2015 Hugo Trophy Unveiled

~ Kevin ~ 1 Comment

The design of the 2015 Hugo Award trophy was unveiled during the Opening Ceremonies of Sasquan, the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention, on the afternoon of August 19. In keeping with recent practice, Sasquan elected to showcase the trophy early in the convention so that members could see it before the final night of Worldcon. The trophy has been on display in the convention’s Hugo Award history exhibit since shortly after the convention’s Opening Ceremonies.

While the Hugo Award trophy always includes the rocket originally designed by Jack McKnight and Ben Jason as refined by Peter Weston, each year’s Worldcon can design its own base. In recent years, most Worldcons have had an open design competition to design the Hugo Award base. This year’s trophy base designer Matthew Dockery appeared in the Opening Ceremony and unveiled the trophy there.

The 2015 Hugo Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Spokane, Washington on the evening of Saturday, August 22, 2105, starting at 8 PM PDT. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Ustream and described on the Hugo Awards web site as a CoverItLive Broadcast.

2015 Hugo Ceremony Coverage Plans

~ Kevin ~ 9 Comments

The 2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 8 PM Pacific Daylight Time in the INB Performing Arts Center in Spokane, Washington. The Hugo Awards web site will once again offer text-based coverage of the 2015 Hugo Awards ceremony via CoverItLive, suitable for people with bandwidth restrictions. For those with the bandwidth for it, Sasquan will also offer live video streaming of the 2015 Hugo Awards ceremony via UStream. In addition, Sasquan will present “The Road to the Hugos”, a livestreamed Internet pre-and-post Hugo broadcast featuring hosts Stephen Schapansky and Warren Frey of Radio Free Skaro, as part of the coverage, starting one hour before and ending one hour after the ceremony.

The Hugo Awards web site coverage team of Kevin Standlee, Mur Lafferty, and Cheryl Morgan will be “on the air” approximately fifteen minutes before the ceremony. You can sign up at the CoverItLive event site for an e-mail notification before the event starts. Remember that the CoverItLive text coverage is text-only, and is likely to not be in synch with the video streaming.

If you can’t be in Spokane, we hope you’ll join us on CoverItLive or watch the ceremony on UStream as ceremony hosts David Gerrold and Tananarive Due present what some think may be the most highly-anticipated Hugo Awards announcement in the long history of the Awards.

2015 Hugo Voting Participation Smashes Records

~ Kevin ~ 6 Comments

5,950 members of this year’s Worldcon voted in the 2015 Hugo Awards, according to an announcement from Sasquan, the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention. This breaks last year’s record of 3,587 ballots, and represents a 57% voter turnout, the highest participation level in the past decade. More people voted this year than attended all but eight of the 72 past Worldcons.

There were 5,914 ballots cast online and 36 on paper. Sasquan will release full details about voting and nominating for the 2015 Hugo Awards following the 2015 Hugo Award Ceremony on the evening of August 22 in Spokane, Washington. The details will be included with the 2015 Hugo Awards information on the Hugo Awards web site.

2015 Hugo Award Voting Closed; Ceremony Plans in Place

~ Kevin ~ 3 Comments

Voting for the 2015 Hugo Awards closed at the end of July. The Awards will be announced at a ceremony at the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention, Sasquan, in Spokane, Washington.

The 2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony will be on the final night of the convention, Saturday, August 22, in the INB Performing Arts Center starting at 8 PM. Sasquan Guest of Honor David Gerrold and Tananarive Due will host the ceremony. The ceremony will also include the announcement of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and selected other awards.

Admission to both ceremonies is open to all attending members of Sasquan (and day admission holders for Saturday of the convention). No separate admission or ticket is required. Formal attire is neither required nor prohibited; in other words, feel free to dress up for the event, but don’t be afraid to come as you are.

The ceremony is planned to be live-streamed via UStream by Sasquan, and also will be covered by text-based coverage on CoverItLive by the Hugo Awards Web Site team. Results of the Awards will also be posted on the Hugo Awards web site shortly after the end of the ceremony.

The design for the base of the 2015 Hugo Awards will be unveiled at the Sasquan Opening Ceremonies on Wednesday, August 19, at 3 PM, and the sample trophy will be on display throughout the convention in the Exhibits area.

Voting for 2015 Hugo Awards Ends July 31

~ Kevin ~ 1 Comment

Voting for the 2015 Hugo Awards closes on July 31, 2015 at 23:59 Pacific Standard Time (UTC -7). We recommend that if you want to vote, you do not put it off until the last minute or even the last day, as we anticipate a heavy load on the voting servers that day. Cast your vote at the 2015 Hugo Voting Page at this year’s Worldcon’s web site.

You can cast your vote and then return to it and change any of your choices up until the voting deadline. You do not need to explicitly finalize your ballot, as the voting system will automatically close all ballots as of the deadline.

