Every now and then good news draws the most readers, and SFWA’s announcement of the Nebula Award finalists had that effect in March.
Curiously, three old posts made the “Scroll-Free Top 10”. The one reporting remarks by Dan Simmons can probably be explained by interest raised following his recent death. I don’t know the source of interest in the posts about Jon Del Arroz and Steven Brust.
Here are the ten most-viewed posts from the past month according to the entrail readers at Jetpack.
A History and Analysis of the Best Related Work Hugo Category
By Heather Rose Jones
(This is a serialized article exploring the history of the Best Related Work Hugo category in its various names and versions. If you’ve come in at the middle, start here [Segment I]. Note: Click on figures for larger images.)
Contents
Part 3: Historic Trends 3.2 Media 3.2.1 Introduction
Part 3: Historic Trends
3.2 Media
3.2.1 Introduction
Categorizing work by Media has to do with the format of the work rather than its content. The basis for classifying the various Media types is given in the Categorization Process section in the Media chapter. The discussions below of individual Media types will include any trends or observations specific to each format. This introductory section examines large-scale trends. The analysis is the most straightforward and least interesting with regard to changes over the various eras, as the category names Non-Fiction Book and Related Book, as well as the eligibility definitions, strongly influenced nominations to be restricted to physical print Books.
If one accepts Convention Ephemera (souvenir program books, restaurant guides, etc.) to fall conceptually within “physical print books,” then all Non-Fiction Book nominees are, in essence, Books (1 Finalist is Convention Ephemera), and all Winners in this era are Books. In the Related Book era, all nominees are, in essence, Books (1 Finalist and 1 Long List work are Ephemera) with one exception: a Periodical nominated in 2007 that did not make the Long List.[1] All Related Book Winners were Books.
Therefore, the interest in this part of the analysis comes from tracking changes in Media across the Related Work era. Two data sets are compared: Finalists and Long Lists. There is only one year (2010) during the Related Work era where additional nominees were listed (N=23).
Taking the era as a whole, the Finalist and Long List proportions are highly similar, though some rarer Media formats appear only in the Long Lists. Table 3 shows percentages ordered by popularity in the Long List data.[2] The table also includes percentages for Winners of the category.[3]
Table 3: Proportions of Media Types
So in terms of format, the Finalists appear to be closely representative of what is nominated as a whole. This distribution also suggests that for any formats outside the top five or six, observations are likely to be anecdotal only. Proportions of Winners are also roughly representative of the overall proportions of nominees, with the caveat that only Books appear more than once as a Winner.[4] On a proportional basis, we might expect there to have been at least one Video Winner and would not expect a Speech Winner, but otherwise, interest in the Media format as a whole is reflected in the voting outcome.
To examine the trends over time, the distribution by year is shown in Figures 10 and 11 and Tables 4 and 5, where the details may be easier to see due to the number of categories.
Table 4: Media Types for Long List
Table 5: Media Types for Finalists
We can see that it took a while for nominators to begin engaging with the potential range of Media beyond Books, with Podcasts being the first expansion. (The full data set for 2010 includes one Podcast, with all other nominees being Books.) It makes sense to do the primary analysis on the Long List and then compare the Finalists.
Within the Long Lists, Books dominate the Media formats, falling below 50% in only three years, and falling below 67% in only five years. However, there is a trend of Books increasingly being displaced by other Media formats as time progresses. The lowest presence is 33% in 2025 (the last year of analysis).
Before moving on to the more detailed analysis, it might make sense to take a slightly different, and higher-level, view. The second most prevalent Media type is the Blog/Article group—that is, textual works that are shorter than Books or that are published on the web rather than in hardcopy format. Combining the numbers into three super-sets—textual works, audio or video works, and other—the trends can be seen in Figure 12 and Figure 13. (These same graphs also work to analyze the most common versus less common formats, as the Audio/Video and Other groups are also significantly less common.)
Here it’s even more clear that the expanded scope of Media formats has not dislodged textual works from dominance. Text is never less than 50% of the Long List and rarely less than 75%, though again there is a gradual downward trend across the era. The “Other” Media group takes longer to begin appearing in the Long List, but once present, it vies with Audio/Video for second place.
This dominance is even more striking among Finalists, with textual works never being less than 50% and filling all the Finalist slots in 7 years out of the 16. Audio/Video formats are a regular presence, but there is a cluster of years (2019-2021) when Other Media types are strongly represented among Finalists.
Returning to the more finely-grained analysis, there has been an overall (though erratic) increase in the number of different Media formats represented in the Long List with a similar, though naturally lower, increase for Finalists (Figure 14).
Long List diversity of format increased steadily to 2014 when 7 formats were represented (tied for maximum with 2022 and 2025). This fell significantly in the following few years (2015-2017, which include the two Puppy years), then increased again, with the anomaly being the low diversity of format in 2023 (when Worldcon was in China). While a rigorous analysis hasn’t been performed, the non-textual formats in the Long List appear to cluster toward the bottom of the nominations, so it may be that anything that disrupts normal nomination patterns is more likely to push out works in non-text formats. This is speculation.
Finalists are relatively more diverse in format than the Long List, with only two years in which only a single format was represented (Books, as one might guess).[5]There are 3 years where the 6 Finalists are drawn from 4 different formats, with Book and Video being constants, and Article/Blog, Event, and Website occurring in 2 of the years each (closely corresponding to our 6 most frequent Media formats overall).
As noted previously, diversity of Media increases gradually, but certain types begin appearing at different times. Interestingly, the Article/Blog format, though second most popular overall, doesn’t show up in the Long List until the fifth year of the era (2014), though it appears continuously from then on, and with at least 2 works each year. The earliest format expansion is Podcast, appearing in the 2nd through 5th years of the era, then sporadically later. There are several specific features of Podcast appearances that affect their appearance in Best Related and the dominance of one Podcast in this Media format. This is discussed in the Overlapping Categories section, Fancast chapter. Video and Website both appear frequently, but not continuously, starting in 2014. Unlike Podcast, Video works are not dominated by a single repeating show, although some works are part of a Series by the same creator, where only one or two episodes were nominated. Website falls somewhat between the two patterns, with one repeating work accounting for almost half the nominations for this format. The latest addition to the range of formats appearing in the Long Lists is Social Media, first appearing in 2022.
Of the 8 Media formats appearing as Finalists, 4 (Book, Article/Blog, Album, Podcast) appear in the earlier part of the Related Work era (2010-2018) and may also occur later, while 4 (Event, Speech, Video, Website) appear first in 2019-2020 and may also occur later. Looking at both Finalists and Long Lists, 2019 feels like a tipping point for expanding the diversity of formats.
Conclusions
Overall, although there are a wide variety of Media formats appearing in the data, the majority appear rarely, and text formats (long form and short form) dominate the data. Non-Book formats took a few years to be embraced by nominators, with some being adopted earlier than others. When assessing the Related Work period as a whole, Media formats appear as Finalists roughly in the same proportions that they appear in the Long List, and—within the constraints of the numbers—Winners are also roughly proportional to presence in the Long List. That said, when examined on a year-by-year basis, there is an overall trend for non-Book formats, or non-text formats in general, to become slightly more prevalent as time goes on, with non-text formats never exceeding 50% of the Long List or Finalists. And even in recent years, there have been multiple times when the Finalists were entirely text works.
The remainder of the Media section will examine each Media format and discuss any interesting features of its frequency and appearance. For rarely-occurring formats, the discussion will focus on the factors behind the specific works that appear, whereas for more common formats the analysis will review other features of the format that may have changed over time.
(Segment IX will cover Part 3 Historic Trends, Section 3.2 Media, Chapters 3.2.2-3.2.14.)
[1]. This is the only work in the entire database categorized as a Periodical. It might reasonably have been classified as a Book but see the Category discussion for details.
[2]. Note that one format (Periodical) does not occur during the Related Work era, as it has only a single instance in the entire dataset.
[3]. 7% represents a single Winner. Thus, only Book has had more than one Winner.
[4]. During two years no award was given, due to voter response to the Sad Puppy slate nominations dominating the category. For this purpose, % Winners are calculated relative to total winning works, not number of years.
