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World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction

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79-653: The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described by book critics such as The Guardian as a "prestigious fantasy prize", and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and science fiction ). The World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction

158-574: A slate , even though there was no rule against slates. Based on complaints about the 2023 Hugo award process and official statements made about those complaints, Worldcon Intellectual Property (WIP), the non-profit organization that holds the service marks for the World Science Fiction Society, censured the director of WIP and two individuals who presided over the Hugo Administration Committee of

237-567: A Hugo Award, more so than for other awards such as the Nebula Award. Literary agent Richard Curtis said in his 1996 Mastering the Business of Writing that having the term Hugo Award on the cover, even as a nominee, was a "powerful inducement" to science fiction fans to buy a novel, while Jo Walton claimed in 2011 that the Hugo is the only science fiction award "that actually affects sales of

316-415: A Worldcon in the categories that are currently in use, and are optional; some Worldcons have chosen not to award them despite a year being eligible. Even for years in which Retro-Hugos are given, not all categories receive enough nominations to receive a ballot. In 2017, the eligible years were specified to be 1939–1952 and 1954, which expanded the possible years to include those post-1939 in which no Worldcon

395-461: A bloc Battlefield Earth , written by the organization's founder L. Ron Hubbard , for the Best Novel award; it did not make the final ballot. Another campaign followed in 1987 to nominate Hubbard's Black Genesis ; it made the final ballot but finished behind "No Award". 1989 saw a work — The Guardsman by Todd Hamilton and P. J. Beese — withdrawn by its authors from the final ballot after

474-476: A book". There have been several anthologies of Hugo-winning short fiction. The series The Hugo Winners , edited by Isaac Asimov , was started in 1962 as a collection of short story winners up to the previous year, and concluded with the 1982 Hugos in Volume 5. The New Hugo Winners , edited originally by Asimov, later by Connie Willis and finally by Gregory Benford , has four volumes collecting stories from

553-508: A category for Best Novella was added the following year; these new categories had the effect of providing a definition for what word count qualified a work for what category, which was previously left up to voters. Novelettes had also been awarded prior to the codification of the rules. The fan awards were initially conceived as separate from the Hugo Awards, with the award for Best Fanzine losing its status, but were instead absorbed into

632-503: A fan bought numerous memberships under false names, all sent in on the same day, in order to get the work onto the ballot. In 1990, the Best Original Art Work award was given as a special Hugo Award, and was listed again in 1991, though not actually awarded, and established afterward as an official Hugo Award. It was then removed from this status in 1996, and has not been awarded since. The Retro Hugos were created in

711-419: A given work is considered to be fantasy is left up to the discretion of the nominators and judges. Across all categories, Ellen Datlow has both the most nominations and most wins of any nominee, with 10 wins out of 42 nominations, primarily for her anthologies. She is followed by Terri Windling with 9 out of 30 and Stephen Jones with 3 out of 28, both also mainly for editing anthologies. Jeffrey Ford has

790-644: A panel of five judges adds three or more nominees before voting on the overall winner. The panel of judges is typically made up of fantasy authors, as well as other fantasy professionals and is chosen each year by the World Fantasy Awards Administration, which has the power to break ties if the judges are deadlocked. The awards administration is a subgroup of the World Fantasy Convention Board, which selects sites for upcoming World Fantasy Conventions. Both

869-430: A result. The Guardian estimated that the 377 memberships purchased for the attempt would have cost at least £16,965 (US$ 22,000). Worldcon committees may also give out special awards during the Hugo ceremony, which are not voted on. Unlike the additional Hugo categories which Worldcons may present, these awards are not officially Hugo Awards and do not use the same trophy, though they once did. Two additional awards,

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948-501: A small trophy; through the 2015 awards it was a bust of H. P. Lovecraft designed by cartoonist Gahan Wilson . The bust was retired following that year amid complaints about Lovecraft's history of racism; a new statuette designed by Vincent Villafranca depicting a tree in front of a full moon was released in 2017. The 2024 awards were presented at the 50th convention in Niagara Falls, New York on October 20, 2024, and

1027-443: A smaller scale, with limited success. The leaders of the campaigns characterized them as a reaction to "niche, academic, overtly [leftist]" nominees and the Hugo becoming "an affirmative action award" that preferred female and non-white authors and characters. In response, five nominees declined their nomination before and, for the first time, two after the ballot was published. Multiple-Hugo-winner Connie Willis declined to present

