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The Nebula Awards!

Guess what, dear readers?!

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Recall, in the past year, how we have talked about book awards, gender, and the discrepancies between the number of women authors in the world, and the lack of recognition they receive?

To recap, briefly, a number of statistics have shown that books about male characters win more awards than books about women, and books by male people tend to win more awards than those written by female people, despite the fact that women are publishing more books overall.  See this graph from The Huffington Post for further details:

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This graph only points to one award (though the Pulitzer is certainly a significant award), and doesn’t even hint at the lack of diversity in mainstream literary awards in terms of identity, sexuality, or religion…anyways, the point is that awards, as a whole, need to be doing a much better job.

And today….they did.  Or, at least, one did.  Because yesterday, women writers swept the Nebula Awards!

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The Nebula Awards are handed out by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.  All members are allowed to suggest books for consideration, and only members can select nominees.  This means that those invested in the genre and its success are responsible for nominating books, and also that publishers, agents, or any other other outside entity cannot tilt the scales in their favor through any kind of promotional or financial influence.

download (4)For several decades, science fiction and fantasy have been in the position to examine issues of identity, prejudice, and belonging, often in a way that more reality-based fiction genres cannot.  For example, in an interview with The Paris Review, Ursula K LeGuin mentioned how her seminal novel, The Left Hand of Darkness was inspired by emerging debates on gender and identity, saying “We didn’t have the language yet to say that gender is a social construction, which is how we shorthand it now…Gender had been thrown into the arena where science fiction goes in search of interesting subjects to revisit and re-question.”  Similarly, author Octavia Butler, who has made her career out of using science fiction to question issues of gender, race, and identity, noted to Democracy Now that “I think I stayed with [science fiction] because it was so wide open, it gave me the chance to comment on every aspect of humanity. People tend to think of science fiction as, oh, Star Wars or Star Trek, and the truth is there are no closed doors, and there are no required formulas. You can go anywhere with it.”

So it isn’t terribly surprising that the SFWA would be so open to nominating and supporting women, and the challenging, imaginative, and daring books that they write.  But recently, there has been an enormous backlash against women and people of color in the science fiction genre (as represented over the horrible debacle that was the Hugo Awards, but more about that later), so the fact that the SFWA is clearly reaffirming its support of diversity of both authors and books is enormously gratifying, and offers readers a whole new opportunity to discover some fantastic stories!

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So, without further ado, here are the nominees and winners of this year’s Nebula Awards!  Check out the Library this week to discover these phenomenal books for yourself (links are provided below for stories available online)!

(Bold indicates category winner)

Novel

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy

Novella

Novelette

  • ‘‘Our Lady of the Open Road’’, Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 6/15)
  • ‘‘Rattlesnakes and Men’’, Michael Bishop (Asimov’s 2/15)
  • ‘‘And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead’’, Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed 2/15)
  • ‘‘Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds’’, Rose Lemberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/11/15)
  • ‘‘The Ladies’ Aquatic Gardening Society’’, Henry Lien (Asimov’s 6/15)
  • ‘‘The Deepwater Bride’’, Tamsyn Muir (F&SF 7-8/15)

Short Story

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation*

  • Mad Max: Fury Road, Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris
  • Ex Machina, Written by Alex Garland
  • Inside Out, Screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original Story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
  • Jessica Jones: AKA Smile, Teleplay by Scott Reynolds & Melissa Rosenberg; Story by Jamie King & Scott Reynolds
  • The Martian, Screenplay by Drew Goddard
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Written by Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt

Additioanlly, Sir Terry Pratchett was posthumously awarded the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award, and C.J. Cherryh was named a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master, both awards of lifetime achievement voted on by the SFWA.

Congratulations to the winning authors, and to the SFWA for recognizing such a sensational selection!

*The Ray Bradbury Award is not considered a Nebula award, but is handed out at the same ceremony