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Congratulations, Nerds! The 2019 Hugo Award Winners Include Fan-Fiction, 'The Good Place' & Lady Astronauts

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Miscellaneous | August 19, 2019 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Miscellaneous | August 19, 2019 |


Janet The Good Place.png

The Hugo Awards, given annually by the World Science Fiction Society to outstanding achievements in science fiction and fantasy, have been mired in controversy over the past few years. In 2015, a group of right-wing sci-fi writers, who christened themselves ‘Sad Puppies’, decided to put together suggested slates of nominees for their supports to mass-vote on as a way to combat what they perceived to be ‘overtly leftist’ and ‘affirmative action’ choices. That was basically code for ‘women and people of color are getting too big for their boots’. It was all very GamerGate-y and resulted in a mass of ‘no award’ choices on the night to avoid rewarding ‘illustrious’ SFF writers like Milo Yiannopolous. That nonsense has fortunately passed and the Hugos have since become a haven for progressive, boundary-pushing, and wonderfully diverse works in the genre.

This year was no exception, as all six nominees for Best Novel were women. The ultimate victor was industry favorite Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars, the first book in the Lady Astronaut series. Other big winners of the night included Marjorie Liu’s Monstress for Best Graphic Story, Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi for Best YA Book, and The Good Place for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Of course, the most talked-about win of the night was Best Related Work, which went to Archive of Our Own. Yes, all of it. So, if you’ve written fan-fic and posted it on AO3, you won a Hugo. Congratulations. See, all that Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham slash-fic is paying off! About bloody time too.

Here are the winners of the 2019 Hugo Awards.


Best Novel: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)

Best Novella: Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (Tor.com publishing)

Best Novelette: “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again” by Zen Cho (B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, 29 November 2018)

Best Short Story: “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies” by Alix E. Harrow (Apex Magazine, February 2018)

Best Series: Wayfarers by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton/Harper Voyager)

Best Related Work: Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Best Graphic Story: Monstress Volume 3: Haven written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)

Best Professional Editor (Short Form): Gardner Dozois

Best Professional Editor (Long Form): Navah Wolfe

Best Professional Artist: Charles Vess

Best Semiprozine: Uncanny Magazine

Best Fanzine: Lady Business

Best Fancast: Our Opinions Are Correct

Best Fan Writer: Foz Meadows

Best Fan Artist: Likhain (Mia Sereno)

Best Art Book: The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition Illustrated by Charles Vess and written by Ursula K. Le Guin (Saga Press/Gollancz)

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt/Macmillan Children’s Books)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Jeannette Ng

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, and directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman (Sony)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): The Good Place: “Janet(s)” Written by Josh Siegal & Dylan Morgan, directed by Morgan Sackett (NBC)



Header Image Source: YouTube // NBC