1106-458: A statuette of a tree. During the 50 nomination years, 184 authors have had works nominated; 51 of them have won, including ties and co-authors. Only five authors have won more than once: Ramsey Campbell and James Blaylock with two wins out of four nominations each, Stephen King won two out of three, and Tanith Lee and Fred Chappell won both times they were nominated. Of authors who have won at least once, Jeffrey Ford and Kelly Link have

1185-532: A tree in front of a full moon, was intended to evoke the use of trees and night imagery in mythology, fantasy, and horror works. World Fantasy Award nominees and winners are decided by judges and attendees of the World Fantasy Convention. A ballot is posted in June for attendees of the current and previous two conferences to determine two of the finalists, with the two most-nominated selected, and

1264-587: A trophy in the form of a bust of an elongated caricature of Lovecraft designed by cartoonist Gahan Wilson , nicknamed the "Howard", which matched the theme of the first convention, "The Lovecraft Circle". As stated by Wilson in First World Fantasy Awards: An Anthology of the Fantastic , "The point of the awards was, is, and hopefully shall be to give a visible, potentially usable, sign of appreciation to writers working in

1343-504: Is given each year for fantasy short stories published in English. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as short fiction if it is 10,000 words or less in length; awards are also given out for longer pieces in the Novel and Novella categories. The Short Fiction category has been awarded annually since 1975, though before 1982—when the category was instated—it was named "Best Short Fiction" and covered works of up to 40,000 words. It

1422-476: Is held. Prior to 2017, the final ballot was five works in each category. Worldcons are generally held near the start of September, and take place in a different city around the world each year. The idea of giving out awards at Worldcons was proposed by Harold Lynch for the 1953 convention. The idea was based on the Academy Awards , with the name "Hugo" being given by Robert A. Madle. The award trophy

1501-440: Is no monetary or other remuneration associated with the Hugo, other than the trophy. Retrospective Hugo Awards, or Retro-Hugos, were added as a concept to the Hugo Awards in 1996. They are awards given for years in which no Hugos were originally awarded. Prior to 2017, they could be awarded for works in a year 50, 75, or 100 years prior, after 1939, where there was a Worldcon but where no Hugos were awarded. Retro-Hugos are given by

1580-433: Is widely considered the premier award in the science fiction genre. It is named after Hugo Gernsback , the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories . Hugos were first given in 1953, at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention , and have been awarded every year since 1955. The awards originally covered seven categories, but have expanded to seventeen categories of written and dramatic works over

1659-606: The Astounding Award for Best New Writer and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book , are presented at the Hugo Award ceremony and voted on by the same process, but are not formally Hugo Awards. The Hugo Award is highly regarded by observers. The Los Angeles Times has termed it "among the highest honors bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing", a claim echoed by Wired , who said that it

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1738-401: The 1992 awards the nickname has been adopted as the official name of the award. For the first few years, Hugo Awards had no published rules, and were given for works published in the "preceding year" leading up to the convention, which was not defined but generally covered the period between conventions rather than calendar years. In 1959, though there were still no formal guidelines governing

1817-491: The 2025 awards will be presented at the 51st convention in Brighton, United Kingdom on November 2, 2024. The World Fantasy Awards were established at the first World Fantasy Convention , an annual convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy , held that first year in horror writer H. P. Lovecraft 's home city of Providence, Rhode Island in 1975. Winners were presented with

1896-595: The Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form category, "No Award" placed above all nominees that were on either slate, and it won all five categories that only contained slate nominees. The two campaigns were repeated in 2016 with some changes, and the "Rabid Puppy" slate again dominated the ballot in several categories, with all five nominees in Best Related Work, Best Graphic Story, Best Professional Artist, and Best Fancast. In response to

1975-596: The Chengdu Worldcon, and reprimanded the chair of the WIP board of directors. Both the director of WIP and chair of the WIP board of directors resigned. Glasgow 2024 Chairperson Esther MacCallum-Stewart announced in February 2024 that to ensure transparency in the awards selection, they would keep a log of all decisions, publish the reasons for any disqualification of potential finalists by April 2024, and publish

2054-548: The Dramatic Presentation category for the third and fourth time; "No Award" did not win any categories afterwards until 2015. In 1980 the category for Best Non-Fiction Book (later renamed Best Related Work ) was added, followed by a category for Best Semiprozine (semi-professional magazine) in 1984. In 1983, members of the Church of Scientology were encouraged by people such as Charles Platt to nominate as

