Nebula Award News

James Hosek to Receive 2024 Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. Service to SFWA Award

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is pleased to announce that the 2024 Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. Service to SFWA Award will be presented to James Hosek at the 59th Annual SFWA Nebula Awards® for his outstanding work on behalf of the organization.

The Service to SFWA Award recognizes a volunteer of SFWA who best exemplifies the ideal of service to their fellow members. In 2012, the award was renamed in honor of author Kevin O’Donnell, who dedicated 20+ years of volunteer service to the organization.

James Hosek, who was known to those in the community as Jim, first volunteered for SFWA as an assistant to the Nebula Awards Commissioner in 2016, helping to vet works on the Nebula Reading List and other tasks as necessary. In 2017, when Dawn Bonnano, then Nebula Awards Commissioner stepped down from the role, Jim Hosek was recommended as a replacement and graciously stepped up and served as SFWA’s Nebula Commissioner for seven years. Jim stepped down from the role in September 2023 due to ill health and passed away on December 3, 2023.

Deputy Executive Director (and former Nebula Award Commissioner) Terra LeMay says about Jim: “It is often the case that SFWA’s programs are driven by volunteers who serve countless hours behind the scenes, and this is certainly true of our Nebula Awards, which depend on the tireless work of the Nebula Awards Commissioner (NAC). Elucidating the positive qualities that made Jim Hosek the perfect NAC—he was hard-working, ethical, level-headed, kind, scrupulously fair, and so much more…—would take far more space than I’ve been granted here. I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with him and glad we were able to notify him of his selection for this award before his passing. He was one of SFWA’s very best.”

For his years of dedication and excellence in undertaking this essential volunteer work for the organization and the SFF community, SFWA is proud to present the 2024 Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. Service to SFWA Award to James Hosek. He will join many distinguished recipients of the award, including Connie Willis, Victoria Strauss, Julia Rios, Bud Sparhawk, Lee Martindale, Vonda McIntyre, and Jim Fiscus.

The award will be presented at the 59th Nebula Awards® Ceremony.

Susan Cooper Named 40th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is proud to announce that Susan Cooper has been named the 40th Damon Knight Grand Master for her contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy.

Susan Cooper is most recognized for her fantasy sequence for young adults, The Dark is Rising, which has just reached its 50th anniversary. Her other books for children include The Boggart and its sequels, several works of historical fiction, and multiple picture books, most recently The Word Pirates and The Shortest Day in 2019.

Reflecting on the work of the newest Grand Master, SFWA President Jeffe Kennedy shared that “Susan Cooper possesses the rare gift of being able to write for young people with a resonance that endures all through their adult lives. I feel as if The Dark Is Rising books have always been a part of my life. I memorized poems and passages from those books, which I can still recite today. When I first began writing fantasy of my own, I slipped in images and names from her stories in homage and celebration. It’s truly a great honor for me to name Susan Cooper as the 2024 Grand Master, a writer so foundational to the fantasy genre, for both readers and readers who became writers.”

The 40th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master award will be presented to Susan during the annual SFWA Nebula Conference and the 59th Nebula Awards.

Visit sfwa.org to read the full press release.

Registration for the 2024 Nebula Conference is Open!

Register Here

This year’s Nebula conference will take place at the Westin Pasadena and online! In-person registration includes all online access. With every conference ticket, you can watch and listen to all recorded panels and presentations that took place over the weekend. In addition, you’ll have access to ongoing special events and panels throughout the year, including our Narrative Worlds series, writing dates, and more!

Register for the conference before March 14th to receive our early bird tickets price!

If you or someone you know needs a scholarship to participate in the conference, find more information here.

Suggest Panels for the 2024 Nebula Conference

The Nebulas programming team is collecting proposals for panels and other session ideas!

We rely on submissions to this form to ensure our program is full of content which our community members will find valuable, relevant and interesting. Complete this form to submit your ideas by February 16th for us to consider your panel for the conference!

Have more than one idea? Feel free to share multiple submissions!

Bring Back the Book Bag!

We’re working on bringing back our collectable SFWA bookbag program for in-person conference attendees! If you have any publishing contacts who might be interested in distributing any of your titles your peers, colleagues, agents, and editors in attendance this year, please let us know at events@sfwa.org. The more publishers and authors who participate, the bigger the bag!

See you at the Nebulas!

The SFWA Events Team

2024 Nebula Conference Dates Announced

Join us June 6-9th in Pasadena, California or online! Registration will open soon at events.sfwa.org.

