Women Sweep the Nebula Awards

Since 1966 the Nebula Awards have honored and celebrated the seminal works of authors in the genres of science-fiction and fantasy. The awards themselves are chosen and bestowed by the Science Fiction Writers of America (the SFWA). The categories for the Nebula Awards are Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Novelette, Best Short Story, and Best Script. Other awards include the Ray Bradbury Award, and the Andre Norton Award.

While one has to be a member of the SFWA to vote or nominate a work, a nominee author need not be a member. Also, no author can nominate their own work. Ultimately the only prerequisite for a work to be considered for nomination is for it to have been published in English within the previous calendar year. Nominations occur between November 15 and February 15.

The Nebula Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2015 experienced an interesting trend of predominantly female winners. Of these various winners, Naomi Novik won the award for Best Novel with her work, Uprooted.

Naomi Novik’s Uprooted tells the story of a young girl Agniezka, who lives in a valley protected by a mysterious wizard known as the Dragon. But the Dragon’s protection comes at a price, one young woman is sacrificed to serve the Dragon for ten years. A fate Agniezka fears will fall upon her friend Kasia.

The winner for Best Novella went to Nnedi Okorafor’s work, Binti. Okorafor’s novella is about a woman giving up her role in her family so that she can become the first of her people to attend Oomza University. Best Novelette went to Sarah Pinsker’s Our Lady of the Open Road, with Best Short Story going to Alyssa Wong’s Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers, and the Andre Norton Award went to Fran Wilde’s Updraft.

In the past, notable winners of the Nebula Awards have included American Gods by Neil Gaiman, 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, to name a few.

This article was taken from the Guardian.

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