March 12, 2025 – The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is pleased to announce the finalists for the 59th Annual Nebula Awards®! Our congratulations go out to each and every finalist for the recognition of their excellent works published in 2024. 

The awards will be presented in a ceremony on Saturday, June 7, that will be streamed live as it is held in-person in Kansas City, MO as part of the 60th Annual Nebula Awards Conference. Winners in each category will be determined by the vote of Full, Associate, and Senior members of SFWA.

Here is the complete list of finalists:

Nebula Award for Novel

• Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory, Yaroslav Barsukov (Caezik SF & Fantasy)
• Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
• Asunder, Kerstin Hall (Tordotcom)
• A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK)
• The Book of Love, Kelly Link (Random House; Ad Astra UK)
• Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell (DAW; Arcadia UK)

Nebula Award for Novella

• The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom)
• The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler (Tordotcom)
• Lost Ark Dreaming, Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Tordotcom)
• Countess, Suzan Palumbo (ECW)
• The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain, Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom)
• The Dragonfly Gambit, A.D. Sui (Neon Hemlock)

Nebula Award for Novelette

• The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video, Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 5/24)
• Katya Vasilievna and the Second Drowning of Baba Rechka, Christine Hanolsy (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 4/18/24)
• Another Girl Under the Iron Bell, Angela Liu (Uncanny 9-10/24)
• What Any Dead Thing Wants, Aimee Ogden (Psychopomp 2/24)
• Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being, A.W. Prihandita (Clarkesworld 11/24)
• Joanna’s Bodies, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Psychopomp 7/1/24)
• Loneliness Universe, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 5-6/24)

Nebula Award for Short Story

• The Witch Trap, Jennifer Hudak (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 9/24)
• Five Views of the Planet Tartarus, Rachael K. Jones (Lightspeed 1/24)
• Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole, Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld 2/24)
• Evan: A Remainder, Jordan Kurella (Reactor 1/31/24)
• The V*mpire, PH Lee (Reactor 10/23/24)
• We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 5/24)

Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction

• Daydreamer, Rob Cameron (Labyrinth Road)
• Braided, Leah Cypess (Delacorte)
• Benny Ramírez and the Nearly Departed, José Pablo Iriarte (Knopf)
• Moonstorm, Yoon Ha Lee (Delacorte; Solaris UK)
• Puzzleheart, Jenn Reese (Henry Holt)
• The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts, Vanessa Ricci-Thode (self-published)

Nebula Award for Game Writing

• A Death in Hyperspace, Stewart C Baker, Phoebe Barton, James Beamon, Kate Heartfield, Isabel J. Kim, Sara S. Messenger, Naca Rat, Natalia Theodoridou, M. Darusha Wehm, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor (Infomancy.net)
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Hidetaka Miyazaki (From Software)
• The Ghost and the Golem, Benjamin Rosenbaum (Choice of Games)
• 1000xRESIST, Remy Siu, Pinki Li, Conor Wylie (Fellow Traveller Games)
• Pacific Drive, Karrie Shao, Paul Dean (Ironwood Studios)
• Restore, Reflect, Retry, Natalia Theodoridou (Choice of Games)
• Slay the Princess — The Pristine Cut, Tony Howard-Arias, Abby Howard (Black Tabby Games)
• Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, Jay Dragon, M Veselak, Mercedes Acosta, Lillie J. Harris (Possum Creek Games)

Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

• Doctor Who: “Dot and Bubble” by Russell T. Davies (BBC)
• Dune: Part Two by Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve (Warner Bros)
• I Saw the TV Glow by Jane Schoenbrun (A24 Films LLC)
• KAOS by Charlie Covell, Georgia Christou (Netflix)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 by Mike McMahan (Paramount+)
• Wicked by Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox (Universal Pictures)

We look forward to celebrating all the finalists with aspiring and professional creators in the science fiction and fantasy genres at the 2025 Nebula Conference, June 5-8, 2025.

Questions about the awards or the upcoming conference may be directed to the SFWA Events Team at events@sfwa.org.

About the Nebula Awards®

The Nebula Awards® are voted on and presented by Full, Associate, and Senior members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Founded as the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 by Damon Knight, the organization began with a charter membership of 78 writers; it now has over 2,500 members, among them many of the leading writers of science fiction and fantasy.

Since 1965, the Nebula Awards® have been given each year for the best novel, novella, novelette, and short story eligible for that year’s award. The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction was added in 2005, followed by the Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation in 2009, and the Nebula Award for Best Game Writing in 2018. An anthology including the winning pieces of short fiction and several runners-up is also published every year.