Чарли Андерс: Nebula Awards Showcase 2018

The Novella winner, Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire, is a lyrical, shimmering, surprising novella that brings us back to our childhood reading and forward into murder, magic, mayhem and deep-soul fantasy.

The Novelette winner, “The Long Fall Up” by William Ledbetter, is true science fiction with an emphasis on the science. Ledbetter, a thirty-year veteran of the aerospace industry is a strong writer, and he’s not faking the science. The politics of birth and the place of women and pregnant women in space is a story that leaves a deep impression.

Amal El-Mohtar’s winning short story is the crown jewel in the anthology. As a folklorist manqué, I love how she plays with elements from folk tales. Her story is “Seasons of Glass and Iron” (from The Starlit Wood anthology). It’s a melding of several fairy tales. First, she has used the Norwegian “The Princess on the Glass Hill” to delineate one of the two main characters and problems. The second character seems to be from “East of the Sun & West of the Moon” combined with the Romanian story “The Sleeping Prince,” and perhaps “The Black Bull of Norroway,” all difficult and intriguing tales that I know and love. But Amal re-animates and re-imagines them through a feminist telescope, bringing the far-away and once upon a time into a newer, sharper focus.

Odd winners? You betcha, but in the best possible way.

—Jane Yolen

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc., includes among its members many active writers of science fiction and fantasy. According to the bylaws of the organization, its purpose “shall be to promote the furtherance of the writing of science fiction, fantasy, and related genres as a profession.” SFWA informs writers on professional matters, protects their interests, and helps them in dealings with agents, editors, anthologists, and producers of nonprint media. It also strives to encourage public interest in and appreciation of science fiction and fantasy.

Anyone may become an active member of SFWA after the acceptance of and payment for one professionally published novel, one professionally produced dramatic script, or three professionally published pieces of short fiction. Only science fiction, fantasy, horror, or other prose fiction of a related genre, in English, shall be considered as qualifying for active membership. Beginning writers who do not yet qualify for active membership but have published qualifying professional work may join as associate members; other classes of membership include affiliate members (editors, agents, reviewers, and anthologists), estate members (representatives of the estates of active members who have died), and institutional members (high schools, colleges, universities, libraries, broadcasters, film producers, futurist groups, and individuals associated with such an institution).

Readers are invited to visit the SFWA site at www.sfwa.org.

Shortly after the founding of SFWA in 1965, its first secretary-treasurer, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., proposed that the organization periodically select and publish the year’s best stories. This notion evolved into the elaborate balloting process, an annual awards banquet, and a series of Nebula anthologies.

Throughout every calendar year, members of SFWA read and recommend novels and stories for the Nebula Awards. The editor of the Nebula Awards Report collects the recommendations and publishes them in the SFWA Forum and on the SFWA members’ private web page. At the end of the year, the NAR editor tallies the endorsements, draws up a preliminary ballot containing ten or more recommendations, and sends it all to active SFWA members. Under the current rules, each work enjoys a one-year eligibility period from its date of publication in the United States. If a work fails to receive ten recommendations during the one-year interval, it is dropped from further Nebula consideration.

The NAR editor processes the results of the preliminary ballot and then compiles a final ballot listing the five most popular novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories. For purposes of the award, a novel is determined to be 40,000 words or more; a novella is 17,500 to 39,999 words; a novelette is 7,500 to 17,499 words, and a short story is 7,499 words or fewer. Additionally, each year SFWA impanels a member jury, which is empowered to supplement the five nominees with a sixth choice in cases where it feels a worthy title was neglected by the membership at large. Thus, the appearance of more than five finalists in a category reflects two distinct processes: jury discretion and ties.

A complete set of Nebula rules can be found at nebulas.sfwa.org/about-the-nebulas/nebula-rules.

Winner: All the Birds in the Sky , Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan) Nominees:

Borderline , Mishell Baker (Saga)

The Obelisk Gate , N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Ninefox Gambit , Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK)

Everfair , Nisi Shawl (Tor)

Winner: Every Heart a Doorway , Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)

Nominees:

Runtime , S.B. Divya (Tor.com Publishing)

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe , Kij Johnson (Tor.com Publishing)

The Ballad of Black Tom , Victor LaValle (Tor.com Publishing)

“The Liar,” John P. Murphy ( F&SF 3-4/16)

A Taste of Honey , Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com Publishing)

Winner: “The Long Fall Up,” William Ledbetter ( F&SF 5-6/16)

Nominees:

“Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea,” Sarah Pinsker ( Lightspeed 2/16)

“The Orangery,” Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam ( Beneath Ceaseless Skies )

“Blood Grains Speak Through Memories,” Jason Sanford ( Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/17/16)

The Jewel and Her Lapidary , Fran Wilde (Tor.com Publishing)

“You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay,” Alyssa Wong ( Uncanny 5-6/16)

Winner: “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” Amal El-Mohtar ( The Starlit Wood )

Nominees:

“Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies,” Brooke Bolander ( Uncanny 11-12/16)

“Sabbath Wine,” Barbara Krasnoff ( Clockwork Phoenix 5 )

“Things with Beards,” Sam J. Miller ( Clarkesworld 6/16)

“This Is Not a Wardrobe Door,” A. Merc Rustad ( Fireside Magazine 1/16)

“A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers,” Alyssa Wong ( Tor.com 3/2/16)

“Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0,” Caroline M. Yoachim ( Lightspeed 3/16)

Winner: Arrival , Screenplay by Eric Heisserer

Nominees:

Doctor Strange , Screenplay by Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill

Kubo and the Two Strings , Screenplay by Mark Haimes & Chris Butler

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story , Written by Chris Weitz & Tony Gilroy

Westworld : “The Bicameral Mind,” Written by Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan

Zootopia , Screenplay by Jared Bush & Phil Johnston

Winner: Arabella of Mars , David D. Levine (Tor)

Nominees:

The Girl Who Drank the Moon , Kelly Barnhill (Algonquin Young Readers)