[5]. “Relatively more diverse” means “number of different Media types compared to the number of nominees.”
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association announced on March 31 that the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award will be presented to David Langford at the 61st Annual SFWA Nebula Awards® ceremony on June 6.
The Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award is bestowed by SFWA upon a person who has made significant contributions to the community sustaining science fiction, fantasy, and related genres. The award was created in 2008, with Wilhelm named as one of the three original recipients, and it was renamed in her honor in 2016.
David Langford is a science-fiction creator whose wide-ranging pursuits, publications, and accolades include the long-standing and ongoing curation of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (SFE).
SFWA President Kate Ristau notes, “With his work on The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Langford has not only built, supported, and challenged the field of SFF; he has literally helped to define it. His decades of work have made science fiction a richer and more inclusive field. We are more than happy to present him with the Solstice Award in recognition of his career filled with positive, focused, and uplifting contributions.”
A Pillar of Service to Community. SFWA’s announcement adds:
Those decades of service to our genre have taken many forms, all necessary for a thriving ecosystem in SFF publishing. Published authors of science fiction and fantasy are made possible by avid readers, equally avid commentators, fans dedicated to the cultivation of spaces to share and discuss great work, historians and archivists marking down events in genre of note, non-fiction writers offering supplement and story-seed to all our fantastic prose, editors sharpening one and the same, and publishers painstakingly building homes for all of the above.
Langford has been all of these, and more. He has handily merited his record-holding 29 Hugo wins out of 55 nominations, among a wealth of other honors in genre. Nor has his service to our ever-expanding community reached an end; along with SFE, Langford continues to sustain Ansible, a UK newszine covering SFF events and happenstance.
Langford’s dedication isn’t just known through titles, either, but also in his tonal range. Here is a commentator who would make readers laugh on one genre outing, then inspire serious reflection with the next. For decades, Langford’s editorial work took care where care was needed with the living history of our medium. His fan-community work brought joy where joy was needed in SFF, too.
“I am delighted to celebrate David Langford as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Association 2026 Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award recipient,” says SFWA Executive Director Isis Asare. “His witty sense of humor and encylopedic knowledge of speculative literature has fostered an international discourse on science fiction. The measure of Langford’s impact cannot be overstated.”
The International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist was announced on March 31. The 6 titles were selected from among 128 books submitted by publishers. The Prize celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the U.K. and/or Ireland between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026.
Each shortlisted title will be awarded a prize of £5,000, split evenly between author and translator.
The winning book will be announced on May 19 in London.
The shortlisted titles are:
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin (Scribe)
She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel (Sandorf Passage)
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin (Summit)
On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan (Charco, U.K. edition)
The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump (Vintage)
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King (Graywolf)
Of the two books of genre interest on the longlist, only one made it to the shortlist.
The Witch by Marie NDiaye
Lucie comes from a long line of witches, powers passed down from mother to daughter. Her own mother was formidable in her powers, but ashamed of her magic. Perhaps as a result, Lucie’s own gift is weak: she can see into the future, sometimes, but more often she can only see the present of some other location. Not very useful. And the worst part? All she can ever see are insignificant details – a scrap of outfit, the colour of the sky.
Lucie’s own children are initiated into their family’s peculiar womanhood when they reach 12 years of age, and in a few short months, Maud and Lise are crying the curious tears of blood that denote their magical powers. Having learned, they take off quickly and fly the nest. Literally.
Witty, dreamlike, unsettling and enchanting, The Witch brings the mysteries of womanhood and motherhood into sharp relief and leaves us teetering on the edge, unbalanced by questions as seemingly unbreakable relationships break down left and right.
The shortlisted titles were chosen by a judging panel including author Natasha Brown (chair); writer, broadcaster and Oxford University Professor of Mathematics and for the Public Understanding of Science Marcus du Sautoy; International Booker Prize–shortlisted translator Sophie Hughes; writer, Lolwe editor, and bookseller Troy Onyango; and novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy.
(1) TOMORROW HUMANS FLY TO THE MOON FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 53 YEARS. Artemis II, the first crewed mission of the Artemis program, is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:24 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, April 1.
7:45 a.m. EDT | Live coverage of tanking operations for NASA’s (SLS) Space Launch System rocket for Artemis II begins. Coverage includes live rocket views with audio commentary.
(2) WARMING UP THE AUDIENCE. Elizabeth Bear introduced the film “Fahrenheit 451” at the Worcester Public Library last weekend. She has posted her script at Throw Another Bear in the Canoe.
What follows is a slightly tidied-up version of my remarks to introduce Fahrenheit 451 at the Worcester Public Library last Saturday, March 28th.
Welcome.
The film we are about to watch is a 1966 Francois Truffaut adaptation of a 1953 Ray Bradbury novel about book burning, censorship, state capture of media, propaganda, the proliferation of parasocial relationships replacing real ones, forced conformity, and fake news.
If that seems relevant to our world today, I have to admit, I agree.
Bradbury was influenced in his writing by his experiences with McCarthyism, Naziism, and the changing media landscape of his lifetime, which spanned the golden age of radio and the height of broadcast television. Broadcast media concerned him greatly: he thought that it would inevitably lead to a dumbing down of the populace and was an ideal vector for propaganda and social control. He warned of a flourishing of censorship and authoritarianism as a result.
Truffaut brought that thematic charge into the 1960s and the modernist era, using the visual language of futurism to create a sense of everyday claustrophobia, conformity, and peril, and to symbolize the death of the life of the mind….
… However, one psychological truth that manifests through that metaphor is among the ways in which authoritarianism gets a roothold to begin with: with that intolerance for uncomfortable ideas. When people are not willing to have their preconceptions challenged, they try to create an environment where they will never be pushed back against. Nobody really wants to deal with moral complexities and nuance: we want a world where we can be right. And that’s the world that Truffaut’s authoritarians provide for their populace. One where the answers are simple and the good guys always win and you never have to feel that faint unease that maybe there are a lot of ethical compromises in every action and throughout history….
(3) THE MELODY LINGERS ON. In a post about books that continue well-known series, J. W. McCormack, editor of The Baffler, disapproves of Sanderson’s Wheel of Time novels: “Neverending Stories”. (First article free; subscription required thereafter.)
…The most tragic case of a continuation novel in recent memory is likely that of Robert Jordan’s tetradecalogy The Wheel of Time, the last three novels of which were finished after Jordan’s death from a rare blood disease by graphomaniacal Mormon Magic: The Gathering enthusiast Brandon Sanderson, who makes between $10 and $55 million a year for his own best-selling, ponderous fantasy novels. Hand-selected by Jordan’s widow to complete The Wheel for Tor Publishing Group after, no kidding, auditioning via obituary, Sanderson’s three volumes exchange Jordan’s hard lore regarding the Aes Sedai, Darkfriends, and the prophesied Car’a’carn for stupefied descriptions of buildings (“stonework and wood”); sentences beginning with “women are like . . .”; and so much reliance on plot over prose that people are often “perked up,” described as “tanned,” and, according to one intrepid blog, sniff in disdain 75 times in 978,460 words (which may not sound like a lot, but The Lord of the Rings apparently tallies 28 sniffs total)….
MO: The Body made me think of that scale in Donny Darko where everything is placed on a continuum of love and fear; in The Body, love is the source of fear: a visceral fear of loss, rejection, and abandonment. What did you want to explore about community, connection, and the fragility of the ties that bind?
BCM: The Body is probably most about consequences. Not for Mavis; for groups who successfully employ coercive control—which, yes, must depend on fear. The entire ecosystem of repression is dependent on fear. Which means, also, that there is no opportunity for love to exist at all. There’s therefore no community, no connection—as soon as you threaten someone, love is impossible. Consent is impossible. Intimacy is impossible.
…If there is a message or a moral, it is that there are still wonderful things at hand in a world that might seem like it is running out of them. The existence of Small Prophets proves the point: that British telly can still create impossible marvels like this is a reason to keep believing in magic.
A federal judge blocked Donald Trump‘s executive order that prohibited federal agencies from providing funding to NPR and PBS.