2133-481: The H. P. Lovecraft bust through the 2015 awards; at that ceremony the presenters announced that future ceremonies will no longer use the trophy. Although controversy had arisen in recent years over Lovecraft's history of racism, no explicit reason was given for the change. A new statuette, designed by Vincent Villafranca , was announced in April 2017 to be used for the 2016 awards on. The new award, which depicts

2212-436: The Hugo Awards each year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The Hugos are widely considered the premier award in science fiction. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback , who founded the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories and who is considered one of the "fathers" of the science fiction genre. Works are eligible for an award if they were published in

2291-563: The Hugo, Nebula, and "the prestigious World Fantasy Award" as the "triple crown". Others have also noted the award's prestige in the field, such as Tachyon Publications and 2014 Best Anthology winner Gardner Dozois . Stephen Jones of the Best New Horror series has said that winning the anthology award for their first volume in 1991 helped "establish the series among readers and some publishers" in multiple countries. Winners such as Nnedi Okorafor —Best Novel in 2011—have described

2370-604: The United Kingdom. In addition to the awards ceremony, the conventions include an art show, a dealer's room, autograph receptions, and numerous panels and discussions. The World Fantasy Awards are split into ten categories, including both awards for written works and for professionals in the field. Eligibility requirements are loosely defined: works must have been published in the prior calendar year, and professionals must still be living. All types of fantasy works are accepted, regardless of subgenre or style, though whether

2449-505: The World Fantasy Award winners: First World Fantasy Awards: An Anthology of the Fantastic in 1977, edited by Gahan Wilson and covering stories from the initial award year, and The World Fantasy Awards: Volume Two in 1980, edited by Stuart David Schiff and Fritz Leiber . At the 1991 awards, graphic novel The Sandman issue #19 "A Midsummer Night's Dream", scripted by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Charles Vess , won

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2528-432: The World Science Fiction Society board. These categories were for Best Novel , Short Fiction (short stories, broadly defined), Dramatic Presentation, Professional Magazine , Professional Artist , and Best Fanzine . 1963 was also the second year in which "No Award" won a category, again for Dramatic Presentation. In 1964 the guidelines were changed to allow individual conventions to create additional categories, which

2607-410: The area of fantastic literature, an area too often distinguished by low financial remuneration and indifference". At the start of the awards in 1975, seven categories were presented: Best Novel, Best Short Fiction, Best Collection, Best Artist, Special Award—Professional, Special Award—Non-professional, and Life Achievement. Only a few categories have changed since then, and no changes have been made to

2686-535: The authors were excluded due to self-censorship by the Hugo Award administrators in order to appease the Chinese government, known to have a strict censorship regime . Additionally, an unknown number of ballots from Chinese voters were rejected because an award administrator considered them to be similar to a recommendations list published by the Chinese SF magazine Science Fiction World , and thus equivalent to

2765-443: The award as "one of my greatest honors as a writer". Editor and bookseller Rick Klaw in 2007, however, noted that the consensus at the time "in the bookselling community" was that winning the novel category did not have any effect on sales and did not help keep the book in print, with 57 percent of prior winners out of print, compared to 23 percent of Hugo Award winners from the same time period. Two anthologies have been drawn from

2844-486: The award for Best Short Story. It was reported that the rules were subsequently changed to prevent another graphic novel from winning, though the awards administration stated that comics and graphic novels were not intended to be eligible for that category, and said that "Comics are eligible in the Special Award Professional category. We never made a change in the rules." A minor controversy about

2923-475: The award. "No Award" won that year in two categories: Dramatic Presentation and Best New Author . The eligibility change additionally sparked a separate rule, prohibiting the nomination of works which had been nominated for the 1958 awards, as the two time periods overlapped. In 1961, after the formation of the WSFS to oversee each Worldcon committee, formal rules were set down in the WSFS constitution mandating

3002-413: The awards, several rules were instated which thereafter became traditional. These included having a ballot for nominating works earlier in the year and separate from the voting ballot; defining eligibility to include works published in the previous calendar year, rather than the ambiguous "preceding year"; and allowing voters to select "No Award" as an option if no nominated works were felt to be deserving of

3081-459: The awards. The slates were characterized by The Guardian as a "right wing", "orchestrated backlash" and by The A.V. Club as a "group of white guys", and were linked with the Gamergate campaign. Multiple Hugo winner Samuel R. Delany characterized the campaigns as a response to "socio-economic" changes such as minority authors gaining prominence and thus "economic heft". In all but

