Worldcon 75 is now taking nominations for the 2017 Hugo Awards. All members eligible to nominate may do so either by sending in a paper ballot, included with the convention’s Progress Report 3 and also separately downloadable from the Worldcon 75 website, or voting online by individual links supplied to voters.
All nomination ballots must be postmarked by March 17, 2017 or submitted by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on March 17.
Eligible to vote are all those who have purchased membership in Worldcon 75, MidAmericon II or Worldcon 76 in San José by January 31, 2017. Both attending and supporting members have the right to vote for the Hugo Awards and in Worldcon Site Selection for 2019.
Hugo voters are encouraged to nominate up to five works/individuals in each category that they believe are worthy of the award. The most popular nominees will go forward to the Final Ballot.
According to Karl-Johan Norén, online voting —
…uses a new system with personalized links, which should not be shared. Once you have logged in, you can make as many changes as you like up to your nomination ballot until the deadline. Your current ballot will be emailed to you an hour after you stop making changes to it.
The final ballot will be announced in early April, and the awards will be presented August 11 at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, Finland. Only Worldcon 75 members will be able to vote on the final ballot and choose the winners.
As in previous years, voters may nominate up to five possible finalists in each category. However, the World Science Fiction Society’s Business Meetings in 2015 and 2016 made some changes to the way nominations will be tallied this year to produce the final ballot. These include:
- Final ballots in each category will now have six rather than five finalists (but the maximum number of nominations that a voter can make in each category remains five);
- A new system for counting nominations, which will reduce the extent to which a small bloc of voters can dominate individual categories;
- No more than two works by the same creator(s), and no more than two stories from the same series, can appear on the ballot for any one category;
- The requirement that all finalists in a category must receive more than 5% of nominations has been removed.
Worldcon 75 also is using its right under the rules to run a one-time Hugo category by giving a trial run to the proposed Best Series category, which received its first passage at the 2016 Worldcon Business Meeting and will become permanent if the 2017 Business Meeting ratifies it.
The Hugo base this year will be designed by a Finnish artist, to be selected by the Worldcon 75 committee.
The Hugos are the most prestigious award in the science fiction genre, honoring literature and media as well as fan activities. The awards were first presented in 1953.
More information about the Hugo Awards, including details about how to submit a nominating ballot, is available at http://www.worldcon.fi/wsfs/hugo/
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ticky
I’ll just drop in here that sources for good crowdsourced recs include the Hugo Nominees 2017 Wiki, The Hugo Awards 16-17 spreadsheet, and the File770 2016 Recommended SF/F Page (also linked up there in the header). None are officially affiliated with the awards, just fans making suggestions (and you can still add your recs to any one of them, hint hint.)
Also useful: the Campbell eligibility page at Writertopia, and the Semiprozine directory.
I just finished The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo and translated by Lola Rogers.
From Amazon:
“From the author of the Finlandia Award-winning novel Troll: A Love Story, The Core of the Sun further cements Johanna Sinisalo’s reputation as a master of literary speculative fiction and of her country’s unique take on it, dubbed “Finnish weird.” Set in an alternative historical present, in a “eusistocracy”—an extreme welfare state—that holds public health and social stability above all else, it follows a young woman whose growing addiction to illegal chili peppers leads her on an adventure into a world where love, sex, and free will are all controlled by the state.
The Eusistocratic Republic of Finland has bred a new human sub-species of receptive, submissive women, called eloi, for sex and procreation, while intelligent, independent women are relegated to menial labor and sterilized so that they do not carry on their “defective” line. Vanna, raised as an eloi but secretly intelligent, needs money to help her doll-like sister, who has disappeared. Vanna forms a friendship with a man named Jare, and they become involved in buying and selling a stimulant known to the Health Authority to be extremely dangerous: chili peppers. Then Jare comes across a strange religious cult in possession of the Core of the Sun, a chili so hot that it is rumored to cause hallucinations. Does this chili have effects that justify its prohibition? How did Finland turn into the North Korea of Europe? And will Vanna succeed in her quest to find her sister, or will her growing need to satisfy her chili addiction destroy her?”
It was translated from Finnish and published in English for the first time in January of 2016 by Grove Press/Black Cat.
It is for sure to be on my shortlist for Best Novel this year.
My nomination list (still subject to change, but most likely complete) – only short fiction and just One Man’s Opinion, but out there in case anyone might find it useful.
Here’s another resource, JJ’s post — Best Series Hugo: Eligible Series.
So when’s the sekrit cabal SJW voting list being sent out? I can’t vote until I’ve been told what to vote for as affirmative action for something I don’t really like.
