2026 Hugo Awards: The Winners.

"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, 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.  

As a group, the winners were eloquent and passionate in their comments about the state of the world, expressing a sense of concern and activism that's shared by the community in general. 

Although Ryan Coogler declined to accept the Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form award in person**, his absence was certainly 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. 

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.

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

Seriously, though, it is weird.

Yes, I'm looking at you, The Raven Scholar and The Incandescent.

Regardless, I managed to finish off the remaining Best Novel nominee last night, and I've submitted my votes for the Hugo Awards.  I have to admit that I used the NO VOTE option for a couple of categories:  I hadn't read all of the Best Series books, or the Lodestar Award YA novel nominees, and I didn't wade through the Editorial options, either Long or Short Form.  

That being said, it was a challenging ballot - there's a lot of really solid work out there, and it was a struggle to rank the nominees from 1 to 6, especially in the Best Novel Category, duplicate amputations aside.  And now we wait: I'm still hoping that my Voting membership will get me access to the LACon Hugo Awards livestream on the 30th - fingers crossed!

- Sid

The Thief of Time.

While we're doing awards housekeeping, just a reminder that the voting deadline for the 2026 Hugo Awards is this coming Saturday, August 8th, at noon PDT.  Which means that when I finish this posting, it's back to the last novel nominee that I have to finish reading!

- Sid