3160-505: The board and the judges panel are largely made up of professionals in the field of fantasy. The judges for the 2014 awards, for example, were authors Andy Duncan , Kij Johnson , Oliver Johnson, and Liz Williams , and editor John Klima . The nominees are announced in July, and final results are presented at the World Fantasy Convention around the end of October. The Life Achievement and Convention Awards do not list nominees, and instead have

3239-433: The campaigns, a set of new rules, called "E Pluribus Hugo", was passed in 2015 and ratified in 2016 to modify the nominations process. Intended to ensure that organized minority groups cannot dominate every finalist position in a category, the new rules define a voting system in which nominees are eliminated one by one, with each vote for an eliminated work then spread out over the uneliminated works they nominated, until only

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3318-584: The decision, and returned his two World Fantasy Awards and urged a boycott of the convention. Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by the World Science Fiction Society . The Hugo

3397-451: The field of fantasy. The awards have been described by book critics such as The Guardian as a "prestigious fantasy prize", and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and science fiction ). World Fantasy Award nominees and winners are decided by attendees of the convention and a panel of judges, typically made up of fantasy authors. Winners receive

3476-410: The final ballot, while the 1964 awards received 274 votes. The 2019 awards saw 1,800 nominating ballots and 3,097 votes, which was described as less than in 2014–2017 but more than any year before then. Brian Aldiss , in his book Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction , claimed that the Hugo Award was a barometer of reader popularity, rather than artistic merit; he contrasted it with

3555-408: The final shortlist remains. These rules were ratified in 2016 to be used for the first time in 2017. A rule mandating that the final nominees must appear on at least five percent of ballots was also eliminated, to ensure that all categories could reach a full set of nominees even when the initial pool of works was very large. Each nominator is limited to five works in each category, but the final ballot

3634-400: The full voting statistics immediately after the awards ceremony on August 11. In July 2024, the Hugo administration announced that roughly 10% of all votes cast for that year were determined to be fraudulently cast to help one unidentified finalist win. There was no evidence that the finalist had known about the attempt; the votes were invalidated and the finalist did not win the category as

3713-461: The future of the award trophy. In November 2015, at the 2015 awards, they announced that the Lovecraft bust would no longer be used beginning the following year. Lenika Cruz, associate editor of The Atlantic , defended the decision, stating that "Lovecraft's removal is about more than just the writer himself; it's not an indictment of his entire oeuvre". S. T. Joshi, however, expressed anger at

3792-415: The guidelines were changed again to remove the mandated awards and instead allow up to ten categories which would be chosen by each convention, though they were expected to be similar to those presented in the year before. Despite this change no new awards were added or previous awards removed before the guidelines were changed back to listing specific categories in 1977. 1971 and 1977 both saw "No Award" win

3871-500: The highest number of wins after Datlow and Windling with 6 out of 14 nominations, and is tied for the highest number of fiction awards with Stephen King at four. The awards have been described by book critics such as The Guardian as a "prestigious fantasy prize", and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and science fiction ). In 2010 multiple winner George R. R. Martin described winning

3950-590: The mid-1990s, and were first awarded in 1996. Another special Hugo Award, for Best Web Site, was given twice in 2002 and 2005, but never instated as a permanent category. In 2003, the Dramatic Presentation award was split into two categories, Long Form and Short Form. This was repeated with the Best Professional Editor category in 2007. 2009 saw the addition of the Best Graphic Story category, and in 2012 an award for Best Fancast

4029-399: The most nominations at five, followed by Dennis Etchison and Avram Davidson , who along with Campbell and Blaylock received four nominations. Charles de Lint has the most nominations without winning at five; he is followed by Michael Swanwick , who has had four nominations without winning. In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the work

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4108-619: The most venerable, democratic and international" science fiction awards "in existence". James Gunn , in The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1988), echoed The Guardian ' s statement of the award's democratic nature, saying that "because of its broad electorate" the Hugos were the awards most representative of "reader popularity". Camille Bacon-Smith , in Science Fiction Culture (2000), said that at

4187-412: The nominees are worthy of the award, or if they feel the category should be abolished entirely. A vote for "No Award" other than as one's first choice signifies that the voter believes the nominees ranked higher than "No Award" are worthy of a Hugo in that category, while those ranked lower are not. The six works on the ballot for each category are the most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on