In a ruling issued on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss wrote that the president’s executive order “singles out two speakers and, on the basis of their speech, bars them from all federally funded programs.”
“Although there are many lawful reasons that the government might decline to make ‘a valuable governmental benefit’ available to someone, punishing disfavored private speech is not one of them,” the judge wrote.
In an executive order last May, Trump prohibited the U.S. government from distributing any funds to the public media outlets, deeming them biased.
While the ruling is a victory for NPR and PBS, part of their lawsuit is now moot. Last summer, the Republican-controlled Congress rescinded all federal funding to the entity that distributed public media money, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB later dissolved.
The judge’s opinion does not change the revocation of CPB money, but he noted that PBS and NPR still received grants from other federal agencies and entities. He wrote, “The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the President disapproves of their ‘left-wing’ coverage of the news. Because the First Amendment does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type, the Court will issue judgment against the federal- agency defendants declaring Section 3(a) of the Executive Order is unconstitutional and will issue an injunction barring those defendants from implementing it.”…
It was advertised as “the ultimate Barbie fan event.”
The billing of an attraction as a life-size Barbie Dreamhouse led fans to believe they would be physically stepping into the doll’s iconic home to play around and pose for pictures. They also expected a neon-filled 1980s roller disco and a space-themed exhibition titled “Beyond the Stars.” Doll lovers from around the world bought tickets expecting a weekend of quality entertainment, photo ops and pink galore.
The reality at the event, which was held over the weekend at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was a lot less rosy, several attendees said.
The Dreamhouse was a 2-D cardboard cutout with a pink Volkswagen bus parked out front. Guests were not allowed inside the vehicle. The space exhibition consisted of an oversize Barbie box decorated with a ringed planet. The roller disco was a penned-off area on the center’s concrete floors with metal beams forming a tent but with no canvas overhead.
Eventually, the event organizers did put up a small disco ball, attendees said.
The three-day event was orchestrated by Mischief Management, an event organizer that oversees fan events like BroadwayCon. According to Mattel, the toymaker that manufactures Barbie, Mischief Management licensed the Barbie brand for the event. Mischief Management has since informed attendees that it will issue full refunds for any tickets sold.
Still, it’s cold comfort for Barbie fans who had high hopes for the event, given its formal association with Mattel.
Some of the promises panned out. The tennis star Serena Williams spoke on a panel as advertised. (Ms. Williams did not respond to a request for comment.)
Tickets started at $149 for adult admission and went up to $449. Tara Brooks, a data analyst who lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., spent about $249 on a “pink pass,” a higher-tier ticket that included a “special swag bag.” She received a bottle of Barbie-branded hand sanitizer.
“You can get them at the Dollar Store,” she added….
…Failed conventions and festivals have become something of their own genre in recent years, including the now infamous Fyre Festival, which conjures images of festivalgoers stranded on a tropical island with only cheese sandwiches in foam containers, and DashCon, a Tumblr convention in 2014 that turned out to be not much more than a ball pit in an empty hall….
The organisers of the Barbie Dream Fest weekend in Florida are issuing refunds to attendees after customers complained of a lacklustre event.
The creators of the event promised “unforgettable experiences”, and advertised a roller rink and disco with a caption that read: “Join us for three days of glam, nostalgia, and dream-big energy made for Barbie fans of every generation.”
But ticketholders, who paid up to $450 (£340), say it was far from that. Photos of the event show a grey convention centre space with pink cardboard cut-out Barbie signs.
Mattel, which owns the Barbie brand, said that full refunds would be given to everyone who purchased tickets….
(8) LAST DAUGHTER OF KRYPTON. [Item by N.] The full trailer for Supergirl, who flies into theaters on June 26.
(9) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novel
It’s the seventy-fifth anniversary of the first publication of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation as a novel. So let’s tell the history of the novel.
In the summer of 1941, Isaac Asimov proposed to John W. Campbell of Astounding Science Fiction that he write a short story set in a slowly declining Galactic Empire, based on the fall of the Roman Empire. Campbell thought the idea was great.
Then Asimov proposed writing a series of stories depicting the fall of the first Galactic Empire and the rise of the second. Asimov would write eight stories for Campbell’s magazine over eight years (1942-1949), and they were later collected into three volumes known as The Foundation Trilogy which were published from 1951 to 1953.
Foundation was first published as a single book by Gnome Press. It has “The Psychohistorians”, “The Encyclopedists”, “The Mayors”, “The Traders” and “The Merchant Princes”. “The Encyclopedists” and “The Mayors” were novelettes, the others are short stories. As noted before, each was in Astounding Science Fiction.
The cover art is by David Kyle. Please note that on the cover it is titled Foundation: An Interplanetary Novel. When Ace published it they renamed it The 1,000 Year Plan in their two editions of 1955 and 1962.
At Tricon (1966), it would win the Hugo for Best All-Time Series. Other nominees were Burroughs’ Barsoom series, Heinlein’s Future History series , E. E. Smith’s Lensmen series and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
As you know, it is now streaming as a series as Apple+.
The New York Times has cut ties with a freelance journalist after discovering he used artificial intelligence to help write a book review that echoed elements of a review of the same book in the Guardian.
The New York Times launched an investigation, during which Preston admitted that he had used AI to assist writing the review and did not spot the sections that were pulled from the Guardian before submitting it. In a statement to the Guardian on Tuesday, Preston said that he was “hugely embarrassed” and had “made a serious mistake”.
The New York Times alerted the Guardian to the overlap in an email sent on Monday, and added an editor’s note to the review acknowledging the use of AI and linking to the Guardian piece. “A reader recently alerted the Times that this review included language and details similar to those in a review of the same book published in the Guardian,” reads the editor’s note. “We spoke to the author of this piece, a freelancer reviewer, who told us he used an AI tool that incorporated material from the Guardian review into his draft, which he failed to identify and remove. His reliance on AI and his use of unattributed work by another writer are a clear violation of the Times’s standards.”…
Library, ballroom and scratching post – this multifunctional building is a monument to the towering intellect of its namesake and a celebration of Western Culture™ with its subtle blend of classical styles….
I’d like to know what books will be on its shelves.
Working up an appetite defending Azeroth? This frying pan is ready to help you bring people together over an Azerothian feast. It’s seasoned and ready to use, naturally nontoxic, made in the USA, and ready for any cooking adventure. Whether you like to cook over an open fire or in your cozy kitchen, make everything from Savory Deviate Delight to a Bloodberry Tart. Plus, when you take home this skillet, you’ll also receive a code to unlock a special in-game companion!
(14) A BLOT ON THE UNIVERSE. [Item by Steven French.] The first time I saw a chain of Starlink satellites passing overhead I actually thought for a moment the alien invasion had begun! Here’s a warning on what a million will do to our view of the night sky: “A million new SpaceX satellites will destroy the night sky—for everyone on Earth” concludes Phys.org.
The human eye can see fewer than 4,500 stars in an unpolluted night sky. If we permit SpaceX to launch these satellites, we will see more satellites than stars—for large portions of the night and the year, throughout the world. This will severely damage the night sky for everyone on Earth.
SpaceX’s proposal also completely fails to account for atmospheric pollution, collision risk or how to develop the technology needed to disperse waste heat from orbital data centers.’
(15) MEME-TO-SCREEN (OR SCREAM). [Item by N.] A24’s Backrooms, based on the Internet creepypasta and phenomena of the same name, (directed by the 20(!)-year old Kane Parsons, based on his web series of the same name), comes to theaters May 29.
[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Olav Rokne, N., Cora Buhlert, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day P J Evans.]
The awards will be presented on May 23 during La Comédie du Livre in Montpellier, France.
The jurors are Joëlle Wintrebert (president), Olivier Legendre (vice-president), Jean-Claude Dunyach (treasurer), Sylvie Le Jemtel, Sylvie Allouche, Audrey Burki, Lloyd Chéry, Catherine Dufour, Benjamin Spohr, and Nicolas Winter.
