Kathryn Cramer

The Hugo ballot: A very male fiction ballot this year

The Hugo ballot is out. Looking over the fiction nominations, it seems a very male ballot. Of the 21 authors listed in the fiction categories, four are women (19%).

Best Novel
(639 Ballots / Bulletins)

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK) — Free download
• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

Best Novella
(337 Ballots / Bulletins)

• “The Erdmann Nexus” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
• “The Political Prisoner” by Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF Aug 2008) – Read Online
• “The Tear” by Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
• “True Names” by Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2) — Free download
• “Truth” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)

Best Novelette
(373 Ballots / Bulletins)

• “Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders” by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s Jan 2008) — Read Online
• “The Gambler” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Fast Forward 2) — Read Online
• “Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (F&SF Jan 2008)
• “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner (Asimov’s Feb 2008) — Read Online
• “Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008) — Read Online

Best Short Story
(448 Ballots / Bulletins)

• “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Jul 2008) — Read Online
• “Article of Faith” by Mike Resnick (Baen’s Universe Oct 2008)
• “Evil Robot Monkey” by Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
• “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
• “From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s Feb 2008)

My own reading of the fiction of 2008 suggested to me that this was a much better year for sf&f by woman than that. Of the 23 names on our Year's Best SF 14 table of contents, 9 of the authors are women (39%). (We haven't announced our fantasy TOC yet, but assuming we get all the stories on which we've requested permission, the ration there will be 12/29 or 41%.) 

Of course, we used a different sample: short fiction. Nonetheless, I find this difference striking.

And here we are:

Best Editor, Long Form
(273 Ballots / Bulletins)

• Lou Anders
• Ginjer Buchanan
• David G. Hartwell
• Beth Meacham
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden

. . . and . . .

Best Semiprozine
(283 Ballots / Bulletins)

• Clarkesworld Magazine edited by Neil Clarke, Nick Mamatas & Sean Wallace
• Interzone edited by Andy Cox
• Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
• The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by Kathryn Cramer, Kris Dikeman, David G. Hartwell, & Kevin J. Maroney
• Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

100+ writers who have never won a Hugo

I have been irritated enough by discussions as to why more people under 30 40 haven't won Hugos, that I have spent a few hours composing a list of people who you might think had won Hugos, or perhaps ought to have won a Hugo or two, or are just plain pretty good writers —— but haven't won a Hugo. There are bestselling writers here, hall-of-famers, and at least one person who turned down the Nebula.

Looking over this list, I think it's fair to say that most good writers in the science fiction and fantasy field have never won a Hugo Award.

Eleanor Arnasen
Catherine Asaro
Kage Baker
Iain M. Banks
John Barnes
Stephen Barnes
Stephen Baxter
Gregory Benford
Michael Bishop
James P. Blaylock
Ray Bradbury
Damien Broderick
Edward Bryant
Emma Bull
Pat Cadigan
Jonathan Carroll
Storm Constantine
Jon Courtenay Grimwood
John Crowley
Jack Dann
Charles DeLint
Stephen Dedman
Bradley Denton
Paul DiFilippo
Cory Doctorow
Candas Jane Dorsey
Sarah Douglass
Terry Dowling
David Drake
Andy Duncan
Carol Emschwiller
Michael Flynn
Jeffrey Ford
John M. Ford
Karen Joy Fowler
R. Garcia y Roberston
Mary Gentle
Lisa Goldstein
Kathleen Ann Goonan
Stephen Gould
Nicola Griffith
Eileen Gunn
Barbara Hambly
Elizabeth Hand
Harry Harrison
M. John Harrison
Robin Hobb aka Megan Lindholm
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Robert Holdstock
Nalo Hopkinson
Alexander Jablokov
Kij Johnson
Diana Wynne Jones
Gwyneth Jones
Graham Joyce
Guy Gavriel Kay
John Kessel
Donald Kingsbury
Ellen Klages
Ellen Kushner
Tannith Lee
Jonathan Lethem
Paul Levinson
Elizabeth A. Lynn
Ian R. MacLeod
Ken MacLeod
Barry N. Malzberg
Richard Matheson
Paul J. McAuley
Wil McCarthy
Jack McDevitt
Patricia A. McKillip
Robin McKinley
Sean McMullen
China Miéville
L. E. Modesitt
Judith Moffett
Elizabeth Moon
Michael Moorcock
James Morrow
Pat Murphy
Linda Nagata
Kim Newman
Garth Nix
G. David Nordley
Jerry Oltion
Susan Palwick
Paul Park
Steven Popkes
Jerry Pounelle
Tim Powers
Terry Pratchett
Christopher Priest
Kit Reed
Alastair Reynolds
Mary Rosenblum
Rudy Rucker
Geoff Ryman
Pamela Sargent
Karl Schroeder
Melissa Scott
Deliah Sherman
Joan Slonczewski
Norman Spinrad
Brian Stableford
Sean Stewart
William Tenn
Mary Turzillo
Lisa Tuttle
James Van Pelt
Jeff VanderMeer
Élisabeth Vonarburg
Howard Waldrop
Peter Watts
Scott Westerfeld
Liz Williams
Sean Williams
Walter Jon Williams
Gene Wolfe
Jack Womack
Jane Yolen
George Zebrowski
Sarah Zettel