After an exhaustive, cross-country search that involved dozens of hotel proposals, the 2024 Nebula Conference and Awards will be held both in Pasadena California at the Westin and online! The team has already begun preparations and we hope to once again welcome you no matter which way you decide to attend! Registration will be opening soon, but before it does, we’re looking for both programming ideas and for volunteer speakers!

Share Panel Topics and Other Programming Ideas

The Nebulas programming team is collecting proposals for panels and other session ideas! We rely on submissions to this form to ensure our program is full of content which our community members will find valuable, relevant and interesting. Have more than one idea? Feel free to share multiple submissions! Complete this form to submit your ideas!

Volunteer to be a Speaker

The Nebula Conference depends on volunteer speakers to contribute their hard-won experience, professional expertise, and wisdom. If we add you to our list of potential speakers, you will receive a survey in the coming weeks to help match you to a speaking opportunity. Follow these instructions to be considered for our list of potential speakers!

Speakers do not need to be SFWA members, but all speakers must register to attend the conference.

SFWA Nebula Award Nominations Now Open

Full, Associate, and Senior members of SFWA are eligible to submit a nomination ballot for the Nebula Awards. Ballots must be received by the deadline of February 29, 2024 @ 11:59pm Pacific Time.

Changes to the SFWA Nebula Rules

In early December, and in cooperation with the SFWA Nebula Rules Committee, the SFWA Board of Directors voted to update the SFWA Nebula Awards Rules. Passing with a unanimous vote, these new rules are in effect for the current, 2023 nomination and final ballot season. You may find them here: Nebula Rules – The Nebula Awards® (sfwa.org)

Combining some small typographical and structural changes to numbering and bullet points, these new rules also require that at least one writer must be publicly credited on a project for it to be eligible for an award in any category. This iteration of the rules also introduces a new methodology for determining the appropriate category for comics and graphic novels. The rules now state:

*Comics and graphic novels less than 48 pages shall be eligible for the short story award.
*Comics and graphic novels that are between 49 and 100 pages shall be eligible for the novelette award.
*Comics and graphic novels that are between 101 and 150 pages shall be eligible for the novella award.
*Comics and graphic novels that are above 150 pages shall be eligible for the Novel award.
*For the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, comics and graphic novels shall have no page count.

We’d like to thank the SFWA Comics committee for their hard work in coming up with a method that will help the Nebula Awards Committee determine eligibility going forward.

SFWA Announces the Winners of the 58th Annual Nebula Awards

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is pleased to announce the winners of the 58th Annual Nebula Awards®. These awards are given to the writers of the most outstanding speculative fiction works released in 2022, as voted on by Full, Associate, and Senior SFWA members.

The awards were presented at the live broadcast of the 58th Annual Nebula Awards Ceremony, hosted by Toastmaster Cheryl Platz.

The winners are as follows:

 

NEBULA AWARD FOR NOVEL

Babel, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)

 

NEBULA AWARD FOR NOVELLA

Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)

 

NEBULA AWARD FOR NOVELETTE

“If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You”, John Chu (Uncanny 7–8/22)

 

NEBULA AWARD FOR SHORT STORY

“Rabbit Test”, Samantha Mills (Uncanny 11–12/22)

 

THE ANDRE NORTON NEBULA AWARD FOR MIDDLE GRADE AND YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion, K. Tempest Bradford (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

 

THE RAY BRADBURY NEBULA AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING DRAMATIC PRESENTATION

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (A24, AGBO, IAC Films)

 

NEBULA AWARD FOR GAME WRITING

Elden Ring, Hidetaka Miyazaki, George R.R. Martin (FromSoftware, Bandai Namco)

 

Additional awards and honors presented:

 

THE SFWA DAMON KNIGHT MEMORIAL GRAND MASTER AWARD

Robin McKinley

 

THE INFINITY AWARD

Octavia E. Butler (posthumous)

 

THE KATE WILHELM SOLSTICE AWARD

Cerece Rennie Murphy

Greg Bear (posthumous)

 

THE KEVIN J. O’DONNELL, JR. SERVICE TO SFWA AWARD

Mishell Baker

 

Award presenters joined in-person and virtually from across the galaxy, including past Nebula Award winners, SFWA Board members, and other notable members of the science fiction and fantasy (SFF) industry: Jeffe Kennedy, Matthew Mercer, Gay Haldeman, Chinaka Hodge, Christine Taylor-Butler, Mur Lafferty, Michael Capobianco, Aydrea Walden, José Pablo Iriarte, Leigh Bardugo, and Anthony Rapp.