ROMAN FRANCOPHONE / NOVEL IN FRENCH
Festin de larmes by Morgane CAUSSARIEU & Vincent TASSY (ActuSF)
Aatea by Anouck FAURE (Argyll)
Tovaangar by Céline MINARD (Rivages)
Sintonia by Audrey PLEYNET (Le Bélial’)
Une vie de saint by Christophe SIÉBERT (Au diable Vauvert)
ROMAN ÉTRANGER / FOREIGN NOVEL
Le Chant des noms [The Naming Song] by Jedediah BERRY (Hachette Heroes)
Sur toutes les vagues de la mer [All the Seas of the World] by Guy Gavriel KAY (L’Atalante)
Les Sœurs de la Muée [The Tiger Flu] by Larissa LAI (Le Quartanier)
Le Livre des passages [Crossings] by Alex LANDRAGIN (Le Cherche-Midi)
Le Cœur des Nagas by Young-Do LEE (Hachette Heroes)
La Reine sirène [Siren Queen] by Nghi VO (L’Atalante)
NOUVELLE FRANCOPHONE / SHORT FICTION IN FRENCH
Épicènes by Thierry CROUZET (À la flamme)
Fiancées du silence by Sabrina CALVO (La Volte, Soleil·s : 12 fictions héliotopiques)
Les Noueurs by Chloé CHEVALIER (ActuSF, Utopiales 2025)
L’Âge des tempêtes by Thomas DAY (Le Bélial’, Bifrost n° 117)
La Femme inachevée by Claude ECKEN (Le Bélial, Bifrost n° 120)
NOUVELLE ÉTRANGÈRE / FOREIGN SHORT FICTION
Un lieu ensoleillé pour personnes sombres by Mariana ENRIQUEZ (Le Sous-Sol)
La Migration annuelle des nuages [The Annual Migration of Clouds]and Ce qui se dit par la montagne [We Speak Through the Mountain] by Premee MOHAMED (L’Atalante)
La Vie secrète des robots [The Secret Life of Bots] by Suzanne PALMER (Le Bélial’)
Hard Mary by Sofia SAMATAR (Argyll)
ROMAN JEUNESSE FRANCOPHONE / NOVELS FOR YOUTH IN FRENCH
L’énigme de Camford by Ariel HOLZL (Slalom)
Les Âmes de l’ouest by Elie S. GREEN (Gulf Stream)
Station Symbiose by Noëmie LEMOS (Critic)
L’Institut du nouveau lendemain by Chloé VOLLMER-LO (Nathan)
ROMAN JEUNESSE ÉTRANGER / FOREIGN NOVELS FOR YOUTH
Le Miroir sombre [The Dark Mirror] by Samantha SHANNON (De Saxus)
Le Voleur et La reine d’Attolie [The Thief] by Megan WHALEN TURNER (Monsieur Toussaint Louverture)
TRADUCTION : PRIX JACQUES CHAMBON / JACQUES CHAMBON TRANSLATION PRIZE
Sylvie BÉRARD & Suzanne GRENIER for Les Sœurs de la Muée [The Tiger Flu] byLarissa LAI (Le Quartanier)
Patrick COUTON forPetit, Grand ou Le parlement des fées [Little, Big] by John CROWLEY (L’Atalante)
Caroline NICOLAS for Le Livre des passages [Crossings] by Alex LANDRAGIN (Le Cherche-Midi)
Thibaud ELIROFF for House of windows by John LANGAN (J’ai Lu)
The Crawford Award, given by the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts, recognizes an outstanding writer whose first fantasy book was published during the previous calendar year.
The judges are currently soliciting books published in 2026 for the award to be given at the International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts in 2027. See the list of past winners here.
2025 IAFA Crawford Award winner
Submissions of qualifying ebooks in PDF and ePub formats can be made here.
What works qualify: This is an award for an author’s first work of fantasy in book form. It is not a first novel award; an author may have a long bibliography and still qualify for their first work of fantasy. “Book” is defined broadly, and includes novels, novellas, poetry collections, short fiction, graphic novels, works in translation, or other work at the discretion of the judges.
This year’s judges are Arturo Serrano, Joyce Chng, Eddie Clark, Joy Sanchez-Taylor, and Carlos Hernandez.
Joyce Chng lives in Singapore. Their speculative fiction has appeared in The Apex Book of World SF II, We See A Different Frontier, Cranky Ladies of History, and Accessing The Future. Joyce also co-edited The Sea Is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia with Jaymee Goh. Their novels span across wolf clans (Starfang: Rise of the Clan), vineyards (Water into Wine) and swordmaking forges (Fire Heart) respectively. Joyce wrangles article editing at Strange Horizons and is diversity coordinator for IGDN (Independent Game Designer Network). You can find Joyce at http://awolfstale.wordpress.com and @jolantru.bsky.social on Bluesky. (Pronouns: she/her, they/their)
Eddie Clark is an academic and SFF fan from Wellington, New Zealand. He is a reviewer at Nerds of a Feather and has been peering into the obscure corners of SFF for thirty years, recently with a particular focus on queer fantasy.
Carlos Hernandez is a New York Times best-selling author. His works include the critically acclaimed short story collection The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria (Rosarium, 2016), the novel Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (Disney Hyperion, 2019), which won the 2020 Pura Belpre Award, and its sequel, Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe. He’s also written dozens of short stories, poems, and works of drama, usually in the SFF mode.
Joy Sanchez-Taylor is a Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY) whose research interest is science fiction and fantasy literature by authors of color. Her latest book, Dispelling Fantasies: Authors of Color Reimagine a Genre (2025), explores how fantasy and fantastic works by authors of color serve as critical counternarratives to the history of Eurocentric fantasy narratives. Joy also serves as an editor for the journal Extrapolation and as the BIPOC Caucus Coordinator for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA).
Arturo Serrano is a Colombian reviewer for the Ignyte-winning, Hugo-winning blog Nerds of a Feather. He’s also a member of the editorial teams of the magazines Strange Horizons and Galactic Journey, and recently became one of the volunteer translators at Global Voices. He previously wrote reviews for Hypable and was one of the translators at the bilingual magazine Constelación. In 2021, he self-published the alternate history novel To Climates Unknown. Since 2023, he’s been a judge for the British Fantasy Awards. Currently, he’s finishing a degree in Creative Writing. His obsessions include nonviolent gaming, Linux distro-hopping, and music in Esperanto.
For more information, contact Kelly Robson, Award Director at [email protected]
(1) UNEXPLAINED ALDISS AWARD LONGLIST ADDITIONS. Sometime since the original news release on March 14 the administrators have added two titles to the longlist without any public announcement: Firstborn Of The Sun by Marvellous Michael Anson and Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey. Locus Online posted the complete longlist on March 30.
However, while making the addition the Aldiss Award’s post restored two errors relating to authors which were present in the original announcement but had been fixed. On the Aldiss Award site The Gryphon King is erroneously credited to “Nohra Zultama”. The book is actually by Sara Omer; a review indicates that “Nohra is our second main character”. Also, Aliya Whiteley isn’t credited as the co-author of City of All Seasons, only Oliver Langmead is listed. (Today’s Locus list contains the corrections.)
Ersatz Culture further noted on Bluesky previously, all of this year’s longlist came from just 3 UK publisher’s imprints: Titan Books, Orbit and Tor UK. Firstborn of the Sun does add a fourth publisher, Michael Joseph, a Penguin imprint. The just-published Locus story on this longlist seems to report the US publisher in many cases, serving to obfuscate the limited publisher participation.
Weir, the author of Project Hail Mary, told Star Trek EP Alex Kurtzman in a just-posted open letter: “I was trying to be funny, but in retrospect it comes off as disrespectful and mean.”
He said his quotes made on the Critical Drinker pod were “taken out of context as salacioius sound bytes” and he “was trying to be self-deprecating.”
Weir on the pod made a series of statements about Paramount‘s handling of the Star Trek universe and claimed he had a pitch turned down by Trek EP Kurtzman.
“And here’s another thing: I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount and I was on Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [Kurtzman],” Weir said on the pod. “He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are s*it. He is a nice guy, but they didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, f*ck ’em.”
