Things have been quiet around here regarding the Hugo Awards. We ran our second annual four part collective Hugo Award Longlist (1, 2, 3, 4) and then pretty much went radio silent. We want to be a resource and part of the conversation, but we don't want to be THE conversation and make it about any sort of Hugo agenda. To be fair, with fifteen of us, I'm not sure we would be able to put together any sort of unified agenda anyway, but that isn't really the point.
Now that the nominating deadline has passed, it is appropriate for the various writers here to share their nominating ballots - though this post should also not be viewed as the first of a Ballot Series. I just love talking about the Hugo Awards too much and part of that conversation is sharing my nominating ballot.
With two exceptions, I am going to let the ballot stand as is without comment.
Novel
The Obelisk Gate; N.K. Jemisin; Orbit (my review)
Flesh and Wires; Jackie Hatton; Aqueduct Press (my review)
City of Blades; Robert Jackson Bennett; Broadway
Infomocracy; Malka Older; Tor.com Publishing (Charles' review)
All the Birds in the Sky; Charlie Jane Anders; Tor (my review)
Novella
Every Heart a Doorway; Seanan McGuire; Tor.com Publishing (my review)
Lustlocked; Matt Wallace; Tor.com Publishing (my review)
Pride's Spell; Matt Wallace; Tor.com Publishing (my review)
The Drowning Eyes; Emily Foster; Tor.com Publishing (my review)
Everything Belongs to the Future; Laurie Penny; Tor.com Publishing
Novelette
"Small Wars"; Matt Wallace; Tor.com
Short Story
"Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies"; Brooke Bolander; Uncanny, Issue 13
"This City Born Great"; N.K. Jemisin; Tor.com
"Listen"; Karin Tidbeck; Tor.com
Related Work
The Geek Feminist Revolution; Kameron Hurley; Tor
Fireside Fiction Special Report; Brian J White; Medium.com
Graphic Story
Paper Girls: Vol 1; Brian K. Vaughan
Monstress: Awakening; Marjorie Liu
Saga: Vol 6; Brian K. Vaughan
White Sand: Vol 1; Brandon Sanderson
Paper Girls: Vol 2; Brian K. Vaughan
Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Deadpool
The Expanse: Season 1
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Zootopia
Hidden Figures
Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
"The Door"; Game of Thrones
"Battle of the Bastards"; Game of Thrones
"Leviathan Wakes"; The Expanse
Editor, Long Form
Patrick Nielsen Hayden (All the Birds in the Sky)
Carl Engle-Laird (Infomocracy)
Devi Pillai (The Obelisk Gate)
Julian Pavia (City of Blades)
L. Timmel Duchamp (Flesh and Wires)
Editor, Short Form
Jonathan Strahan
Ann VanderMeer
John Joseph Adams
Professional Artist
Christopher Park; People of Color Destroy Science Fiction
Cynthia Shepard; The Drowning Eyes
Richard Anderson; The Burning Light
Todd Lockwood; The Summer Dragon
Victo Ngai; Everfair
Semiprozine
Uncanny Magazine
Fanzine
Nerds of a Feather (The G, Vance Kotrla, Joe Sherry)
SF Bluestocking (Bridget McKinney)
Quick Sip Reviews (Charles Payseur)
SF in Translation (Rachel Cordasco)
Lady Business (Renay, Clare, Ira, Jodie, KJ, Susan)
Here's one of the two comments I want to make about my ballot. I nominated the blog I co-edit and write for. I do acknowledge that can be viewed as somewhat self serving and shallow, but I also think that the collective flock here at Nerds of a Feather do really fantastic work. The collective is stronger than any individual writer we have here (and we have some pretty darn good writers). Also, I think we very strongly reflect the modern fanzine as group blog. I think we're pretty darn awesome, but I love all my kids.
Fancast
Cabbages and Kings
Rocket Talk
Midnight in Karachi
Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men
Fan Writer
Joe Sherry; Nerds of a Feather
Bridget McKinney; SF Bluestocking
Abigail Nussbaum; Asking the Wrong Questions
Charles Payseur; Quick Sip Reviews, Nerds of a Feather
Brandon Kempner; Chaos Horizon
So, uh, this is the other comment I wanted to make. It's one thing to nominate yourself for a Hugo, it's another thing to talk about that in public. This is why we didn't specifically recommend ourselves on the Longlist. To quote Charles M. Schulz, "How gauche". But, after a number of years of lagging motivation, I was asked to join the flock here at Nerds of a Feather and I think I've since turned in some of my strongest work in a long time. I don't know that anyone else will have nominated me as there are a number of much higher profile writers who are doing really strong work, but I'd also really hate to miss the final ballot by one vote.
Series
The Expanse; James S.A. Corey; Babylon's Ashes; Orbit
Tao; Wesley Chu; The Rise of Io; Angry Robot
Wild Cards; George R. R. Martin; High Stakes; Tor
Court of Fives; Kate Elliott; Poisoned Blade; Little Brown
Mistborn; Brandon Sanderson; The Bands of Mourning; Tor
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
Jackie Hatton; Flesh and Wires
Malka Older; Infomocracy
KB Wagers; Behind the Throne
CA Higgins; Lightless
Kelly Robson; Waters of Versailles
POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Writer / Editor at Adventures in Reading since 2004. Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2015, editor since 2016. Minnesotan.