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ljgeoffI never gave much thought to how sf & fantasy literary awards were dished out. Over in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
james_nicoll's LJ here, there was a discussion about the Arther C. Clarke Award, and autopope said, "So instead of a random, open pool of nominators you've got a bunch of semi-self-selected judges working with a list of books donated by (and pre-filtered by) the publishers."
Which I thought was pretty interesting. So here's a list of the major awards, what I can dig up about the selection process, and where I got the information.
Hugo -- Members of past and current years' WorldCon nominate up to five items per category. The top five items in each category are placed on a final ballot, which is voted on by current members.
Though this is a reader-based award, the reader must pay a minimum of a "supporting membership" of $50. In 2008, there were 483 valid nominating ballots, and and 895 valid voting ballots. Since the Hugo is one of the genre's most valued awards, it might be interesting to see the demographic information on the people who are nominating and voting.
Nebula -- Members of the SFWA nominate the candidates. There are several routes to membership. Only Active and Associate members in good standing shall be eligible to nominate works for the Final Ballot. According to the current website, only Active members in good standing are eligible to vote, but "it is anticipated by the Board that Associate members will be allowed to vote on the Final Ballot, once the new by-laws have been ratified by the membership."
I haven't been able to find on line how many active members in good standing are in the SFWA. In in this entry of Scalzi's blog, Amy Sterling Casil says "Only active members in “good standing” are supposed to be able to vote, and I believe there are fewer than 1,000 of them." (April 2008)
World Fantasy Awards -- World Fantasy Convention members nominate two entries per category; judges can add three or more nominees per category. Judges select the winners. The Judges are chosen by the World Fantasy Awards Administration. Anyone with a membership in the World Fantasy Convention may nominate. The supporting memberbership is $35. I'm not sure how the members of the Awards Administration chooses the judges, but I'm assuming that it's an author that they admire and respect.
Bram Sroker -- HWA members nominate and vote. HWA's Active (voting) members are all published professional writers of horror. In 2006, there were 240 active members, but I'm not sure what it takes to be a member.
Chesley -- ASFA (Association of Science Fiction Artists) give out this award to outstanding works of science fiction and fantasy art. It looks like a membership is $40, with no requirements of publishing credentials. I haven't found how the award is nominated or voted for.
John W. Campbell -- Selected judges vote for the best SF novel published in the US. Their website lists the current judges as Gregory Benford, Paul A. Carter, James Gunn, Elizabeth Ann Hull, Christopher McKitterick, Pamala Sargent, T. A. Shippey and Paul Kincaid. I'm not sure how the stories are nominated or judges are selected.
Theodore Sturgeon -- Awards the best short science fiction of the year. The current jury consists of James Gunn, Kij Johnson, Frederik Pohl, George Zebrowski, and Noel Sturgeon, Trustee of the Theodore Sturgeon Literary Estate. I'm not sure how the stories are nominated or how the judges are selected.
Arthur C. Clarke -autopope wrote: "There are no "nominees" as such. Rather, publishers are invited to send books they believe are worthy to the committee. A jury is convened, who read everything -- it's works of science fiction published in the UK, so there are only about 200-250 books in the pool in any given year. The jury then reject the obvious no-hopers and squabble over the rest, until they distill it down to a shortlist of 5 or 6. Then they go into a locked room and don't come out until the blood's stopped spurting and they've reached a consensus.
Note: judges are picked at the invitation of the award administrators. They may be critics or authors, but authors are disqualified from having any works in that year's process. (I was invited a couple of years ago: I declined because (a) I can't comfortably read that many books in a year, and (b) I had two novels coming out, one of which I believed stood an outside chance (as indeed it made the Hugo shortlist).)
So instead of a random, open pool of nominators you've got a bunch of semi-self-selected judges working with a list of books donated by (and pre-filtered by) the publishers."
Philip K. Dick -- Five judges read submissions from publishers and determine the shortlist, then the winner. Judges choose their own successors, and only writers or academics are eligible to be judges. The 2008 judges were Tobias Buckell, M. M. Buckner (chair), Walter Hunt, Rosemary Kirstein, and William Senior.