His apology just posted on Facebook said he also stressed “how much I like you as a person and what a nice guy you are” to Kurtzman. “Anyway, if you want to talk about it in real time – even if it’s just to rip me a new one – I’m happy to hop on the phone or zoom,” he added.
Weir’s comments had earlier drawn ire from scribes including Don Winslow, the author behind the source material for Crime 101….
HBO boss Casey Bloys has responded to reports linking the broadcaster to Doctor Who, following the conclusion of the BBC’s deal with Disney+.
Last month, Salt was asked by Deadline if HBO Max could act as a new streaming partner on Doctor Who, following co-production deals between HBO and the BBC on upcoming series Half Man (from Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd) and the Michaela Coel vehicle First Day on Earth.
Salt did not rule out the possibility, noting that HBO “have been great partners creatively”.
In conversation with Radio Times, Casey Bloys (chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content) was asked if he’d be interested in partnering on Doctor Who – and Bloys also seemed open to the idea.
“It has not been presented to us,” he clarified. “As with anything, I would say ‘Never say never’ – it’s just not something that I know about.”
The last season of Doctor Who ended on a surprising twist, bringing Ncuti Gatwa’s time as the Doctor to a dramatic close. In the closing moments, the Doctor began to regenerate, only for the new incarnation to be revealed as a shock returning face: Billie Piper.
Her brief appearance left fans stunned and set the Whoniverse buzzing with speculation about what comes next…
(4) SPINRAD QUESTION ON BBC SHOW. [Item by Steven French.] As seen on a recent edition of the BBC2 quiz show House of Games! (Apologies for the blurry photo.)
The short: I’ve been a fan of science fiction by Algis Budrys for a long time. Looking recently, I was surprised that I did not find a “Best Of” or “Selected Short Fiction” collection by him. I decided to read more of his short fiction and create my own Table of Contents for a “Selected Short Fiction of Algis Budrys”. My Table of Contents would include the classic “Rogue Moon” novella, F&SF December 1960, the superlative “The End of Summer” novelette, Astounding November 1954, and “Forever Stenn” (AKA “The Ridge Around the World”), a short story, Satellite December 1957, and 23 more short works I rated “Great”. I would also include horror novelette “The Master of the Hounds” a novelette, The Saturday Evening Post Aug 27 1966. Although it’s not to my taste, I am not a huge fan of horror and it appears to be an appropriate choice. See my TOC below.
Workers were repairing a Dutch church when they stumbled upon a skeleton hidden beneath the floor tiles. Now, officials say it could be the remains of Charles de Batz de Castelmore. The 17th-century French soldier—who is also known as D’Artagnan—is the inspiration behind The Three Musketeers by the French novelist Alexandre Dumas.
Experts are currently analyzing DNA recovered from the skeleton and comparing it with DNA from descendants of the real D’Artagnan’s father. In the meantime, however, they’re urging the public not to jump to conclusions before the analysis is complete.
“This has truly become a top-level investigation, in which we want to be absolutely certain—or as certain as possible—whether it is the famous musketeer,” independent archaeologist Wim Dijkman tells Reuters’ Toby Sterling and Piroschka van de Wouw….
… The real D’Artagnan was born into a noble family in France in the early 17th century. Like Dumas’ character, he served under Louis and rose through the ranks of the musketeers. In 1673, while fighting in the Franco-Dutch War, he was killed by a musket ball during the siege of Maastricht….
… The grave also contained several other pieces of evidence. “We found the bullet that put an end to his life, and we found a coin from 1660 in his grave,” Valke tells BBC News’ Paul Kirby…
(7) ALAN BOSTICK (1959-2026). Bay Area fan Alan Bostick died March 23 while on a flight to the Irish poker open.
The Fancyclopedia notes he was part of the team that produced The Emperor Norton SF Hour. And that his fanzine Fast and Loose “was one of the first examples of the small, frequent fanzine format which was in vogue during the early 1980s.”
He is survived by his partners Lynn A. Kendall and Debbie Notkin.
(8) JUDY NEWTON OBITUARY. Judy Newton died peacefully, but unexpectedly this weekend – probably on Friday night (March 27), due to a heart issue. She will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to her late husband, Barry Newton.
Judy was a member of the Washington Science Fiction Association, where she served three terms as a Trustee, once as Vice President, and once as President (2009-2010).
She was a retiree from a government career at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Ahhh, John Astin. I know him best as Gomez Addams in The Addams Family series, which was on the air shorter than I thought, lasting just two seasons and a little over sixty episodes. (It’s not streaming on one on the major streaming services.) He played him again in Halloween with theNew Addams Family (which I’ve not seen but it is streaming on Prime) and voiced him thirty years later in The Addams Family, a two-season animated series which is not streaming. I’ll admit I’m not interested in animated series based off live series. Any live series.
Oh, did you know he was in West Side Story? He played Glad Hand, well-meaning but ineffective social worker. No, you won’t find him in the credits as he wasn’t credited then but retroactively, he got credited for it which was good as he was a lead dancer. Brilliant film and I’ve no intention of watching the new version, ever. It’s streaming on Disney+.
I’d talk about him being in Teen Wolf Too but let’s take the advice of Rotten Tomatoes reviewers and steer way clear of it. Like in a part of the multiverse where the Pixels are contently napping by the Gay Deceiver. Same for the two Killer Tomatoes films. I see he’s in Gremlins 2: The New Batchas a janitor but I can’t say I remember him, nor much of that forgettable film.
So, series work… I was going to list all of his work but there’s way too much to do that, so I’ll be very selective. He’s The Riddler in two episodes of Batman and a most excellent Riddler he was. That series rather surprisingly is not streaming anywhere.
But that was nothing when compared to his role on The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. as Prof. Albert Wickwire. He’s a charming, if somewhat absent-minded inventor who assists Brisco with diving suits, motorcycles, and even grander creations such as rockets and airships. Dare I say that this was an element of steampunk in the series? It was a great role for him. This is another series I surprised to find isn’t streaming anywhere.
Finally, he has a recurring role as Mr. Radford (the real one) as opposed to Mr. Radford (the imposter) on Eerie, Indiana. A decidedly weird series that was unfortunately cancelled before it completed. It is streaming on Prime.
A selection of books from the library of science fiction editor extraordinaire and discerning book collector David G. Hartwell (1941-2016), including many inscribed and association copies.
Prices range from (based on site sorting)(assuming I’m still within the Hartwell collection):
The Alchemical Marriage of Alistair Crompton, Sheckley, Robert (signed), $100 to Speaker for the Dead, Card, Orson Scott. (Proof Copy, Inscribed to His Editor), $3,750
Some quasi-random searches turn up this more-expensive item:
Destination Moon … With a new Introduction by David G. Hartwell. Heinlein, Robert A. Boston: Greg Press, 1979. (Includes Heinlein’s novelette, Destination Moon (originally published in Short Story Magazine for September 1950), Shooting Destination Moon, Heinlein’s essay on the making of the George Pal film, a reproduction of Facts About Destination Moon, an illustrated promotional booklet, and 13 full-page stills.
Signed copies of this edition are uncommon. This copy is inscribed: “To David Hartwell, warmest good wishes! Robert A. Heinlein”. Hartwell was co-editor of the Gregg Press series and author of the introduction.) Price: $9,000.00
Redditor NanoSpore‘s boyfriend had never seen The Lord of the Rings trilogy all the way through so she wanted to make their first marathon memorable. She cooked up some food for all 7 Hobbit meals and made it into an adventure! She really made hobbit meals for breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper:
SECOND BREAKFAST
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Cora Buhlert, Ersatz Culture, Gary Farber, Rich Lynch, Daniel Dern, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jayn.]
A History and Analysis of the Best Related Work Hugo Category
By Heather Rose Jones
(This is a serialized article exploring the history of the Best Related Work Hugo category in its various names and versions. If you’ve come in at the middle, start here [Segment I]. Note: Click on figures for larger images.)
