Welcome to our continuing presentation of the Nerds of a Feather 2026 Award Recommendation List!
Today will look at the Individual Categories of Editor, Fan Writer, Artists and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer.
As before, we here at nerds are presenting a collective longlist of potential Hugo nominees that we think are worthy of your consideration. These selections represent the spectrum of tastes, tendencies, and predilections found among our group of writers. Today's section is one of the areas where there are some categories missing, not because nothing good existed in them, but because the flock don't have a big enough focus on them to provide recommendations. That said, it's also the one with the category closest to our hearts, as all of our contributors are eligible for best fan writer for their work on the blog in 2025. Look out for a future post talking about the work they're proud of and eligible for.
As ever, this list should not at all be considered comprehensive, even in the remaining categories. Some outstanding people will not make our longlist for the simple reason that we have not managed to keep abreast of all the amazing folks doing work within the SFF space. We encourage you to think of this as a list of candidates to consider alongside people with which you are already familiar, nothing more and nothing less.
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Nerds of a Feather 2025 Recommendation List Series:
Part 1: Fiction Categories (Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Series, Lodestar Award)
Part 2: Visual Work Categories (Graphic Story, Dramatic Presentation)
Part 3: Individual Categories (Editor, Fan Writer, Professional Artist, Fan Artist, Astounding Award for Best New Writer)
Part 4: Institutional Categories (Related Work, Semiprozine, Fanzine, Fancast)
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Editor Long Form
As well as the names listed below, we encourage you to look at the editors for your Best Novel selections on your final ballot, and consider them for Editor, Long Form. And of course, do look at part one for some potential suggestions for Best Novel.
Amy Borsuk
Jaymee Goh
David Thomas Moore
Somto Ihezue
Olivia Kidula
Fan Writer
Tristan Beiter
Liz Bourke
Alex Brown
Jake Casella Brookins
Forestofglory
Jenny Hamilton
Nathaniel Harrington
Niall Harrison
Dan Hartland
Patricia Matson
Archita Mittra
Wm Henry Morris
Abigail Nussbaum
Jacqueline Nyathi
Renay
Alasdair Stuart
Molly Templeton
Fan Artist
Chloé Stawski
Harkalé Linaï
Jaki
jenny.___666
Laya Rose
Lydia Croft
Punkey Doodles
ritzeldraws
spacegoose
yuumei-art
Astounding Award for Best New Writer (first pro-publication 2024-2025)
M. H. Ayinde
Sharang Biswas
Antonia Hodgson
Finn Longman
Caskey Russell
Emily Yu-Xian Qin
