The Hugo Award Nominees 2019. Plus 75th anniversary Retro Prizes
Tuesday, April 2, 2019 at 6:13PM
NATHANIEL R in books, politics, sci-fi fantasy

With the weather warming up are you looking for spring & summer reads? For those of you who enjoy sci-fi / fantasy novels, you can always get recommendations each year from the Hugo Awards... though we wish these recommendations each year leaned a little more fantasy (the balance is definitely pro sci-fi with a few fantasy sprinklings). The nominations were determined by 1800 valid nomination ballots from members of the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon). If you'd like to be a nominator for 2020, you could join WorldCon this year.

Since this is a film site we'll start with their "dramatic presentation" prizes. 

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form


Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form


A COMPLETE LIST OF NOMINEES (MOST CATEGORIES ARE LITERARY) FOR 2019 IS AFTER THE JUMP. The winners will be announced at the Dublin WorldCon in August. Those who join WorldCon can vote on the awards before August. We've included links if the stories are online. There are also a list of 75th anniversary prizes too for reasons unbeknownst to us so there's a set of nominees for 1944 (aka produced in 1943) as well... 

Best Novel 

All but one of the novelists in this top category are women. The Hugos have been mired in controversy for the past several years due to representation issues. As far as we understand the controversy (and we might be off here because we're not embedded in this particular world at all as cinephiles who occassionally read sci-fi fantasy books)...since the nominating committee is a paid membership kind of deal, anyone willing to pay the fee (membership to WorldCon) can theoretically have a voice and can theoretically legally manipulate the results (if they get enough buy-in from like-minded fans. So the awards have become a battleground for representation politics things getting really hostile 5 years or so ago when a slate of nominees was mostly approved and pushed by a rabidly sexist patriarchy loving group... so even some of the authors withdrew themselves from consideration (not wanting to be associated).  Since then there have been developments both wild (one reactionary-pushed nominee turned out to be doing something like performance art and actually champions diversity) and expected because you can't really stop diversity and it's silly to try. N.K. Jemisin broke a record last year winning thrice consecutively, a first and gave this much-loved speech.

Anyway one imagines these culture wards are not going away any time soon as the sci-fi fantasy publishing world continues to, like Hollywood, have growing pains about who gets a voice and who is honored among the voices we do get to hear. 

Best Novella (defined as between 17,500 and 40,000 words)

One male writer made this list, P. Djèlí Clark with a debut novella. I'm always curious about debuts or stand-alones (I think Gods Monsters and the Lucky Peach is a stand alone, too. Not entirely sure) because if there is one entirely regrettable thing about the sci-fi/fantasy genre even within its highest heights its the forcedness of everything being franchiseable with multiple novels.

Best Novelette (defined as betwen 7,500 and 17,500 words)

Best Short Story (defined as under 7,500 words)

Best Series

Best Related Work

Best Graphic Story

Best Editor, Short Form

Best Editor, Long Form

Best Professional Artist

Best Semiprozine

Best Fanzine

Best Fancast

Best Fan Writer

Best Fan Artist

Best Art Book
This is a one-off category. Each year's WorldCon gets to have one and Dublin created an award for an art book. 

NOT STRICTLY HUGO AWARDS BUT ALSO GIVEN OUT AT WORLDCON

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

* = this is their last year of eligibility (writers are eligible for two years after their first professionally published work)

 

1944 RETROSPECTIVE HUGOS

 

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form


Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form


Best Novel

Best Novella

Best Novelette

Best Short Story

Best Graphic Story


Best Editor, Short Form

Best Professional Artist

Best Fanzine

Best Fan Writer

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
See website for complete article licensing information.