You must be a supporting or attending (including military and young adult) member of Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon, in order to vote. Memberships are not processed automatically, so if you want to vote and are not yet a member, 2015 Worldcon Membership Registration sooner, not later, to allow enough time for Sasquan to process your membership and send you your voting credentials.

The results of the 2015 Hugo Awards will be announced at the 2015 Hugo Awards Ceremony on the evening of Saturday, August 22 at the Worldcon in Spokane. All attending members of Sasquan may attend (subject to hall capacity). There is no separate ticking for the Hugo Awards ceremony, and seating is limited to the 2700 seats in the INB Performing Arts Center. Sasquan will also provide live video streaming of the Hugo Awards Ceremony, and The Hugo Awards web site will provide text-only coverage via CoverItLive (suitable for lower-bandwidth connections).

2015 Hugo Voter Packet Available

~ Kevin ~ 3 Comments

The 2015 Hugo Voter Packet, containing works nominated as finalists for the 2015 Hugo Awards, is now available for download. Any voting member of Sasquan, the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention, can download the 2015 Hugo Voter Packet. To receive the packet, you must be a member and download the packet no later than 31 July 2015.

This free download of Hugo Award finalists is supplied free of charge as a courtesy by the creators and publishers of works that are nominated for the awards. The purpose of the Hugo Voter Packet is to allow those who are voting on the Hugo Awards to be able to make an informed choice among the nominated works.

All of the short fiction and graphic novels are included in their entirety. The packet contains the full text of three of the novels: The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson, The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, and The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Skin Game by Jim Butcher and Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie are represented by extensive excerpts. One of the five finalists in the Related Work category is represented by an excerpt: Letters from Gardner, by Lou Antonelli. There is some material in each of the other categories except the two Dramatic Presentation categories. Not all finalists/rights-holders agreed to include their shortlisted work in this packet, nor were they under any obligation to do so. Their participation in the Hugo Voter Packet is entirely voluntary, as is of of course all of the work done by Sasquan’s staff to organize the packet.

Voting on the Hugo Awards is open to all Supporting and Attending (including Young Adult and Military) members of Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon. More information about voting and a ballot may be found at the 2015 Hugo Award Final Ballot. Voting closes at the end of July 2015. You must have your membership number and Hugo Award Voting PIN to vote electronically, or you can download, print, and mail a 2015 Hugo Award Final Ballot (PDF).

Direct all questions about the 2015 Hugo Voter Packet and the 2015 Hugo Awards to the 2015 Worldcon, not to the Hugo Awards web site. Administration of the 2015 Hugo Awards and organization of the 2015 Hugo Awards is in the hands of the 2015 Worldcon, Sasquan, and is not run by the Hugo Awards web site.

Voting Open for 2015 Hugo Awards

~ Kevin ~ 8 Comments

Voting for the 2015 Hugo Awards opened on May 1, 2015. Members of the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention (Sasquan) may vote until July 31, 2015 using the Online Hugo Awards Final Ballot or by using the paper ballot that will be sent to all members. Members who join Sasquan by July 31, 2015 (the close of voting) are eligible to vote. Members who registered an e-mail address with the 2015 Worldcon will receive instructions including a Personal Identification Number (PIN) for accessing the online ballot.

Finalists for the 2015 Hugo Award were selected by nominations received by the members of the 2014, 2015, and 2016 Worldcons. Only members of the 2015 Worldcon can vote on the final ballot. The ballot includes the finalists for the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (sponsored by the publisher of Analog), which is not a Hugo Award but is administered and voted upon by the same system as the Hugo Award and is presented at the Hugo Award ceremony.

The Final Hugo Award ballot uses the “Instant Runoff Voting” (IRV) system. Voters rank their preferences among the nominated works (including “No Award,” which is always listed in each category; if it wins, no Hugo Award is presented in that category that year). Voters mark the work they want to win with a 1, the work they would prefer if their first choice was not on the ballot with a 2, and so forth. Voters need not rank all choices.

Sasquan is preparing the “Hugo Voter Packet,” a collection of shortlisted works or excepts of such works provided by the publishers and rights-holders to allow the voters to be better informed about their choices. Sasquan expects to release the Hugo Voter Packet in late May 2015. In addition, many publishers, authors, and artists have made full versions of their nominated works available on their websites.

The results of the 2015 Hugo Awards will be announced at a ceremony on August 22, 2015 at Sasquan in Spokane, Washington. The ceremony is planned to be shown live on streaming video and a text-only coverage of the event will be provided through the Hugo Awards web site. Details of the live streaming and text-based coverage will be announced in August.

