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.

Helsinki to Trial Best Series

~ Cheryl ~ 7 Comments

Worldcon 75 in Helsinki has announced that it will use its special powers to create one Hugo Award category to trial the proposed Best Series Hugo. This is in line with current tradition whereby seated Worldcons use their category creation power to test proposed new categories that have passed one Business Meeting and are up for ratification at the Worldcon in question. This gives members of WSFS an opportunity to see the category in action before voting on ratification.

The full text of the Worldcon 75 press release is as follows:
Continue reading →

1941 Retro Hugo Statistics Released

~ Cheryl ~ 5 Comments

With apologies for the delay, we are now able to release the full voting breakdown for the 1941 Retro Hugo Awards. You can find the document here (pdf).

We have also updated the 2016 statistics document to correct a small number of typographical errors in the original document. These did not affect the results of the Awards in any way, and all of the numbers were correct. The only significant change is in the top 15 for fancast where The Coode Street Podcast was incorrectly listed twice. The second listing should have been for Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men, presented by Jay Edidin and Miles Stokes.

2016 Hugo Awards Announced

~ Cheryl ~ 47 Comments

The 74th World Science Fiction Convention, MidAmeriCon II, announced the winners of the 2016 Hugo Awards at a ceremony on the evening of Saturday, August 20, 2016. The ceremony was hosted by Toastmaster, Pat Cadigan, assisted by Jan Siegel. 3,130 valid ballots were received and counted in the final ballot.

BEST NOVEL

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

BEST NOVELLA

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)

BEST NOVELETTE

ā€œFolding Beijingā€ by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015)

BEST SHORT STORY

ā€œCat Pictures Pleaseā€ by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015)

BEST RELATED WORK

No Award

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

The Sandman: Overture written by Neil Gaiman, art by J.H. Williams III (Vertigo)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

The Martian screenplay by Drew Goddard, directed by Ridley Scott (Scott Free Productions; Kinberg Genre; TSG Entertainment; 20th Century Fox)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

Jessica Jones: ā€œAKA Smileā€ written by Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, and Jamie King, directed by Michael Rymer (Marvel Television; ABC Studios; Tall Girls Productions;Netflix)

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM

Ellen Datlow

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM

Sheila E. Gilbert

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

Abigail Larson

BEST SEMIPROZINE

Uncanny Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, and Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky

BEST FANZINE

File 770 edited by Mike Glyer

BEST FANCAST

No Award

BEST FAN WRITER

Mike Glyer

BEST FAN ARTIST

Steve Stiles

The 2016 Hugo Award trophy base was designed by Sarah Felix.

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (Not a Hugo Award, but administered along with the Hugo Awards) went to:

Andy Weir

Full details of the voting are available here (PDF).