The 2015 Worldcon in Spokane (“Sasquan”) has opened nominations for the 2015 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. See the Nominating Ballot at the Sasquan web site to make your nominations.

Anyone who is or was a voting member of the 2014, 2015, or 2016 Worldcons by the end of the day (Pacific Time/GMT – 8) on January 31, 2015 is eligible to nominate. You may nominate only once, regardless of how many of those three Worldcons you are a member.

Nominations close at 23:59 Pacific Daylight Time (GMT – 7) on March 10, 2015. The works/people receiving sufficient nominations in this first stage of the balloting will go on to the final ballot, which will be announced later this year. Only members of the 2015 Worldcon will be eligible to vote on the final ballot. The January 31, 2015 membership deadline does not apply to the final ballot, only the nominating ballot.

In general, works first published or appearing in calendar year 2014 are eligible for the Hugo Award. Works previously published in languages other than English but first published in English in 2014 are eligible. Works previously published outside of the USA but first published in the USA in 2014 are eligible. Medium of publication is irrelevant: works published or appearing online are considered the same as if published in hard-copy form or shown on television or in theaters, including film festivals. Works published in multiple parts, such as serialized stories including graphic works, are eligible if their final part appeared in 2014. Detailed rules for the Hugo Award are contained in Article 3 of the World Science Fiction Society’s constitution.

Direct specific questions about the 2015 Hugo Awards to the 2015 Hugo Award Administrator through the 2015 Worldcon Committee Contact List. (Scroll down to “Hugo Administrator” for the specific contact information.) Please do not ask specific questions about the 2015 Hugo Awards by commenting here or sending inquiries to TheHugoAwards.org. The team managing this web site does not actually run the individual awards, so we can only forward your questions to the current year’s Hugo Award Administrators, which will delay a reply.

Besides online voting (which requires a Personal Identification Number (PIN) issued by the 2015 Worldcon), you will also be able to vote on a paper ballot. Members of the current Worldcon will be mailed ballots. A PDF of the ballot is available from the 2015 Worldcon Hugo Awards page

Note: In the interest of maintaining neutrality, we cannot approve any comments on TheHugoAwards.org promoting (or criticizing) specific works or people. If you post such a comment, we will not let it out of moderation. There are other venues (some of which are listed on the sidebar under “Third Party Recommendation Sites”) that are appropriate for discussing recommendations for the Hugo and Campbell Award. TheHugoAwards.org does not endorse any of the content of those sites.

This year’s Worldcon, Loncon 3, has announced that participation in the Hugo Awards is now officially at an all-time high. Loncon 3 received 3,587 valid Hugo Award final ballots (3,571 online, 16 paper). The previous high was 2,100 final ballots cast by members of the 2011 Worldcon, Renovation.

According to Loncon 3’s demographics page, there were 8,784 eligible voters (5,891 attending, 2,893 supporting), meaning that over 40% of the eligible voters participated this year.

Over in the 1939 Retrospective Hugo Awards, there were 1,307 valid ballots cast (1,295 online, 12 paper), a turnout of approximately 15% of eligible voters.

The winners of the 1939 Retro-Hugo Awards and the 2014 Hugo Awards will be announced at ceremonies on the first and last nights of Loncon 3. Detailed results for each set of Awards will be be available from Loncon 3 and TheHugoAwards.org shortly after each ceremony.