Contents
Part 3: Historic Trends 3.1 General Trends 3.1.3 Gender 3.1.4 Authorship
Part 3: Historic Trends
3.1 General Trends
3.1.3 Gender
Gender Fractions
As the simplest way to present gender fraction data is in a bar graph, there is no convenient way to indicate the different eras in the figure. Remember that Non-Fiction is 1980-1997, Related Book is 1998-2009, and Related Work is 2010+. See Figure 8 and Figure 9 showing the overall gender fractions for each year for Finalist and Long List respectively.
For Finalists, there is an overall shift from primarily male authorship during the Non-Fiction Book era, including 5 years with only male authors and no year when male authorship was less than 0.60, to occasional years of parity in the Related Book era (2 years with male authors at 0.50, but otherwise male authorship is nearly always 0.80 or higher), to overall parity during the Related Work era (6 years when male authors predominated, 7 years when non-male authors predominated, and 3 years nearly equal at 0.50 +/- 0.05). Outside of the Non-Fiction Book era, the only gender shut-out was in 2015 (a Puppy year) when all Finalists were male. In no year were all Finalists non-male, although 2020 came the closest with 0.50 female authors and 0.33 non-binary authors.
For the Long Lists, the overall trends are roughly similar, with a gradual increase in non-male authorship over time (with some years deviating from the trend). As might be expected, due to the larger data sets, year-to-year variability in this trend is less. The Finalist and Long List proportions are relatively similar. In 18 years, the difference between the two for male authorship is less than +/- 0.10. In 9 years, male representation is noticeably higher in the Long List than in the Finalists, while in 5 years male representation is noticeably lower in the Long List than among Finalists. The two years of greatest disparity between the two both involve lower male representation in the Long List (2011: male representation goes from 0.80 for Finalists to 0.25 in the Long List; 2015: male representation goes form 1.00 for Finalists to 0.63 in the Long List.).
If one takes the Long List as better representative of overall trends, three years stand out as breaking trend. 2011 with out-of-trend low male authorship (0.25), 2023 with out-of-trend high male authorship (0.86), and to a somewhat lesser extent 2024 with out-of-trend high male authorship (0.58).[1] With the exception of these three years, the year 2017 represents a tipping point when the Long List shifted from consistently male-dominated to consistently non-male dominated. This same year represents the point when the Finalist list shifted from being male-dominated (with occasional parity years) to primarily non-male dominated (with one exception). That is, out of the 46-year history of the category, something resembling gender parity has only been achieved within the last 9 years.
It may not be coincidental that this occurs immediately in the wake of the Sad Puppy years. That is, the campaign to promote “traditional” (i.e., male) nominees may have resulted in the opposite: a greater focus on works by women and non-binary authors.
There are three years for which more extensive nomination data is available and the gender proportion calculation was done on the complete set.[2] The resulting proportions are not significantly different from that of the Long List.
2007: Long List 0.87 male, all data 0.86 male (n=40)
2009: Long List 0.77 male, all data 0.74 male (n=25)
2010: Long List 0.59 male, all data 0.66 male (n=23)
The above analyses contrast male and non-male authorship,[3]but it’s worth taking a look at non-binary/gender-fluid authorship specifically. Non-binary authors first appear (in both the Finalist and Long List) in 2001 and, in the past 25 years, have appeared among Finalists in 10 years, and on the Long List in 12 years. The highest representation among Finalists is 0.33 in both 2010 and 2020. The highest representation in the long lists is 0.13 in the same two years. While this might seem like an unexpectedly high rate of representation, it’s worth noting that of the 19 works in my data set with non-binary/gender-fluid authorship, 12 involve the participation of one specific (highly-prolific) individual.
Proportion of All Male, All Non-Male, and Mixed Authorship
Another way of examining the gender data is to consider the percentage of works with all-male authorship (regardless of author number), percentage with all non-male authorship, and percentage with mixed-gender authorship. This is calculated only for the data set as a whole and for the individual eras. We see a similar pattern as for the gender fractions, with strong male dominance in the earliest era gradually giving way to something closer to parity, with mixed authorship holding fairly steady across all eras.
Table 1: Gender Proportions by Era
Gender of Topics
For a consideration of the gender of the subjects of Books, see the section for Other Tags in the chapter on People, which also examines repeat appearances for authors and Topics.
Overall Conclusions
The Best Related category has shifted over time from being strongly dominated by male authors, to shifting recently to a slighter balance toward other genders, though this is not consistent. This shift cannot be correlated specifically with the changes in the category name/definition, as it is gradual, but a key tipping point occurred in 2017.
Although it isn’t practical to do a cross-category survey as part of this study, there is evidence that a gender-related inflection point occurred in the fiction categories as well. James D. Nicoll surveyed gender-skewing within the fiction categories for the period up through 2019 by identifying years in which Finalists included either one or no male or female authors.[4] Low male representation is extremely rare in any of the 4 fiction categories up through 2010. There is a 3-year period from 2011-2013 when 1 or 2 of the fiction categories included only 1 male author, then another 3-year period form 2017 to 2019 (the last year in the survey) when at least 2 fiction categories included 0-1 male authors, culminating in all 4 fiction categories having only one male author in 2019. In contrast, prior to 2011 in 54 (out of 58) years at least one of the fiction categories had low female presence, and in the same period 49 (out of 58) years saw at least 2 fiction categories with low female presence. During the same couple of 3-year periods when some categories saw low male presence, no categories saw low female presence. (That is, it wasn’t just that women dominated in the specific categories with low male presence, but that they had more representation in all categories in those years.)[5]
3.1.4 Authorship
Unlike the fiction categories, it’s not uncommon for works in the Best Related category to have multiple authors. However, the way in which authorship is attributed for some of the non-Book formats isn’t always consistent. In the case of published works, the author list has sometime been revised from what is published at the Hugo website to reflect credited names in the original publication, however in the case of non-text works authorship is as attributed at the Hugo website.
Out of the 609 works in my data set, the number of listed authors is distributed as follows:
For an overall average of 1.19 authors per work, where 74% are single-author works. Because the vast majority are single-author works, a year-by-year analysis would be too granular to demonstrate any overall trends. Therefore, the data is grouped by era, then compared Finalists and full data sets (which may include more than the official Long List, but which is largely identical to Finalists for the Non-Fiction Book era).
Table 2: Number of Authors by Era
For Finalists, the average number of authors increases across the eras while the percentage of single-author works falls and then increases again. We may have a “Spiders Georg” problem here.[7] It is unusual for Best Related works created by a large team to include a full team roster.[8] If the one work that lists 32 authors is excluded, then we see only a minimal increase in average authorship between the Related Book and Related Work eras, while the percent single-author works is not substantially affected. Overall, this suggests that nominated works increasingly are involving (or at least crediting) larger teams.
When looking at the full data sets, the average number of authors is constant between the Non-Fiction and Related Book eras, then increases in the Related Work era (to a greater or lesser degree, depending on whether the outlier is excluded. This percentage of single-author works is also identical between the first two eras, then falls somewhat under Related Work. Taken all together, this suggests that the percent single-author Finalists in the Related Book era is the anomalous statistic. This appears to be due to multi-author works in the Related Book era still having a relatively small number of authors (2-3) in comparison to the Related Work era (see below).
In all subsets, Finalists have a higher average authorship and lower rate of single-author works than the full list, raising the possibility that there is a slight nomination bias in favor of multi-author works.[9]
Of the 13 works with 4-6 authors, 2 occur during the Non-Fiction era and the other 11 during the Related Work era (most of which were Finalists), with none occurring during the Related Book era. And of the 11 Related Works, 7 are a format other than a Book or Article.
This suggests that the expansion of scope to non-text formats (which may involve larger teams) in the Related Work era may be the driver for an increase in average authorship even as single-author works return to a higher level.
(Segment VIII will cover Part 3 Historic Trends, Section 3.2 Media, Chapter 3.2.1 Introduction.)
[1]. Given the specific years involved, it might be tempting to investigate whether this reflects a bias towards male authors on the basis of Chinese nominators, but the Chinese-language works show no such bias, therefore there is no basis for hypothesizing a gender bias with regard to the nomination of non-Chinese works by Chinese nominators.
[2]. Due to extensive ties at the low threshold for the Long List, some Long List data sets include up to 21 works.