Edmund Schubert Withdraws from 2015 Hugo Awards

~ Kevin

Edmund Schubert, previously announced as a finalist for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Editor, Short Form, announced on April 27, 2015 that he was withdrawing from contention for the Award. In a statement published on his behalf by Alethea Kontis “because he has no true platform of his own from which to speak,” Schubert writes, in part:

My name is Edmund R. Schubert, and I am announcing my withdrawal from the Hugo category of Best Editor (Short Form)…. Regrettably this situation is complicated by the fact that when I came to this decision, the WorldCon organizers told me the ballot was ‘frozen.’ This is a pity, because… I would very much have liked to see someone else who had earned it on their own… get on the ballot in my place. But the ballots had already been sent off to the printers…. So it seems that the best I can do at this stage is ask everyone with a Hugo ballot to pretend I’m not there. Ignore my name, because if they call my name at the award ceremony, I won’t accept the chrome rocketship. My name may be on that ballot, but it’s not there the way I’d have preferred.

In a further statement on the Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show web site, Schubert confirmed his decision, saying, “I therefore withdrew my name from consideration.”

Schubert is the second finalist to withdraw from the 2015 Hugo Awards after this year’s Worldcon finalized the ballot. Black Gate announced their withdrawal on April 19.

The 2015 Hugo Awards final ballot will be mailed to members of the 2015 Worldcon soon. An electronic version of the 2015 Hugo Awards final ballot is available on the 2015 Worldcon web site. Only members of the 2015 Worldcon are eligible to vote on the 2015 Hugo Awards final ballot. Lead 2015 Hugo Award Administrator John Lorentz stated that “There will be a notice on the online ballot form, listing the finalists who have asked people not to vote for them.”

Black Gate Announces Withdrawal; Hugo Ballot Frozen

~ Kevin ~ 7 Comments

On Sunday, April 19, Best Fanzine finalist Black Gate announced that they were withdrawing from consideration in the 2015 Hugo Awards. This announcement came after the deadline for withdrawing from the 2015 Hugo Award shortlist as announced by this year’s Hugo Awards Administrators. According to the Administrator in a statement quoted on File 770, “The ballot is indeed locked, and Black Gate will remain on the ballot.”

The ballot is already at the printer in anticipation of a mailing of Hugo Award Finalist and 2017 Worldcon Site Selection voting ballots planned in the near future.

The Administrators are considering the possibility of including a statement regarding Black Gate’s announcement on the online voting page when that page launches in the near future.

Address any questions about the administration of this year’s Hugo Awards to the 2015 Hugo Award Administrators, not to the Hugo Awards web site.

Two Finalists Withdraw from 2015 Hugo Awards

~ Kevin ~ 33 Comments

The 2015 Hugo Award Administrators have announced that two of the finalists originally announced for the 2015 Hugo Awards have withdrawn their acceptances and will not appear on the final ballot for the 2015 Hugo Awards. We have updated the 2015 Finalist Shortlist accordingly.

In the Best Novel category, Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos was withdrawn by its author. It has been replaced by The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu).

In the Best Short category, “Goodnight Stars” by Annie Bellet was withdrawn by its author. It has been replaced by “A Single Samurai” by Steven Diamond.

The Administrators also announced that in the Novelette category, the listing for “The Day the World Turned Upside Down” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt originally did not include the name of the translator, Lia Belt. That oversight has now been corrected. The announcement from the 2015 Worldcon further noted that this year appears to be the first time that multiple fiction finalists for the Hugo Award were originally written in languages other than English. Under World Science Fiction Society rules for the Hugo Award, a work originally published in a language other than English gets an additional year of eligibility if it is published in English in a later year.

This year is the first time in the history of the Hugo Awards that a finalist has withdrawn a work after announcement of the finalist shortlist. Nominees with sufficient nominating votes to make the shortlist have in the past declined nomination as Finalists; however, this has always happened before the shortlist was announced.

In the statement explaining the above changes, the Administrators announced that the ballot is now going to the printer and there will be no further revisions. The original finalist announcement stated that they expected to open the final ballot for voting by the members of the 2015 Worldcon “as soon as possible.” We will post an announcement on The Hugo Awards website when online voting opens.

Only supporting and attending members of Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon, are eligible to vote on the final Hugo Award ballot. See the 2015 Worldcon Membership Registration Page for information about joining Sasquan. Membership is open to any person with an interest in SF and Fantasy literature.

A Hugo Voter Packet of nominated works will be released as soon as it is available with versions of the nominated works for members of the current Worldcon to review so that they can be better-informed voters. The availability of nominated works is dependent upon the generosity of the authors, artists, publishers, and rights holders, and no work is guaranteed to be in the Hugo Voter Packet. Only eligible voters (voting members of the 2015 Worldcon) will be given access to the Hugo Voter Packet.

The 2015 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award winners will be announced Saturday, August 22, 2015, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony at the 2015 Worldcon.

Please direct questions about the administration of this year’s Hugo and Campbell Awards to the Sasquan Hugo Administration Subcommittee. TheHugoAwards.org does not actually manage the administration of each year’s Hugo Awards, and while we can answer general queries, definitive answers to specific questions about given year’s Awards can only come from that year’s Administrator.