This is a loose & sloppy list probably full of typoes and with glaring omissions. Nearly of the writers on this list have been nominated for some award at some point. No particular age cut-off was used, just my sense of who has an established enough career to be interesting on such a list.

(Later, I will go through my years' best notes and compile a list of pretty good writers who have never been nominated for any award tracked by Locus. But not today.)

CHALLENGE QUESTION: What commercially and/or critically successful writers in the field have never been nominated for a Hugo, or perhaps even for any awards in the field? We can start with L. E. Modesitt. Who else?

Correcting what appears to be a common misapprehension

In reading the Internet's post-Hugo coverage, there seems to be a misapprehension out there that David G. Hartwell has been winning Hugos for decades and really ought to stop that and let someone younger have a chance. Perhaps people have him confused with Gardner Dozois or Charles N. Brown. The Hugo awarded David the other night in the category of Best Editor, Long Form, is only his second Hugo, ever.

According to the Locus list, his total award wins of all kinds are 2 career awards: the Milford and Skylark, plus 2 Hugos (counting the new one), 2 World Fantasy Awards, 7 Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Awards, 1 SFRA, 2 Readercon Awards. There are also a few more whimsical awards kicking around the house that Locus doesn't list (one involving a bird wing encased in lucite). But no secret stash of rocket ships except in Hugo-Nominee-pin form.

Semiprozine rules change & NYRSF

Regarding the Semiprozine Hugo Award rules change reported by Cheryl Morgan . . .

Removal of Semiprozine Category
A proposal to remove the Semiprozine Hugo was passed and forwarded to Montreal for ratification. The old qualification criteria from semiprozine are now used to define what is not eligible to be a fanzine. (We’ll post the actual wording later when we get official electronic copy). The vote was 40-28, and the issue continues to be hotly debated.

. . . I note that The New York Review of Science Fiction only meets 2 or the 5 criteria for "Semiprozine", by virtue that it pays contributors (token payment: $10/review & $25/essay) and acknowledges being a "semiprozine." As for the other criteria, our circulation is well below 1,000 copies and has been for the life of the magazine; while occasional and rare issues may contain more than 15% advertising, most contain much less; and the magazine does not provide a substantial portion of anyone's income.

If -- speaking purely hypothetically and only for myself -- NYRSF stopped making token payments for reviews and essays and instead gave contributors credit toward a subscription (say, 4 issues for a review, 10 issues for an essay), then according to Hugo rules, NYRSF would be a fanzine and would compete (and perhaps even win) in that category.

Many NYRSF contributors already use such an arrangement to pay for their subscriptions, so this would not be a big change from our end. Those obsessive enough to care about such things might want to go through the past decade of Hugo Award Final Reports to see how this would have played itself out in the Fanzine category, had NYRSF been classed as a fanzine.

A quick look at this year's report suggests that NYRSF would have won in that category on first ballot. Whether things would actually have worked out that way is hard to know. That really depends on what portion of NYRSF's Hugo constituency is old-line fanzine fans and how offended they would be to see a perrenial semiprozine nominee in the fanzine category.

Though NYRSF is one of the iconic semiprozines, we are only in the awards category by a hair, rules-wise.

FURTHER REMARK: Does anyone have an actual transcript of what was said at the meeting in which the rules change was discussed? The emerging impression I'm getting from what I can gather online is that some very smart people said some unfortunate things based on perhaps foolish assumptions.