4266-481: The number of stories that can be nominated. With the exception of 1956, the first years of the awards did not include any recognition of runner-up novels, but since 1959 all of the candidates have been recorded. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of six nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon

4345-412: The overall winner. The panel of judges is typically made up of fantasy authors and is chosen each year by the World Fantasy Awards Administration, which has the power to break ties. The final results are presented at the World Fantasy Convention at the end of October. Winners were presented with a statue in the form of a bust of H. P. Lovecraft through the 2015 awards; more recent winners receive

4424-404: The panel-selected Nebula Award , which provided "more literary judgment", though he did note that the winners of the two awards often overlapped. Along with the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award is also considered one of the premier awards in science fiction, with Laura Miller of Salon.com terming it "science fiction's most prestigious award". The official logo of the Hugo Awards is often placed on

4503-459: The presentation evening constitutes its central event. The selection process is defined in the WSFS constitution as instant-runoff voting with six nominees per category, except in the case of a tie. The awards are split over more than a dozen categories, and include both written and dramatic works. For each category of Hugo, the voter may rank "No Award" as one of their choices. Voters are instructed that they should do so if they feel that none of

4582-438: The presenting of the awards as one of the responsibilities of each Worldcon organizing committee. The rules restricted voting to members of the convention at which the awards would be given, while still allowing anyone to nominate works; nominations were restricted to members of the convention or the previous year's convention in 1963. The guidelines also specified the categories that would be awarded, which could only be changed by

4661-549: The previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention , the awards are given each year at the eponymous annual convention as the central focus of the event. They were first given in 1975, at the first World Fantasy Convention, and have been awarded annually since. Over the years that the award has been given, the categories presented have changed; currently World Fantasy Awards are given in five written categories, one category for artists, and four special categories for individuals to honor their general work in

4740-422: The prior calendar year, or translated into English in the prior calendar year. There are no written rules as to which works qualify as science fiction or fantasy, and the decision of eligibility in that regard is left up to the voters, rather than to the organizing committee. Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention , or Worldcon, and

4819-463: The regular Hugo Awards by the convention committee. While traditionally five works had been selected for nomination in each category out of the proposed nominees, in 1971 this was set down as a formal rule, barring ties. In 1973, the WSFS removed the category for Best Professional Magazine, and a Best Professional Editor award was instated as its replacement, in order to recognize "the increasing importance of original anthologies". After that year

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4898-588: The rules. 1978 saw the addition of the Convention Award, a special award given for general contributions to the genre, and the only award not given every year since the beginning. The Short Fiction award was split into Short Story and Novella awards in 1982, and in 1988 the multi-author anthologies, previously eligible for the Collection award, were split into their own Best Anthology category. No changes have been made since. Winners were presented with

4977-428: The symbol of the awards, given his outspoken racism, though others, such as Indian-American Lovecraft scholar and World Fantasy Award winner S. T. Joshi , claimed that Lovecraft's attitudes were not considered extreme at the time. Winners Nnedi Okorafor and China Miéville noted in 2011 that they felt conflicted about being honored by a bust of a man who hated people of color. Several authors and editors argued for

5056-412: The time fewer than 1,000 people voted on the final ballot; she held, however, that this is a representative sample of the readership at large, given the number of winning novels that remain in print for decades or become notable outside of the science fiction genre, such as The Demolished Man or The Left Hand of Darkness . The 2014 awards saw over 1,900 nomination submissions and over 3,500 voters on

5135-404: The trophy occurred in 1984, when Donald Wandrei refused his Life Achievement award as he felt the award bust was a demeaning caricature of Lovecraft, whom he had known personally. Wandrei's rejected trophy was later recycled and given to another award winner. A larger controversy surrounding the bust began in the 2010s, when several authors began to object to using the author H. P. Lovecraft as

5214-498: The trophy to be changed, including a petition by author Daniel José Older in 2014, an editorial by The New York Review of Science Fiction editor Kevin J. Maroney arguing that it should be changed "as a courtesy to generations of writers whom the WFA hopes to honor", and 2014 Best Novel winner Sofia Samatar 's acceptance speech. In September 2014, the administrators of the World Fantasy Award announced they were "in discussion" about

5293-587: The winner announced along with the other categories' nominees. The Life Achievement winner is decided by the judges panel, while the Convention award winner, not given every year, is selected by the convention organizers. The World Fantasy Convention itself is a multi-day event with several hundred attendees taking place in a different city each year, usually in the United States but sometimes in Canada or