[3]. See the Gender chapter in the Categorization Process section for the basis for categorization. To reiterate, as far as can be determined, all authors categorized as non-binary are assigned female at birth and are most likely to be perceived as female by an unknowledgeable observer. The question of the timing of when they shared their current identity publicly has not been investigated, therefore non-binary identity may have been retrospectively assigned for years prior to this being publicly shared.
[5] A very rough back-of-the-envelope review of Finalists for the fiction categories in 2020-2025 indicates that in approximately ¾ of the category-year data sets, female-presenting authors were in the majority. So the author-gender inflection point for fiction appears to be sustained to the present.
[6]. This is not a typo. The r/Fantasy Bingo team was an extensive list. In recent years, it has become more normalized for large-team groups, especially publishing teams for Semiprozine, to list all staff individually.
[8]. For example, collections of Essays by a large number of people do not list all the contributors as “authors.”
[9]. If this is a genuine bias, there are multiple possible explanations. Multi-author teams might well be more likely to create higher quality works. Alternately, each team member might attract a different set of fans to the nomination process, increasing the likelihood of making Finalist. If this proposed “multi-author fanbase effect” is real, it may suggest that “non-traditional” works gain an advantage by involving larger creative teams than is practical for “traditional” text-based works. Plotting number of authors versus number of nominations does suggest something resembling a correlation for works with 2 or more authors, more so for works with 3 or more authors, and even more clearly when the analysis is restricted to finalists. However as the vast majority of high-nomination works have single authors, the phenomenon seems unlikely to affect nomination results significantly.
(1) BUJOLD SAYS NEW PENRIC MIGHT ARRIVE IN APRIL. Lois McMaster Bujold yesterday told followers of her Goodreads blog: “Penric 16 impending!”.
I am pleased to report that I have just today finished the first draft of a new Penric & Desdemona novella, to be titled “Darksight Dare”. I plan to read a little section from it at next weekend’s upcoming Minicon here in Minneapolis. (See prior post for Minicon link.)
Artist Ron Miller has nearly completed the cover for it — we’re down to fine tuning last-done things like the color and placement of the font. I’ll post a sneak peek when we’re finished.
Still to be done on my end are collecting and collating my test readers’ comments, and final revisions. I expect this to take a couple of weeks, after which I’ll turn the pieces over to Spectrum for e-publication distribution on our five vendor platforms. I’m thinking this novella may be out as early as mid-April, but parts of the process are not up to me, so we’ll see.
Also still to do is writing the vendor-page copy, which is going to be the usual challenge of trying to give folks a clear idea of what they’ll be buying without undue spoilers. I can say the story takes place in the late fall after “The Adventure of the Demonic Ox”, and will feature some new characters bringing new problems to Pen & Des….
The divisive series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was officially canceled by Paramount+ ahead of its upcoming second season. Some fans of the show are unwilling to accept this outcome, as the rallying has begun to save the series with a new petition.
The petition, which can be found at Change.org, calls for Paramount+ to renew Star Trek: Academy for Season 3. In a matter of days, it had reached its first major milestone by passing over 5,000 signatures, and just over 24 hours later, that number was doubled to over 10,000. New names are still being added continuously as more fans become aware of the petition, seemingly suggesting that it’s starting to pick up some serious momentum. Whether this will ultimately convince Paramount+ execs to reconsider their decision, however, remains to be seen.
“Given its significant impact, it is crucial not to halt this journey prematurely,” the petition’s description reads in part. “A third season would allow for the growth and development of these beloved characters and the continuation of storylines that fans are eager to see unfold. Moreover, it will provide the team behind the show the opportunity to delve deeper into narratives that challenge and inspire.”….
The author of Project Hail Mary is firing a photon torpedo at Paramount+’s Star Trek efforts.
Bestselling writer Andy Weir criticized modern Trek shows while on the Critical Drinker podcast last week, and even revealed he pitched a Trek show that was shot down by Paramount.
The topic began with the podcast’s host, Will Jordan, saying how refreshing the box office hit Project Hail Mary has been, especially for audiences who grew up on Star Trek and now suffer from “a lack of” such sci-fi efforts nowadays.
“Yeah, I saw a … I forgot who it was — I wish I could remember who it was who said it, some analyst — he said something like: ‘All modern science fiction TV shows and movies have been heavily influenced by the original Star Trek — except for the current batch of Star Trek shows,’” Weir said.
Jordan replied, “Yes!” and they both laughed.
At first, Weir left that comment open to interpretation, but then added, “I’m Gen X, so my sci-fi was like original series Star Trek reruns and Lost in Space reruns. And there wasn’t really much in the way of [new] sci-fi that was airing — where people are off in space doing cool things — until we got to [Star Trek: The Next Generation].”
Later, Jordan brought up the divisiveStar Trek: Starfleet Academy, which Paramount+ recently confirmed will end after its already-shot second season.
“I think we can probably safely never talk about it again,” Jordan quipped.
“It’s gone baby!” Weir cheerfully agreed. “It’s all gone.”
Jordan said his advice to Paramount is to de-canonize everything Star Trek from Enterprise onward.
“Okay, you’re a little more severe than I am,” Weir said. “I’ll give you my opinion and I’m just a consumer. I like Strange New Worlds. I think it’s pretty good. I didn’t hate Enterprise. I thought it was kind of weird. Lower Decks I thought was entertaining and fun. All the others, they can go. And here’s another thing: I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [executive producer Alex Kurtzman]. I don’t like a lot of the new Trek. He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy. But they didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, fvck ’em.”…
In what is hopefully a sign of the times for the box office to quote the Harry Styles song in Project Hail Mary, non-franchise IP is excelling around the world with Amazon MGM Studios’ posting an amazing $108.6M second frame for a running total of $300.8M. Not only is that the top grossing Amazon MGM Studios post merger, besting the $276M haul of 2023’s Creed III, but it’s also currently the top grossing MPA title of 2026 year-to-date. Remember, China’s racing car movie, Pegasus 3 is the highest grossing movie year to date with $630.4M….
(5) CHATBOTS AND LAWYERS, OH, MY. We reported on U.S. v. Heppner soon after it was published (Pixel Scroll 3/9/26 item #5) – where the court decided that exchanges with the AI Claude were not communications between Heppner and his attorneys because Claude isn’t an attorney. And the court also ruled the exchanges weren’t confidential because under Anthropic’s terms of use for Claude the information could be disclosed to the authorities or used by the company for AI training.
(6) JONESING. On the March 7 episode of the Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones podcast Emily Tesh, Rebecca Fraimow and Ariella Bouskilla discuss “Deep Secret”. (Kudos to Nicholas Whyte for pointing it out to Facebook readers.) Links to the other casts at the bottom of the page.
I thought of Uncle Ted’s wobbly windows, and I began to think he must really, truly never look through them or anything else. Can’t anyone look out there and see that you need not to think of everything in terms of what works or what they ought to do?
Game dev and narrative expert Ariella Bouskila joins us for a discussion of bad colleagues, sick empires, beautiful boys, katabasis ducks, and the magic that can be found all around us if you have the eyes to see but can perhaps especially be found at a 1990s science fiction convention.
NB: As much as we would like not to, this one inevitably contains some conversation about Neil Gaiman.
Tatjana Wood, whose artistry and color palette defined DC Comics for generations of fans, passed away in an assisted living facility in Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 27, just a few days shy of her hundredth birthday. Wood’s death came “after a long struggle with fading memory,” according to longtime friend and colleague Paul Levitz, who broke the news of her passing on social media, prompting an outpouring of stories and celebrations from friends, fans, and many of the women who had followed in her footsteps in the six decades since she had established herself as one of the premier colorists in the modern comic book industry….
She got her start helping her then-husband Wallace Wood on his assignments for EC Comics in the 1950s. Later —
… However she’d gotten her foot in the door, Wood quickly developed a reputation as one of DC’s most talented colorists, elevating what had been seen, even by those in the comic book industry, as cheap, disposable entertainment for children. “For those who don’t understand the process, comic book pages in those years were produced by a team, assembly line fashion,” wrote graphic novelist Derf Backderf in a Facebook tribute to Wood. “A writer passed his story on to a penciler. A letterer then put in the dialogue, word balloons and sound effects. An inker rendered those pencils. Finally, a colorist added the wonderful finishes that make comics into comics.