James Triptree, Jr. -- an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender. Five judges are selected each year, who evaluate recommendations submitted by publishers and by readers. Judges choose a winner, and release a 'shortlist' and sometimes a 'longlist' of other works they feel merit attention, though those lists are not considered to be finalists or runners-up. The judges of the 2008 Tiptree were: Charlel Anders, Gwenda Bond (chair), Meghan McCarron, Geoff Ryman, and Sheree Renee Thomas.
james_nicoll's LJ here, there was a discussion about the Arther C. Clarke Award, and autopope said, "So instead of a random, open pool of nominators you've got a bunch of semi-self-selected judges working with a list of books donated by (and pre-filtered by) the publishers."Which I thought was pretty interesting. So here's a list of the major awards, what I can dig up about the selection process, and where I got the information.
Hugo -- Members of past and current years' WorldCon nominate up to five items per category. The top five items in each category are placed on a final ballot, which is voted on by current members.
Though this is a reader-based award, the reader must pay a minimum of a "supporting membership" of $50. In 2008, there were 483 valid nominating ballots, and and 895 valid voting ballots. Since the Hugo is one of the genre's most valued awards, it might be interesting to see the demographic information on the people who are nominating and voting.
Nebula -- Members of the SFWA nominate the candidates. There are several routes to membership. Only Active and Associate members in good standing shall be eligible to nominate works for the Final Ballot. According to the current website, only Active members in good standing are eligible to vote, but "it is anticipated by the Board that Associate members will be allowed to vote on the Final Ballot, once the new by-laws have been ratified by the membership."
I haven't been able to find on line how many active members in good standing are in the SFWA. In in this entry of Scalzi's blog, Amy Sterling Casil says "Only active members in “good standing” are supposed to be able to vote, and I believe there are fewer than 1,000 of them." (April 2008)
World Fantasy Awards -- World Fantasy Convention members nominate two entries per category; judges can add three or more nominees per category. Judges select the winners. The Judges are chosen by the World Fantasy Awards Administration. Anyone with a membership in the World Fantasy Convention may nominate. The supporting memberbership is $35. I'm not sure how the members of the Awards Administration chooses the judges, but I'm assuming that it's an author that they admire and respect.
Bram Sroker -- HWA members nominate and vote. HWA's Active (voting) members are all published professional writers of horror. In 2006, there were 240 active members, but I'm not sure what it takes to be a member.
Chesley -- ASFA (Association of Science Fiction Artists) give out this award to outstanding works of science fiction and fantasy art. It looks like a membership is $40, with no requirements of publishing credentials. I haven't found how the award is nominated or voted for.
John W. Campbell -- Selected judges vote for the best SF novel published in the US. Their website lists the current judges as Gregory Benford, Paul A. Carter, James Gunn, Elizabeth Ann Hull, Christopher McKitterick, Pamala Sargent, T. A. Shippey and Paul Kincaid. I'm not sure how the stories are nominated or judges are selected.
Theodore Sturgeon -- Awards the best short science fiction of the year. The current jury consists of James Gunn, Kij Johnson, Frederik Pohl, George Zebrowski, and Noel Sturgeon, Trustee of the Theodore Sturgeon Literary Estate. I'm not sure how the stories are nominated or how the judges are selected.
Arthur C. Clarke -
autopope wrote: "There are no "nominees" as such. Rather, publishers are invited to send books they believe are worthy to the committee. A jury is convened, who read everything -- it's works of science fiction published in the UK, so there are only about 200-250 books in the pool in any given year. The jury then reject the obvious no-hopers and squabble over the rest, until they distill it down to a shortlist of 5 or 6. Then they go into a locked room and don't come out until the blood's stopped spurting and they've reached a consensus.Note: judges are picked at the invitation of the award administrators. They may be critics or authors, but authors are disqualified from having any works in that year's process. (I was invited a couple of years ago: I declined because (a) I can't comfortably read that many books in a year, and (b) I had two novels coming out, one of which I believed stood an outside chance (as indeed it made the Hugo shortlist).)
So instead of a random, open pool of nominators you've got a bunch of semi-self-selected judges working with a list of books donated by (and pre-filtered by) the publishers."
Philip K. Dick -- Five judges read submissions from publishers and determine the shortlist, then the winner. Judges choose their own successors, and only writers or academics are eligible to be judges. The 2008 judges were Tobias Buckell, M. M. Buckner (chair), Walter Hunt, Rosemary Kirstein, and William Senior.
James Triptree, Jr. -- an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender. Five judges are selected each year, who evaluate recommendations submitted by publishers and by readers. Judges choose a winner, and release a 'shortlist' and sometimes a 'longlist' of other works they feel merit attention, though those lists are not considered to be finalists or runners-up. The judges of the 2008 Tiptree were: Charlel Anders, Gwenda Bond (chair), Meghan McCarron, Geoff Ryman, and Sheree Renee Thomas.