Worldcon 2026: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

The title of this posting is taken from a very old joke involving a famous musician, who has never been to New York, trying to find Carnegie Hall, the venue for his performance that evening.  He asks a curbside busker the question from the title, and their response is "Oh, man - practice, practice, practice."

The 2026 Hugo Awards would certainly have benefitted from that bit of advice, at least based on the plethora of technical issues which punctuated the event: needing Ursula Vernon, who hosted the event, to stretch out her introductory speech to a full 20 minutes of nature trivia while some unknown issue was resolved; doing the In Memoriam section twice because apparently the slide show didn't run the first time*; the charming interpretive dance performed by presenter Tracey Baptiste while waiting about a minute for the Lodestar Award nominees clip to start; starting the Best Fan Artist clip while presenter Tim Kirk was still speaking (with the result that he almost announced the winner before the nominees were listed); and so on and so on.

Mary Robinette Kowal, who presented the Best Novelette Hugo, mentioned that the tech team have to "basically build a television studio in two days, and it's harsh", and I don't argue with that observation for a moment.   

Regardless, once the studio is built, it's prudent for the director - there must be a director**, in responsibility if not in name - to take some time to get all of their production ducks in a row: which camera is which in terms of picking the appropriate angles or shots; setting up for audience cutaways when the stage is empty; which button will switch from the camera feed to the computer for pre-recorded acceptance speeches and in memoriam slide shows; and organize their clips so that they can cue up the appropriate nominee announcements and matching category slides over the course of the evening.

It's also prudent to bring the talent together for a rehearsal. Apparently the Oscars do a full dress walk-through the night before the actual event - if they can get a full spectrum of movie stars to rehearse for their event, certainly the Worldcon management could at least get everyone into the auditorium for a quick run through of what's going to happen and when. 

I realize that the dictum regarding no battle plan surviving contact with the enemy applies just as much to live presentations as it does to combat, but in both cases, it's a good idea to do everything possible to ensure that as little as possible goes wrong.

So, if any future WorldCon organizers should stumble across this post in a search for advice about how to plan the awards show?

Practice, practice, practice. 

- Sid

P.S. I hesitated to post this critique of the awards - as per my comment on the Barbara Hambly livestream, I used to work in the presentation industry, and as such I have a high professional standard, perhaps too much so.  But my comment about future Worldcon organizers reading this justifies it.  If you're one of those future readers, this is a cautionary tale: a lot of things can go wrong, and the more prep you do, the more that you can minimize issues like the ones listed above.

* I had assumed that only the live stream audience had seen a black screen for the first attempt, but apparently it was a larger problem than that.

** After all, the ceremony was held in Los Angeles, how hard could it be to find someone who wants to direct?  

Worldcon 2026: The Hugo Awards.

"Falcons get all their water from drinking blood."

T. Kingfisher, Hugo Awards Host

"Oh shit, I guess I should have attended WorldCon!" 

Jason Sanford's in absentia acceptance speech for Best Fan Writer, 
as read by Chris Barclay

Last night saw the presentation of the 2026 Hugo Awards at LAcon V, entertainingly and skillfully hosted by award-winning author T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon*) in a succession of increasingly absurd hats. 

The event suffered from a number of technical issues, but Kingfisher handled everything that happened with humour and aplomb.  (Sadly, her demonstration of grace under pressure was not rewarded by a win in the Best Novella category, but such is life.) My only minor criticism of her hosting performance is that, amusing though the obscure animal facts were, wouldn't trivia from the history of science fiction and fantasy have been more appropriate?  

Hugo Awards Administrator Tammy Coxen, who introduced the awards portion of the evening, mentioned that several of the awards were decided by a single vote, amplifying the degree to which the individual vote really is of importance.  

I was impressed by the number of noteworthy names that presented awards over the course of the evening: Neil Clarke, David Gerrold, Barbara Hambly, Ronald D. Moore, Tim Kirk, Colleen Doran, Stan Sakai, Larry Niven, Harry Turtledove, and R2-D2 - well, to be completely accurate R2-D2 only delivered the Best Novel envelope to the stage, but still, impressive that he was there at all.  

The presence of R2-D2 aside, the Hugo Awards have traditionally been ignored by the television and motion picture community**, but this year's ceremony at least partially made up for the indifference of past winners. Although Ryan Coogler declined to accept the Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form award in person***, his absence was comprehensively compensated for by the Short Form winners for Murderbot: All Systems Red, who filled the stage with members of their team, including author Martha Wells and actor David Dastmalchian. 

As a group, the winners were eloquent and passionate in their comments about the ills that plague the world, particularly the United States, expressing a sense of concern and activism in their acceptance speeches that's shared by the community in general.  

And, without further ado, the 2026 Hugo Award winners are:

BEST NOVEL
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

BEST NOVELLA
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

BEST NOVELETTE
Never Eaten Vegetables by H.H. Pak

BEST SHORT STORY
In My Country by Thomas Ha

BEST SERIES
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

 BEST GRAPHIC STORY OR COMIC
A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, written by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and art by Fred Fordham 

BEST RELATED WORK
Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer 

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM 
Sinners, screenplay by Ryan Coogler, directed by Ryan Coogler 

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM 
Murderbot: All Systems Red, written by Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz, directed by Roseanne Liang, based on the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells 

BEST GAME OR INTERACTIVE WORK
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive

BEST EDITOR SHORT FORM
Neil Clarke

BEST EDITOR LONG FORM
Diana M. Pho

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
John Picacio

BEST SEMIPROZINE
Uncanny Magazine, publisher and editor-in-chief: Michael Damian Thomas; managing editor Monte Lin; poetry editor Betsy Aoki, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky

BEST FANZINE
nerds of a feather, flock together, editors Roseanna Pendlebury, Arturo Serrano, Paul Weimer; senior editors Joe Sherry, G. Brown, Vance Kotrla

BEST FANCAST
Hugo, Girl!, presented by Haley Zapal, Amy Salley, Lori Anderson, and Kevin Anderson

BEST FAN WRITER
Jason Sanford

BEST FAN ARTIST
Yuumei

BEST POEM
Hex Supply Customer Support Log by Elis Montgomery 

LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YA BOOK
Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee 

ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW AUTHOR (sponsored by Must Read Books Publishing)
Antonia Hodgson (1st year of eligibility) 

The full awards ceremony can be viewed on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyarB0EVaM

(Be warned, it's over three hours, you may want to make popcorn.)  

- Sid

* It took me a few minutes to figure out who she reminded me of: she has a remarkable resemblance to my friend Christi in both look and delivery - not an exact match, but perhaps the sister that Christi has never told me about.

** As per last year's "Shame, shame, shame" statement. 

*** The joke was that apparently the invitation did not specifically invite him into the venue - IYKYK.  

WorldCon 2026: At least the audio was good.

I freely admit that working in the corporate presentation industry for many years has given me a critical mindset whenever I'm dealing with anything involving public speaking events, certainly more so than most people.  As such, I'm at a loss to understand how anyone providing AV support at an event like Worldcon would set up the camera to livestream a conversation with fantasy author Barbara Hambly and decide that this is an appropriate framing?  

That aside, I had no idea that she'd been married to SF author George Alec Effinger! 

- Sid