Announcements

Nominations Closed

~ Cheryl

The nominating period for this year’s Hugo Awards is now closed. The folks from Helsinki are reporting on Twitter that a large number of ballots has been received.

We are expecting the announcement of the finalists some time in April. For further information on Helsinki’s schedule for the Awards, see their website.

Hugo Award “Finalists” and “Nominees”

~ Kevin ~ 6 Comments

We have once again received word of persons who are describing themselves as “Hugo Award nominees.” The term “Hugo Award nominee” does not have any official meaning. The term for a person or work that receives sufficient nominations to appear on the final Hugo Award ballot is “Hugo Award Finalist.”

Historically, the works and people shortlisted for the Hugo Award were once called “nominees,” and you may still find people using the term in that way. However, in 2014, WSFS deprecated the term “nominee” except in the technical sense relating to the counting of ballots as defined in the WSFS Constitution. The only official terms are “finalist” and “winner.”

Any of the thousands of members of the World Science Fiction Convention can nominate up to five works/people per category for the Hugo Award. Hundreds, and sometimes thousands of different works/people are in fact nominated each year. However, only a small number make the shortlist and can legitimately claim the name of “Hugo Award Finalist.”

Past Hugo Award Finalists are listed in each year’s Hugo Award History. Only those works/people listed there are Hugo Award Finalists.

Feedback Solicited for Name of New YA Award

~ Kevin ~ 5 Comments

On the agenda for ratification at this year’s Worldcon is a new Worldcon-sanctioned award for Young Adult fiction. This is not a Hugo Award, but a new award administered similarly to the Hugo Award. If ratified this year, it will be first presented at Worldcon 76 in San Jose in 2018. The committee that has been working on the proposal is now soliciting feedback on the short list of potential names for the award. The committee considered and discarded names of persons, as well as names of existing awards and names that could cause trademark/copyright issues.

The committee will make recommendations to the WSFS Business Meeting in Helsinki. The Business Meeting is the body that has the final right to pick a name for the Award.

Peter Weston, The Hugo Award Rocket Man (1943-2017)

~ Kevin ~ 1 Comment

Peter Weston with a Hugo Award rocket Peter Weston, the man who created the current version of the iconic Hugo Award rocket, died on January 5, 2017, aged 73, according to a report published by Locus Online today. Although each Worldcon designs its own Hugo Award trophy base, since 1984, all metal Hugo Award trophy rockets have been cast from a mold created by Weston at the foundry he owned. (Non-metallic trophies followed the same design but were constructed using a different process.)

Weston gave presentations about the making of Hugo Award rockets and made the presentation available to The Hugo Awards web site for us to preserve here. The World Science Fiction Society recognized Weston’s contributions to the Hugo Award by including his name in the WSFS Constitution after the original designers of the Hugo Award trophy, Jack McKnight and Ben Jason.

Besides his contributions to the Hugo Awards, Weston chaired the 1979 Worldcon in Brighton, UK, and was Fan Guest of Honor at the 2004 Worldcon. He edited anthologies and was a finalist for the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Related Work for his memoir, Stars in My Eyes: My Adventures in British Fandom.

1941 Retro-Hugo Awards Announced

~ Kevin ~ 4 Comments

The 74th World Science Fiction Convention, MidAmeriCon II, announced the winners of the 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards at a ceremony on the evening of Thursday, August 18, 2016. 869 valid ballots were received and counted in the final ballot.

BEST NOVEL

Slan, A.E. Van Vogt (Astounding Science‐Fiction, December 1940)

BEST NOVELLA

“If This Goes On…”, Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, February 1940)

BEST NOVELETTE

“The Roads Must Roll”, Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1940)

BEST SHORT STORY

“Robbie”, Isaac Asimov (Super Science Stories, September 1940)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

Batman , (Detective Comics, Spring 1940)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

Fantasia written by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, directed by Samuel Armstrong et al. (Walt Disney Productions, RKO Radio Pictures)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

Pinocchio , written by Ted Sears et al., directed by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske (Walt Disney Productions, RKO Radio Pictures)

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM

John W. Campbell

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

Virgil Finlay

BEST FANZINE

Futuria Fantasia edited by Ray Bradbury

BEST FAN WRITER

Ray Bradbury

The 1941 Hugo Award winners were announced at a ceremony held at MidAmeriCon II on Thursday August 18th, 2016 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The 1941 Retro-Hugo trophy base was designed by Brent Simmons.

2016 Hugo Trophy Unveiled

~ Kevin

The designs of the 2016 Hugo Award trophy and 1941 Retrospective Hugo Award trophy were unveiled during the Opening Ceremonies of MidAmeriCon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, on the afternoon of August 17. In keeping with recent practice, MidAmeriCon II 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. The 1941 trophy base was designed by Brent Simmons and the 2016 trophy base was designed by Sara Felix.

The 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards will be announced and presented at the Retro Hugo Swing Dance Ceremony on Thursday, August 18, 2016.

The 2016 Hugo Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Kansas City, Missouri on the evening of Saturday, August 20, 2016, starting at 8 PM CDT. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Ustream and described on the Hugo Awards web site as a CoverItLive Broadcast.

2016 Hugo Award Voting Closed July 31

~ Kevin ~ 2 Comments

Voting for the 2016 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and for the 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards closed Sunday, July 31, 2016 at 23:59 Pacific Daylight Time. The votes are now being tabulated, and the results will be announced at MidAmeriCon II, the 2016 World Science Fiction Convention, in Kansas City, August 17-21.

The results of the 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards will be announced and trophies presented on Thursday, August 18, 2016 during the Retro-Hugo Swing Dance/Ceremony at MidAmeriCon II.

The results of the 2016 Hugo Awards will be announced and trophies presented at a ceremony on the evening of Saturday, August 20, 2016 at MidAmeriCon II. This year’s Worldcon will broadcast the Hugo Awards Ceremony live on streaming video. Lower-bandwidth text-only coverage of the event will be provided through the Hugo Awards web site. Details of the live streaming and text-based coverage will be announced later this month prior to the convention.

1941 Retro-Hugo Novelette Category Changes

~ Kevin ~ 3 Comments

MidAmericon II’s Hugo Award Administrators announced a change to the 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards finalists on June 19. “Darker Than You Think” by Jack Williamson was mistakenly categorized as a novelette and initially announced as a finalist in that category, but has been removed from the ballot. The story is a novella but did not receive sufficient nominations to qualify as a finalist in that category. “Vault of the Beast” by A.E. Van Vogt (Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1940) should have been listed as the 5th finalist and has been added to the 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards ballot.

MidAmeriCon II encourages anyone who has already registered votes for the Retro Hugo contest online to update their ballot as they feel appropriate. Members voting by mailed in paper ballot may write in “Vault of the Beast” and rank it as they see fit. The administrators will count their ballot appropriately.