(Note to any wandering puppies – THIS IS A JOKE.)
@Chris S
We established in a recent scroll that the secrit award instructions get sent out just after the secrit blacklist, but before the SJW cat picture of the day.
Ah. I got the cat picture, I’ll check my spam trap for the sekrit award instructions. Thanks Mark!
Thank you for this; I seem to have spent much of 2016 reading stuff from before 2016, and thus have a lot of catching up to do, particularly since I haven’t even had the cat picture and fear I may have been dropped from the super sekrit mailing list.
I am bound, in any case, to be a bit of a failure on the cabal front, since I am an attending member of Worldcon 75 and thus can’t sekritively manipulate events from behind the, or any, curtain; I shall just have to read the dratted books and nominate the ones I don’t like…
This part of the press release from Worldcon 75 Helsinki could end up causing some confusion for people who are new to Worldcon membership and how memberships apply to both the nominating and voting process.
“Eligible to vote are all those who have purchased membership in Worldcon 75, MidAmericon II or Worldcon 76 in San José by January 31, 2017.
Both attending and supporting members have the right to vote for the Hugo Awards and in Worldcon Site Selection for 2019.”
For clarity’s sake:
Members of Worldcon 74 MidAmericon II and members of Worldcon 76 in San Jose who do not purchase either an attending or a supporting membership to Worldcon 75 in Helsinki are only eligible to nominate, and in order to vote the final ballot this year they must purchase either an attending or a supporting membership to this year’s Worldcon. Worldcon 75 in Helsinki
Please feel free to correct me if you believe me to be wrong.
@ the cabal – I was told that the Polar Bear was in charge of the cabal’s propaganda this year, and would be sending out the slate on microfilm, James Bond style, sometime later this month.
Sean, you’re right.
They should not have used the word “vote” here, they should have used “nominate”.
“Eligible to
votenominate are all those who have purchased membership in Worldcon 75, MidAmericon II or Worldcon 76 in San José by January 31, 2017.“Both attending and supporting members of Worldcon 75 have the right to vote for the Hugo Awards and in Worldcon Site Selection for 2019.”
(Edited my original comment for more correct information)
@JJ
I just checked the Worldcon 75 site and the press release does read correctly on their site.
http://www.worldcon.fi/press/pr_2017-01-09_en/
Sean Kirk: I just checked the Worldcon 75 site and the press release does read correctly on their site.
Nope, it still does not specify that Hugo voting and Site Selection are for Worldcon 75 supporting and attending members only.
JJ: What is it you think is lacking? The second sentence of the press release says —
When you cast a ballot — including a nominating ballot — you are casting a vote, in this case a vote towards nominating a work or person for the Hugo.
Hugo Nominations Open
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The nominating period for the 2017 Hugo Awards has begun. All nomination ballots must be postmarked by March 17, 2017 or submitted by 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time on 17 March. In order to participate (This part would be more clear if it stated “In order to nominate”) you must have purchased membership in Worldcon 75, MidAmericon II or Worldcon 76 in San José by January 31st, 2017.
The Hugo nomination process for works published or otherwise released in 2016 is open to current members of the World Science Fiction Society, which means supporting or attending members of the 2016 Worldcon (MidAmericon II), the 2017 Worldcon (Worldcon 75) or the 2018 Worldcon (Worldcon 76 in San José). See worldcon.fi for more information on becoming a supporting or attending member of Worldcon 75. Both attending and supporting members have the right to vote for the Hugo Awards and in Worldcon Site Selection for 2019.
WSFS members are encouraged to nominate up to five works/individuals in each category that they believe are worthy of a Hugo. The most popular nominees will go forward to the Final Ballot.
The final ballot will be announced in early April, and the awards will be presented on 11 August at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, Finland. Only Worldcon 75 members will be able to vote on the final ballot and choose the winners.
Ticky
(I am so behind)
This is one paragraph in their press release:
“The Hugo nomination process for works published or otherwise released in 2016 is open to current members of the World Science Fiction Society, which means supporting or attending members of the 2016 Worldcon (MidAmericon II), the 2017 Worldcon (Worldcon 75) or the 2018 Worldcon (Worldcon 76 in San José). See worldcon.fi for more information on becoming a supporting or attending member of Worldcon 75. Both attending and supporting members have the right to vote for the Hugo Awards and in Worldcon Site Selection for 2019.”
To avoid ambiguity, that last sentence needs to say, “Both attending and supporting members of Worldcon 75 have the right to vote for the Hugo Awards and in Worldcon Site Selection for 2019.” — but actually, it should be moved to a different place in the press release, because it’s smack dab in the middle of information, before and after it, about nominating.