5372-566: The winning books' cover as a promotional tool. Gahan Wilson , in First World Fantasy Awards (1977), claimed that noting that a book had won the Hugo Award on the cover "demonstrably" increased sales for that novel, though Orson Scott Card said in his 1990 book How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy that the award had a larger effect on foreign sales than in the United States. Spider Robinson , in 1992, claimed that publishers were very interested in authors that won

5451-529: The years. The winners receive a trophy consisting of a stylized rocket ship on a base. The design of the trophy changes each year, though the rocket shape has been consistent since 1984. The 2024 awards were presented at the 82nd Worldcon , " Glasgow 2024", in Scotland on August 11, 2024. The 2025 awards will be presented at the 83rd Worldcon , " Seattle Worldcon 2025", in the United States on August 16, 2025. The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) gives out

5530-707: Was "the premier award in the science fiction genre". Justine Larbalestier , in The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction (2002), referred to the awards as "the best known and most prestigious of the science fiction awards", and Jo Walton , writing in An Informal History of the Hugos , said it was "undoubtedly science fiction's premier award". The Guardian similarly acknowledged it as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" as well as "one of

5609-409: Was added. Best Series was added as a permanent category in 2018; it was run the year prior as a special Hugo Award prior to being ratified at the business meeting. Another special Hugo Award, for Best Art Book, was run in 2019 but was not repeated or made a permanent category. The 2021 Hugo Awards featured a special Hugo award for video games . It was thereafter proposed as a permanent category; it

5688-570: Was changed to six in each; additionally, no more than two works by a given author or group, or in the same dramatic series, can be in one category on the final ballot. In January 2024, the voting statistics for the 2023 Hugo Awards from the 81st World Science Fiction Convention, which was held in Chengdu , China, came into question due to several authors being declared ineligible without explanation, including Neil Gaiman , R. F. Kuang , Xiran Jay Zhao , and Paul Weimer. Leaked emails revealed that

5767-458: Was codified as up to two categories for that year. These additional awards were officially designated as Hugo Awards, but were not required to be repeated by future conventions. This was later adjusted to only allow one additional category; while these special Hugo Awards have been given out in several categories, only a few were ever awarded for more than one year. In 1967 categories for Novelette , Fan Writer , and Fan Artist were added, and

5846-400: Was created by Jack McKnight and Ben Jason in 1953, based on the design of hood ornaments of 1950s cars. It consisted of a finned rocket ship on a wooden base. Each subsequent trophy, with the exception of the 1958 trophy (a plaque), has been similar to the original design. The rocket trophy was formally redesigned in 1984, and since then only the base of the trophy has changed each year. There

5925-434: Was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". Entries with a blue background and an asterisk (*) next to the writer's name have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominees on the shortlist.   *    Winners World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during

6004-577: Was held at all. Of the fifteen years eligible, awards have been given for eight. The first Hugo Awards were presented at the 11th Worldcon in Philadelphia in 1953, which awarded Hugos in seven categories. The awards presented that year were initially conceived as a one-off event, though the organizers hoped that subsequent conventions would also present them. At the time, Worldcons were completely run by their respective committees as independent events and had no oversight between years. Thus there

6083-527: Was no mandate for any future conventions to repeat the awards, and no set rules for how to do so. The 1954 Worldcon chose not to, but the awards were reinstated at the 1955 Worldcon, and thereafter became traditional. The award was called the Annual Science Fiction Achievement Award, with "Hugo Award" being an unofficial, but better known name. The nickname was accepted as an official alternative name in 1958, and since

6162-512: Was not repeated as a special Hugo Award in 2022 or 2023, but was ratified as the Best Game or Interactive Work category, beginning in 2024. In 2015, two groups of science fiction writers, the "Sad Puppies" led by Brad R. Torgersen and Larry Correia , and the "Rabid Puppies" led by Vox Day , each put forward a similar slate of suggested nominations which came to dominate the ballot. The Sad Puppies campaign had run for two years prior on

6241-411: Was then renamed "Best Short Story" until 2016, when it was renamed to the "Short Fiction" category. World Fantasy Award nominees and winners are decided by attendees and judges at the annual World Fantasy Convention. A ballot is posted in June for attendees of the current and previous two conferences to determine two of the finalists, and a panel of five judges adds three or more nominees before voting on

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