until the convention could make alternative arrangements.

Edited to add: Since the initial publication of this post, the recording of the UStream feed once again was made available on the Hugo Awards UStream Channel.

2015 Hugo Award Winners Announced

~ Kevin ~ 85 Comments

The 73rd World Science Fiction Convention, Sasquan, has announced the 2015 Hugo Award winners. 5950 valid ballots were received and counted in the final ballot.

The members of the World Science Fiction Society rejected the slate of finalists in five categories, giving No Award in Best Novella, Short Story, Related Work, Editor Short Form, and Editor Long Form. This equals the total number of times that WSFS members have presented No Award in the entire history of the Hugo Awards, most recently in 1977.

Those categories in which there were Awards presented are listed below. For the full breakdown of voting and nomination see here.

Continue reading →

Hugo Awards Ceremony Tonight

~ Kevin ~ 2 Comments

The 2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony is scheduled for tonight, Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 8 PM Pacific Daylight Time in the INB Performing Arts Center in Spokane, Washington. Live video streaming of the 2015 Hugo Awards ceremony via UStream will be available through Sasquan, the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention. Sasquan’s coverage of the ceremony starts one hour before the ceremony (7 PM PDT) with “The Road to the Hugos”, a livestreamed Internet pre-and-post Hugo broadcast featuring hosts Stephen Schapansky and Warren Frey of Radio Free Skaro. They will return after the ceremony for an hour of post-ceremony interviews and analysis.

For those with lower bandwidth, the Hugo Awards web site coverage team of Kevin Standlee, Mur Lafferty, and Cheryl Morgan will be “on the air” approximately fifteen minutes before the ceremony with our text-only CoverItLive coverage of the event. Our coverage of the event will be in the window below.

Live Blog 2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony
 

Please note that the CoverItLive coverage is not synchronized with the UStream coverage and is likely to run ahead of the UStream broadcast.

2015 Hugo Trophy Unveiled

~ Kevin ~ 1 Comment

The design of the 2015 Hugo Award trophy was unveiled during the Opening Ceremonies of Sasquan, the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention, on the afternoon of August 19. In keeping with recent practice, Sasquan elected to showcase the trophy early in the convention so that members could see it before the final night of Worldcon. The trophy has been on display in the convention’s Hugo Award history exhibit since shortly after the convention’s Opening Ceremonies.

While the Hugo Award trophy always includes the rocket originally designed by Jack McKnight and Ben Jason as refined by Peter Weston, each year’s Worldcon can design its own base. In recent years, most Worldcons have had an open design competition to design the Hugo Award base. This year’s trophy base designer Matthew Dockery appeared in the Opening Ceremony and unveiled the trophy there.

The 2015 Hugo Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Spokane, Washington on the evening of Saturday, August 22, 2105, starting at 8 PM PDT. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Ustream and described on the Hugo Awards web site as a CoverItLive Broadcast.