Thursday, February 2, 2023

2023 Nerds of a Feather Hugo Awards Recommended Reading, Part 4: Institutional Categories

Welcome to the fourth and final instalment of the Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together 2023 Hugo Awards Longlist!

This time we are looking at what are, for lack of a better term, the "nonfiction and institutional categories": Best Related Work, Best Semiprozine, Best Fanzine, and Best Fancast. Some of these categories are the hardest to figure out eligibility for, either because they require intimate knowledge of Hugo rules ("Semiprozine", why are you a word in our vocabulary) or because the precedent for them has historically been weird (e.g. recognising the podcasts of profit-making websites in Best Fancast).

We do feel obliged to mention that 'nerds of a feather, flock together' is eligible in Best Fanzine but we have already won a Hugo Award (thank you again!) and we won't hold it against anyone who wants to recognize the breadth of the incredible fan work being done in and around the community. We'd much rather talk about all the other sites we like to read!

Before moving on to the recommendations, we'd like to remind everyone once again that this list is not and does not intend to be a comprehensive survey of genre or fandom. Rather, these are recommendations we suggest you consider alongside whatever other candidates you have in mind.

Nerds of a Feather 2023 Recommendation List Series:


Related Work
The 2022 #Blackspecfic Report: A Look at 2021 in Short Speculative Fiction by L.D. Lewis and Nelson Rolon [FIYAH Magazine]
Blood, Sweat, and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, by Kyle Buchanan 
Monster Kids, by Daniel Dockery [Harpercollins US]
Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations on Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature in a Pandemic ed. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki [Jembefola Press]
Magical Readathon: Orilium, by G
Rayguns and Rocketships: Vintage Science Fiction Book Cover Art by Rian Hughes [Korero Press]
Into Every Generation a Slayer is Born, by Evan Ross Katz [Hatchette]
Gamer Girls, by Mary Kenney, illustrated by Salini Perera [Running Press Kids]
Cosplay: A History, by Andrew Liptak [Gallery/Saga Press]
The Origins of the Wheel of Time, by Michael Livingston [Tor]
Fight, Magic, Items, by Aidan Moher [Running Press]
Still Just a Geek, by Wil Wheaton [HarperCollins US]
Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes* *The Official Biography by Rob Wilkins [Doubleday]
The Rise and Fall of Geek Culture, by Sarah Z
Southeast Asians Roast Raya and the Last Dragon, hosted by Xiran Jae Zhao, created by Audris/Serat, Jes & Cin Wibowo, AC, Azrael, Florp, IslandBard, Jo Lune, Mars/Marissa Irene, SekHanFoo, Serenity, Stephani Soejono, Sylanc, Tran Nguyen, Victor, VieN, Violeta, Vu, Xara, alexhawthornes, dangerouscolors, k0ks3nw4i, obaewankaenobi, somelongguy, Witchtimez

Semiprozine
Anathema Magazine
Apparition Lit
Augur Magazine
Beneath Ceaseless Skies (Note: BCS has recused itself from the Hugo awards, but we still recommend the heck out of them in general and it feels like an omission not to include them on this list)
Cast of Wonders
The Deadlands
Escape Pod
Fireside Magazine
FIYAH
The Future Fire
GigaNotoSaurus
Khōréō
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
Mermaids Monthly
Omenana
Podcastle
Pseudopod
Shoreline of Infinity
Strange Horizons
Uncanny

Fanzine
Astrolabe (Aidan Moher)
Black Nerd Problems (Omar Holman and Evan Williams)
FanFiAddict
Fantasy Faction
The Fantasy Inn
The Full Lid (Alasdair Stuart and Marguerite Kenner)
Galactic Journey (Team Galactic Journey)
Hugo Book Club Blog (Olav Rokne and Amanda Wakaruk)
Journey Planet (Team Journey Planet)
Lady Business (Anna, Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan)
Libri Draconis (Fab, Sun and Kat)
The Middle Shelf (C)
The Rec Center (Gavia Baker-Whitelaw and Elizabeth Minkel)
Runalong the Shelves (Matt)
Salon Futura (Cheryl Morgan)
SF in Translation (Rachel Cordasco)
There's Always Room for One More (Imyril)
Transfer Orbit (Andrew Liptak)
Women Write About Comics (Team WWAC)

Fancast
The 250
Chronicles of Noria
Coode Street Podcast
Dreaming About Dragons
The Hidden Bookcase
Hugo, Girl
Hugos There
I Should Read That
Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men
Kalanadi
Kat Clay 
li.reading's tiktok
Mostly Nitpicking
Octothorpe 
pagemelt's tiktok
Quincy's Tavern
The Skiffy and Fanty Show
Xiran Jay Zhao's tiktok