The winners of the 12th annual Parsec Awards for Excellence in Speculative Fiction Podcasting were announced December 17.  

Winners of the 2018 Parsec Awards

• Best Speculative Fiction Story: Small Cast (Short Form)

PodCastle

Jen R. Albert & Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali

Six Jobs by Tim Pratt PodCastle  

•  Best Speculative Fiction Story: Small Cast (Long Form)

Shadow Publications: Derelict Tomb

Paul E. Cooley

Derelict: Tomb by Paul E. Cooley

• Best Speculative Fiction Story: Large Cast (Short Form)

The Gray Area

Edward Champion

Buddies for Hire by Edward Champion

• Best Speculative Fiction Audio Drama (Short Form)

The Axe & Crown

Eli McIlveen and Sean Howard

The Axe & Crown (12 episodes)
by Eli McIlveen and Sean Howard

• Best Speculative Fiction Audio Drama (Long Form)

Uncanny County

Todd Faulkner

Uncanny County by Todd Faulkner, Alison Crane, William Franke, Nicole Greevy

• Best Speculative Fiction Video Story

Active Radioactive Radio

Pendant Productions

Radioactive by Susan and Jeffrey Bridges

• Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast

Escape Pod

Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya

• Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team

The Phenomenon

Luciola Creative

• Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast (Specific)

To The Journey!

Kay Shaw,  Suzanne Williamson, Zachary Fruhling

• Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast (General)

Kalanadi

Rachael (Kalanadi)

General interest science fiction reviews by Rachael

• Best Podcast about Speculative Fiction Content Creation

Under The Puppet

Saturday Morning Media, Grant Baciocco

• Best Fact Behind the Fiction Podcast

Astronomy Cast

Pamela Gay and Fraser Cain

• Best Speculative Fiction Comedy/Parody Podcast

Robotz of the Company

Dream Realm Enterprises

Robotz of the Company by Jonithan Patrick  Russell

Update 12/17/2018: The Parsec Awards committee subsequently added the following statement (which does not identify the winner at issue):

In the last 24 hours the Parsec Awards Steering Committee has been made aware that a podcast creator for one of the podcasts that was announced in the previous email as an award winner has a history of extremely disturbing behavior.

To the best of our knowledge, no one on this committee was aware of this nor had any direct contact with this person.

Before going on, we want to make it clear that in no way do we wish to condone, enable or ignore patterns of threatening, abusive or hateful behavior on line or in person. From the very beginning the Parsecs have striven to be fair, unbiased and inclusive.

Our process is necessarily blind. We vet nominations for accuracy and submissions for relation to category and duration. Judging is done solely on the basis of the audio file presented.  That is to say we are presenting awards to the podcast solely on the basis of the content and production value. Some members of the committee and judges are in the podcast community. Therefore, they may know nominees and exclude themselves from directly influencing the processing of those submissions.

We have tried to create an award that is based on merit and is free from popularity, politics or prejudice. As you will note from our qualifications, there is no mention of the podcast creators only the podcast.

It is from this basis that we find ourselves where we are now without a policy to address this situation nor a ready made recourse. 

Things are happening very fast and we are not organized to be rapidly responsive. The committee has not had a chance to meet to determine what response is appropriate. 

We beg your patience while we figure this out.

The Parsec Awards Steering Committee