Hugo nominations are due in 10 days! And I have some more recs for you, this time in the categories that aren’t fiction. You can find my fiction recs here and after that you should check out which Hugo nomination categories I’m eligible for and hopefully you will deem me worthy of your nomination nod.
I don’t have a rec for every not-fiction Hugo category. I don’t have a good sense of the field for some, and the others I don’t care about as much (dramatic presentation, for ex). So I’m happy to read other people’s recs or just wait for the final ballot before consuming everything and making a decision.
Best Related Work
“A Critical Review of Laura J. Mixon’s Essay” by Édouard Brière-Allard
I know my listing this will be interpreted as some pro-Requires Hate move and more proof that I am her specialest best friend1. Sorry y’all: No. My strong recommendation for this essay is about my strong conviction that if a person is going to publish a call out post with a long list of receipts, it needs to adhere to some strict standards evidence, labelling, and truth. Mixon’s post about Benjanun did not, and this essay is, in part, about explaining that. It points out the huge problems with that post and is an important part of the conversation about the fallout from the post. It’s long. Longity-long. It’s well worth reading.
Invisible 2, edited by Jim C Hines
This anthology series about representation in SFF is so important. The essays cover all the big questions when it comes to representation–why it’s necessary and needed, the effects of bad representation on individuals and culture, the effects of good representation, getting beyond false binaries of choice, and much more. This is an anthology that’s just as important for fans and readers to have as it is for genre writers.
There are a ton of fan-maintained wikis around, and I know many of them are great. This is one of the best I’ve ever come across. It’s well organized and edited, kept up to date consistently, and contains a breadth and depth of information that astounds me. Even George RR Martin uses this wiki to look up details of character and history (or so I hear). This wiki is why I can have conversations with people about Game of Thrones even though I haven’t read any of the books or watched much of the show.
“The Call of the Sad Whelkfins: The Continued Relevance of How to Suppress Women’s Writing” by Natalie Luhrs and Annalee Flower Horne
Bad Life Decisions: In Which Natalie Luhrs Reads a Theodore Beale Book for Charity
Sad Puppies Review Books: Children’s Books Reviewed By Childish Men by John Z. Upjohn
This book collects all the excellent SP review posts, hilarious send-ups by the ever funny Alexandra Erin. Stuff like this is why she’s also on my Best Fan Writer list.
Best Editor (Long Form)
Devi Pillai, Orbit Books
Devi is the editor at Orbit that acquired N. K. Jemisin’s books and for that she should have won a Hugo long ago. Nora agrees with me: “Devi has done a lot to help change the face of the genre. It’s in large part thanks to her influence that Orbit Books has consistently cranked out some really edgy, different, high-quality fiction in its relatively short lifetime. The books she likes are anything but the same-old same old; there’s no formula in her fantasy, no tiresome adherence to tradition at the expense of a good story.”
Her authors also include Kate Elliott, Gail Carriger, Lilith Saintcrow, Joe Abercrombie, and Kate Locke among many others. If you loved The Fifth Season or any other book Devi edited, then she should be on your list of nomintees.
Miriam Weinberg, Tor Books
Miriam edited Fran Wilde’s Updraft and V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic.
Best Editor (Short Form)
Nisi Shawl
Co-editor of Stories for Chip
Ann VanderMeer
For me, this is based mainly on her editorial work for Tor.com. She consistently acquires outstanding stories by amazing authors.
Ellen Datlow
Similar story here. I’m not that into horror. But the stories Ellen acquires for Tor.com are always worth reading and often surprise me with how much I like them even if they’re horror or dark fantasy.
C.C. Finlay
Charlie turned F&SF into a magazine I wanted to read on a regular basis instead of something I threw across the room on a regular basis.
Best Semiprozine
Strange Horizons
Uncanny Magazine
Best Fancast
A podcast dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of geeks facing inequality in their industries, hosted by the awesome Aleen Simms.
Best Fan Writer
Mark Oshiro
Alexandra Erin
Natalie Luhrs
Tanya DePass
Édouard Brière-Allard
Please share your recs in the comments!
Footnotes
- I still have a long essay of my own in me about that and why that’s very much not the case, and one day I’m sure I’ll have the emotional fortitude to write it. [⇧]
Just so no one thinks they have to go through a paywall or do business with Amazon to evaluate its worthiness, I would just like to point out that most of the reviews in Sad Puppies Review Books are also available on my website, where they were first posted:
http://www.alexandraerin.com/category/sprb
Thanks for the nods!
I really liked Geek Knits by Joan of Dark. I guess that goes under related work? Here’s the GR page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23014660-geek-knits?from_new_nav=true&ac=1&from_search=true.