2016 Hugo Award Finalists Announced

~ Kevin ~ 5 Comments

The finalists for the 2016 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the finalists for the 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards were announced via the Twitter feed and Facebook account of MidAmeriCon II, the 2016 Worldcon, on April 26, 2016.

4,032 valid nominating ballots (4,015 electronic and 17 paper) for the 2016 Hugo and Campbell Awards and 481 valid nominating ballots (475 electronic and 6 paper) for the 1941 Retro-Hugo Awards were received and counted from the members of the 2015, 2016, and 2017 Worldcons as of the end of January 2016. Members were eligible to make up to five equally-weighted nominations in each category. The nominating ballot count smashes the previous record of 2,122 ballots set last year by Sasquan, the 73rd Worldcon, in Spokane, Washington.

See the 2016 Hugo Awards page for the full list of 2016 finalists and the 1941 Retro Hugo Awards page for the full list of 1941 finalists.

A full breakdown of nominations, including how many nominations each finalist received and a list of works that did not make the final ballot but were in the top fifteen places, will be published after the Hugo Awards ceremonies in August.

Online balloting for the Hugo Awards will be available on the MidAmeriCon II web site in mid-May. MidAmeriCon II will also distribute paper ballots to its members, and paper ballots will be available for download from their web site when balloting opens. Voting on the final ballot will be open to all Attending, Young Adult, and Supporting members of MidAmeriCon II.

A Hugo Award Voter Packet of works appearing on the final ballot is expect to be issued sometime after the final ballot itself is released in May 2016. The Voter Packet is dependent upon the rights-holders to the various works permitting those works’ distribution within the Packet. There is no guarantee that any given finalist work will be in the Packet.

The 2016 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award winners will be announced Saturday, August 20, 2016, at the Hugo Awards Ceremony. The 1941 Retrospective Hugo Award winners will be announced Thursday, August 18, 2016, in conjunction with a Retro Hugo Swing Dance event. Both events will be at MidAmeriCon II in Kansas City.

Please direct questions about the administration of this year’s Hugo and Campbell Awards to the MidAmericon II Hugo Award Administration Subcommittee. TheHugoAwards.org does not actually manage the administration of each year’s Hugo Awards, and while we can answer general queries, definitive answers to specific questions about a given year’s Awards can only come from that year’s Administrator.

Hugo Award Nominations Shatter Records; Finalists to be Announced April 26

~ Kevin ~ 4 Comments

MidAmeriCon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, announced on April 14 that over 4,000 nominating ballots were cast for the 2016 Hugo Awards, almost double the previous record of 2,122 ballots set last year by Sasquan, the 73rd Worldcon, in Spokane, Washington. They also confirmed that the finalists for the 2016 Hugo Awards, 2016 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the 1941 Retro Hugo Awards will be announced on Tuesday, April 26.

The announcement of the Hugo Award finalists will be carried live via MidAmeriCon II’s social media. The finalists will be released category by category, starting April 26, 2016 at Noon CDT (10 AM PDT, 1 PM EDT, 6 PM BST, 7 PM Western European Summer Time), through the convention’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/MidAmeriCon2/) and Twitter feed. The announcement will begin with the 1941 Retro Hugo Awards then continue with the 2016 Hugo Awards and Campbell Award. The full list of finalists will be made available on the MidAmeriCon II website directly after the completion of the live announcement, and will also be distributed as a press release to all MidAmeriCon II press contacts.

Voting on the final award ballot to select this year’s winners will open in mid-May 2016, and will be open to all Attending, Young Adult, and Supporting members of MidAmeriCon II. The winners will be announced on Saturday, August 20, at the MidAmeriCon II Hugo Awards Ceremony in Kansas City.

MidAmeriCon II Clarifies Delays With Hugo Nomination Confirmation Emails

~ Kevin

MidAmeriCon II, the 2016 Worldcon, has issued a statement through their Facebook Page and Twitter feed addressing concerns about the confirmation emails sent to members casting their 2016 Hugo Award nominating ballots electronically:

In the final days of the Hugo Nomination Period, the high volume of nominating traffic led to a problem with our nomination email receipts. We sincerely apologize for the confusion and concern that this has caused. This error only affects the email system and not the nomination ballots. While a few members may still receive emails from our system, we have identified what caused this problem and have taken the appropriate steps to prevent this from happening during Hugo voting.

The 2016 Hugo Awards are administered by the 2016 World Science Fiction Convention. Address questions about the administration of the 2016 Hugo Awards to the current Worldcon’s Hugo Award Administrators.

2016 Hugo Awards Shortlist to be Announced April 26

~ Kevin ~ 1 Comment

Nominations for the 2016 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award and the 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards closed on March 31. The finalists will be announced by this year’s Worldcon, MidAmeriCon II, on April 26. Voting on the final ballot will open May 15 and close July 31.

To vote on the final ballot, you must be a member of MidAmeriCon II. Both attending and supporting (non-attending) members can vote. MidAmeriCon II also has certain discounted membership levels that include voting rights. See the MidAmeriCon II Membership Registration page for details.

The 2016 Hugo Awards will be presented at a ceremony at MidAmeriCon II in Kansas City on the evening of August 20, 2016. The 1941 Retro-Hugo Awards will be presented at a separate ceremony earlier in the 2016 Worldcon. We will announce further details of both events when they are revealed by MidAmeriCon II.

Direct all questions about the administration of this year’s Hugo Awards to the current Worldcon’s Hugo Award Administrators. MidAmeriCon II is exclusively responsible for the administration of the 2016 Hugo Awards, the John W. Campbell Award, and the 1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards.

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.

President Reads Hugo Winner

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

US President Obama has been open about his interest in science fiction. He had the new Star Wars film screened at the White House before heading off to Hawaii for his Christmas holiday. He is also a very keen reader, and we were delighted to hear that one of the books he took with him for holiday reading was last year’s Hugo Award winner for Best Novel, The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu translator and published by Tor Books.

We hope you enjoyed the book, Mr. President. And do let us know if you have any recommendations for this year’s Hugos.

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.