“In Tatjana’s time, floppy comics were printed on shitty newsprint. The printing was garbage. The color resolution was low. Think about those Ban Day dots that so enthralled parasite Roy Lichtenstein,” Derf continued. “If you look closely at any comics page you can see those dots with the naked eye. It was the most primitive–and inexpensive–reproduction available, and yet a master like Tatjana could achieve incredible effects. She was an important talent.”
Wood’s coloring on DC’s anthology titles, including the horror comic House of Secrets, military action series Our Army at War, and superhero team-up The Brave and Bold, showcased her versatility in the early 1970s. In 1972 she landed what would become her most enduring DC Comics freelance assignment when friend and editor Joe Orlando, knowing her ability to enhance mood and atmosphere in the four-color world, tapped her to color the first issue of Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson’s Swamp Thing. She continued after the original creative team’s departure and anchored the title through several subsequent creative and editorial changes, ultimately coloring Swamp Thing for over 20 years. “Her crown jewel was Swamp Thing, ‘Shvampy’ as she called him in her gravelly German accent,” said friend and editor Karen Berger….
He worked for Warner Bros. Animation, Walt Disney Television Studios and DreamWorks during his storied career, which began with an episode of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids in 1980.
Throughout the ’80s, Caldwell was a regular storyboard artist on The New Adventures of Zorro, The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, He Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Smurfs and Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers.
Caldwell was also known for his work on Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, The Tigger Movie (2000), Osmosis Jones (2001), Kim Possible and DreamWorks Dragons.
(9) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
“Assignment Earth” Star Trek episode (1968)
Captain’s log. Using the light-speed breakaway factor, the Enterprise has moved back through time to the 20th century. We are now in extended orbit around Earth, using our ship’s deflector shields to remain unobserved. Our mission – historical research. We are monitoring Earth communications to find out how our planet survived desperate problems in the year 1968.
Fifty-eight years ago on this evening, Star Trek’s “Assignment: Earth” first aired on NBC as part of the second season. Guest starring Robert Lansing as Gary Seven and Terri Garr as Roberta Lincoln, our crew which has time-travelled to 1968 Earth for historical research encounters an interstellar agent and Isis, his cat, who are planning to intervene in Earth history.
It was directed by Marc Daniels whose first break in the business was directing the first thirty-eight episodes of I Love Lucy which was produced at the Desilu studio which became Paramount. This was one of fifteen Trek episodes he’d direct. He won a Hugo at NYCon 3 with Gene Roddenberry for Best Dramatic Presentation for “The Menagerie”.
The story is by Art Wallace and Gene Roddenberry. Wallace, who also did the teleplay, is best remembered for his work on the soap opera Dark Shadows. Oh, and he did some scripts for Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.
It was intended as a pilot for an Assignment: Earth series that Gene Roddenberry planned but that never happened. Roddenberry’s intent was that Lansing and Garr would continue in the series if it was commissioned, but since NBC was not involved in casting the backdoor pilot, it could and well might have been that NBC would have insisted on changes or even completely recast the series had it picked up.
Terri Garr and Robert Lansing in “Assignment Earth”.
Interesting note: The uncredited human form of Isis was portrayed by actress, dancer, and contortionist April Tatro, not Victoria Vetri, actress (in Rosemary’s Baby under the name of Angela Dorian) and Playboy Playmate of the previous year, as would become part of Trek lore. Her identity was unknown until 2019 when The Trek Files podcast cited a production call sheet for extras dated the fifth of January for the year of broadcast. For decades fans had believed that the very briefly seen human form of the cat Isis was portrayed by actress Victoria Vetri. Many articles and websites treat that belief as revealed truth. Recently Vetri herself confirmed that she was not in the episode. No idea why the rumor started.
Gary Seven and Isis
Barbara Babcock, best remembered as Grace Gardner on Hill Street Blues, a most excellent series, was the Beta 5 computer voice (uncredited at the time) and she did the Isis’ cat vocalizations as well. Speaking of that cat, it was played by Sambo as you can see by this NBC memo. Interestingly Lansing though would later contradict that claiming that there were actually three black cats involved. I can’t confirm his claim elsewhere.
Though this backdoor pilot did not enter production as a television series, both Seven and Roberta were featured in multiple stories and they were spun-off into a comic book series from IDW Publishing, Star Trek: Assignment: Earth by John Byrne. And there was the excellent novelization of the episode that Scott Dutton did for Catspaw Dynamics. I’ve read it and it’s quite superb.
In addition, according to Memory Alpha, the source for all things Trek, “Seven and Lincoln have appeared in several Star Trek novels (Assignment: Eternity and the two-volume series, The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox) and short stories (“The Aliens Are Coming!” by Dayton Ward in Strange New Worlds III, “Seven and Seven” by Kevin Hosey in Strange New Worlds VI and “Assignment: One” by Kevin Lauderdale in Strange New Worlds VIII).”
The plot concept of benevolent aliens secretively helping Earthlings was later resurrected by Roddenberry for The Questor Tapes film. That film was one of a series of television movies in which Roddenberry was involved — Genesis II, Planet Earth, Strange New World and Spectre. Need I say none made it past the stage of the initial television movie which served as a pilot?
…You can tell a few people you trust about your nomination as long as you know they won’t blab it all over the internet. Before the official announcement, a handful of people knew I was a Hugo finalist. These include my parents (whose reaction was, “That’s nice,” before turning back to watch a rerun of Midsomer Murders), some folks from Galactic Journey and others in the SFF community, who knew not to say anything before the official announcement, as well as my accountant (because I asked her if buying an evening gown for the Hugo ceremony was tax-deductible – it’s not BTW) and the guy who repaired my patio, because he just happened to be there, when I got the e-mail. Neither the accountant nor the patio guy are SFF fans, so chances of a leak were zero. They both also probably thought I was quite mad.
(12) SALUTE TO A SEVENTIES EASTERN EUROPEAN TV FANTASY SERIES. Cora Buhlert’s new contribution to Galactic Journey is a review of the delightful Czech children’s fantasy TV series Pan Tau. Cora also argues that Pan Tau is a Time Lord. Plus, the series also featured the screen debut of 21-year-old Czech skier and model Ivana Zelníčková, better known as Ivana Trump. “[March 26, 1971] A Czech Delight: Pan Tau”.
…The first episode “Pan Tau tritt auf” (Pan Tau steps out) begins with a stock footage of real world rocket launches both Soviet and American. The scene then shifts into outer space, where traffic is remarkably busy with various spaceships racing past, courtesy of the excellent model work of Czech animators. The most fascinating of these spaceships is a Victorian style vehicle that looks as if the time machine from the 1960 movie and the rocket from Jules Verne’s Journey to the Moon had a baby. The driver of this strange contraption is a man dressed in – no, not a spacesuit, but a Stresemann suit with a white carnation in the buttonhole. On his head, he doesn’t wear a space helmet, but a bowler hat. This is our protagonist Pan Tau – here still in the form of a puppet. In human form, Pan Tau is played by Czech stage actor Otto Šimánek….
(13) DERN’S EXPLICATION OF TODAY’S SCROLL TITLE. [Item by Daniel Dern.] Title origin story: The title reference should, I hope, be obvious to a majority of Filers (Mild hint: Rhyme-riffing on a Terry Bisson story title)…but the “how I came to think of it, not, I think, anywhere near obvious, so: I was checking part of my back for what might be ticks (rare, but has happened), which made me think of a New-England-local news story from the (dead tree) newspaper a day or two ago about increasing (though still, IIRC, small numbers of) tick bites that result in becoming allergic to red meat. (Lookup phrase: alpha-gal). From there, easy free-association to the title suggestion.
(14) NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED. [Item by N.] Now that the broom dust has cleared, James Woodall puts a magnifying glass on last year’s Wicked: For Good in “Wicked 2: The Bad VS The Good”.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, N., Cora Buhlert, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