@ Mike
JJ: They should not have used the word “vote” here, they should have used “nominate”.
“When you cast a ballot — including a nominating ballot — you are casting a vote, in this case a vote towards nominating a work or person for the Hugo.”
The way that it is worded in the press release above could lead someone who is new to the process to believe that by being either a Supporting Member or an Attending Member of Worldcon 74 and or Worldcon 76 would grant them voting rights to the final ballot this year. When it only grants them nominating rights this year.
Just trying to eliminate any potential confusion that this press release might potentially cause.
Wow that statement has a lot of potential!
/edit-stalk 😉
ohmigod I’m nominating for the Hugos
nom nom nom nom nom
@Dawn Incognito: It’s okay. Take a slow, deep breath. 😉
Congrats!
The big question is how I nominate Chuck Tingle as Best Related Work. Author/Editor is easy, but what do I fill in as Title and Publisher/Where Published? Twitter? Chucktingle.com?
I’ve written Chuck Tingle’s Twitter, by Chuck Tingle, published twitter.com but based on his own tweet suggesting we nominate “Chuck Tingle trolling of rabid puppies”, I’ll probably update to that…
I would have thought the obvious category for Dr Tingle was Fan Writer – Twitter must count as ‘publicly accessible electronic media’, and (supposing this is relevant), not professional. But I guess if no one else nominates him for that there is little point in doing so.
The new user interface for Hugo Nominations is beautiful! Simple and clean, and seems to handle edge cases well. For example, when nominating for the Campbell Award, I accidentally reversed the author and work fields for one row. So I cut the work field and pasted on the next row as author. Then I cut the work field (leaving the line blank) and the form immediately removed the empty line and scrolled the next row up. Very well done!
FYI the save icons under each category only save the current category, unlike the save links in the past few years that were in a similar spot. Look for the floating button at the bottom right of the window (outside the main page area) with a number on it (the # of unsaved categories), which shows up when you have any unsaved changes on the page; this icon saves all categories.
There’s mouseover text, but if you don’t actually pause to check for mouseover text 😉 then it’s not obvious that it works differently from the last few years. I didn’t even notice the floating button at the bottom until I went to another tab to check something, then returned. Not a big deal – but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to mention.
Thanks, Kendall. That’s definitely good to know. I haven’t done anything but give the page a quick glance (and, like Greg, thought it was very nice looking). I would probably have assumed it functioned like before.
Maybe I am blind, but I can’t seem to figure out where to go to nominate. Maybe its something obvious for everyone but us first timers. I just joined an hour ago, so maybe something will be sent. Anyway, my wife and I are super pumped to nominate for the first time!
@stuckinhistory
You will get an email each with a personalised link.
You’ll get an email with a link. I have no idea how long time it will take if you signed up today – it’s possible someone have to process something manually, in which case I assume it might take a day or two until some volunteer have time.
The link is personal for you – don’t share it. (i.e if you see someone asking the same question about “how do I nominate”, tell them to look for their own email rather than send them your link.)
ETA: Oh well, to late.
You should have already received an e-mail. Look in your junk mail folder for an e-mail from “Hugo Awards 2017” sent on January 10, 2017 at 9:57 AM PST. The e-mails to everyone were sent at the same time.
Greg Hullender: He just joined today. So he wouldn’t have been on the January 10 distribution.
Thanks everyone! I’ll be happily reading away till they send me an email then. 🙂
@Mike Glyer
So you’re saying their technology isn’t quite as advanced as I thought it was? 🙂
Hi all – 2017 Hugo Administrator here. Thanks for your feedback on the various elements of our publicity, and for the comments on the nominations interface, all of which we take on board.
Just to answer directly @stuckinhistory’s question: people who joined any of the three qualifying conventions before last weekend will have received a nominations link on Monday. We will do a second mailout to all remaining nominators shortly after the deadline to join in time for nominating closes, 31 January – I’m not going to commit to 1 February, but it will be as early as possible. So anyone who joins in the rest of this month will get their nomination link then. That will still leave plenty of time until nominations close on 17 March.
Hi Nicholas! Just want to agree with Greg that the user interface is lovely!
My recommendations for the Best Related Hugo: 1) David J. Spurlock and Frank Frazetta, THE SENSUOUS FRAZETTA (Vanguard Publishing); 2) Barry N. Malzberg’s essay “There is No Defense” (GALAXY’S EDGE, 5/2016), 3) GAHAN WILSON’S OUT THERE (FANTAGRAPHIC BOOKS), 4) Roger Hill, WALLY WOOD: GALAXY ART AND BEYOND (IDW Publishing).