And yet: I am wary of drawing conclusions about the true nature of the discussion based on online and second-hand information, having read too many mangled accounts of the goings-on at convention panels. So. Did anyone either record or take careful notes of the discussion preceding the vote of whether to eliminate the Semiprozine Hugo category? If so, can you either publish it online or email it to me?

Note additional discussions here, here, & here. (Also there Kevin Standlee had a discussion going somewhere on his LJ which I can't seem to find now.)

David won a Hugo last night!

So, as I was saying, I didn't go to Denvention, so I was not at the Hugo Award ceremony last night. When the phone rang last night some time after midnight, I was quite solidly asleep. I stumbled around trying to find it in the dark, but it stopped ringing. I figured either David had won a Hugo or it was a wrong number and I could know in the morning. (That chances that we'd both won for NYRSF were smaller than those of a wrong number.) So now it's morning and now I know! David G. Hartwell won for Best Editor in the Long Form category (the category for book editors, created 2 years ago). Whee! Congratulations, David!

Wish I'd been there last night, though it's pretty nice in Westport, NY. My Facebook status line from last night reads, "Kathryn Cramer is not at the Hugo nominees reception; she is bathing mud-covered children following a concert in the park."

Here's Lake Champlain this morning.

Since I wasn't there, I would really like to see some photos of David winning the Hugo. Can people please send them to me?

Hugo Nominations Closing Soon

Patrick Nielsen Hayden reminds us to get our ballots in:

Those of you who regularly nominate and/or vote in science fiction’s Hugo Awards probably don’t need to be reminded, yet again, that this year’s deadline for nominations is midnight PST at the end of this coming Saturday, March 1. Or that you’re eligible to nominate if you’re either a member of the upcoming World Science Fiction Convention in Denver, or were a member of last year’s convention in Japan. Or that if put it off until the last minute based on the idea that you can nominate online, you may not be able to get through.

Our Hugo Nominations

I think I forgot to announce this household's Hugo nominations. David and I (with Kevin Maroney) are jointly nominated in the Semiprozine category for The New York Review of Science Fiction. David is nominated for Best Editor in both the Short Form and Long Form categories.

Nice Shirt!

Scott Dennis, on behalf of the Clothiers Guild, presented my husband, David Hartwell, with this shirt, commemorating his Hugo win for Best Editor.

And here is David on an editing panel with his Hugo a little earlier in the day.

Sheila Williams, David Hartwell, & Ellen Datlow

Where Is the Time Machine When We Need It?

WARNING: SCIENCE FICTION FIELD IN-JOKE AHEAD.

What I would like to advise Connie Willis to say when touched inappropriately during the Hugo Awards ceremony: Go away little f*ck!

Yeeeehaaaaw! David won the Best Editor Hugo!

From Rob Sawyer:

I'm totally, totally thrilled that Bob Wilson, one of my very best friends, finally got his long overdue Hugo, and that my editor and friend David Hartwell, who, with 33 nominations to date, held the record for most nominations without a win, finally got the Best Editor Hugo . . .

And from Patrick Nielsen Hayden:

Hugo Award results
Posted by Patrick at 03:28 AM * 14 comments
OMGWTFBBQ!

Our incoherent congratulations to John Scalzi, David G. Hartwell, and Robert Charles Wilson, plus many other friends and associates. Also, AAAAAAIEEEEEEEEEEE!

John Scalzi, Robert Charles Wilson, & David Hartwell

This is the first time the Best Editor Hugo has been given to a living book editor. The category was felt to so thoroughly favor magazine editors that earlier in convention there was a vote, splitting the category in two, so that book editors could have the possibility of winning Hugo Awards. David won in the last year before the rules change takes effect.

Niall Harrison remarks:

Actually, it seems to have been a year for results that go against the common complaint that Hugo voters are swayed by name recognition, at least in some categories. Sure, Locus and Langford picked up their annual awards, but David Hartwell, editor of everyone from James Tiptree Jnr to David Marusek, finally converted a nomination to a win, and in doing so became the first non-dead book editor to win a Hugo (somewhat ironically, given that his omission from the winners’ list was one of the reasons behind the motion to split Best Editor into two categories).

We are walking on air. Thank you every one who supported him!

Also, our small press magazine, The New York Review of Science Fiction, finished a strong second in the Best Semiprozine category.

The complete list of Hugo winners is up at Locus. The voting breakdown is here. Our photos from last night are up on my Flickr account.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden remarks:

I don't think it's likely that I shall ever see a happier (purely from my point of view) set of Hugo results.