The ceremony can be viewed at SFWA’s YouTube.

The 58th Nebula Awards Ceremony Details

 
 

SFWA invites speculative fiction fans and creators to the 58th Annual Nebula Awards® Ceremony. The ceremony will stream live on Sunday, May 14, at 8:00pm Pacific Time (PT) from Anaheim, CA.
Promo graphic for the ceremony

During the ceremony, the winners of the 58th Annual Nebula Awards will be revealed (list of finalists). Our previously announced honorees will also be presented with their awards: Robin McKinley (SFWA Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master), Octavia E. Butler (Infinity Award, posthumously), Mishell Baker (Kevin O’ Donnell, Jr. Service to SFWA Award), Cerece Rennie Murphy (Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award), and Greg Bear (Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award, posthumously).

Cheryl Platz will act as Toastmaster for the ceremony. Award presenters will join in-person and virtually from across the galaxy, including past Nebula Award winners, SFWA Board members, and other notable members of the science fiction and fantasy (SFF) industry: Jeffe Kennedy, Matthew Mercer, Gay Haldeman, Chinaka Hodge, Christine Taylor-Butler, Mur Lafferty, Michael Capobianco, Aydrea Walden, José Pablo Iriarte, and Leigh Bardugo. The ceremony will conclude with a surprise presenter for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.

The 58th Nebula Awards Ceremony takes place as part of the 2023 Nebula Conference, the premier professional development conference for aspiring and established members of the SFF industries. Its schedule of 50+ programming topics can be viewed here. Content is geared toward creators working in games, comics, prose, poetry, and other mediums of storytelling. Registrations for in-person or virtual attendance are available here, and they also include a year of access to the panel archive, opportunities to network throughout the year, and a standing invitation to SFWA’s Weekly Writing Dates, Romancing SFF, Connecting Flights, and Narrative Worlds programming.

For questions, please contact events@sfwa.org.
Graphic showing the conference sponsors: Tor Publishing Group, The Mexicanx Initiative, Emerson College Graduate Programs, Pikko's House Editorial Services, and Liminal Fiction

The Inaugural Infinity Award Honoree: Octavia E. Butler

We are proud to announce the creation of the Infinity Award, with its inaugural presentation honoring the works and career of Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) at the 58th Annual Nebula Awards® Ceremony on May 14.
The new logo for the award, in SFWA purple and gold with an infinity loop and a magical needle going through it as though thread.

The SFWA Board voted to create the Infinity Award to posthumously honor acclaimed creators who passed away before they could be considered for a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. This new award aims to recognize that even though those celebrated worldbuilders, storytellers, and weavers of words are no longer with us, their legacies will continue to inspire.

Upon its creation, it was also unanimously agreed that Octavia E. Butler would be our first recipient. Beginning with her perseverance in the face of the prejudice she encountered early on in her career, including claims that African American writers–especially African American women writers–could not write science fiction, Butler ultimately went on to earn a MacArthur Grant and a PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award. Butler did more than prove such naysayers wrong. Her works offered prescient critiques of societal issues and visions of what might be possible in different and future worlds. They are now being taught in over 200 colleges and universities nationwide.

SFWA President Jeffe Kennedy remarked, “Establishing this new award is very important to me. Over the years, so many creators have been passed over for the Grand Master nod, for one reason or another. Some died tragically early. Others were not recognized for their work during their lifetimes because of cultural prejudices and blind spots. Others were simply ahead of their time. When we look back at the nearly sixty years of SFWA celebrating SFF creators, there are some who stand out as ones we deeply wish had been given our highest awards. Being able to recognize Octavia E. Butler as our first recipient of the Infinity Award is an inspiring and gratifying first step toward correcting past omissions.”

Courtesy of the Octavia E. Butler Estate

Butler wrote sixteen novels and novellas, multiple collections and chapbooks, and many published essays. Her award-winning work during her lifetime includes “Bloodchild,” “The Evening and the Morning and the Night,” and Parable of the Talents. After her death, the #1 New York Times best-selling graphic novel adaptation of her book Kindred, created by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, received the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation. 

In media, her novel Dawn is being developed for television by Ava DuVernay, an opera by Toshi Reagon based on Parable of the Sower was part of The Public Theatre “Under the Radar” festival and toured worldwide in 2018, and Amazon Studios and JuVee Productions are developing a drama series from Butler’s Patternist series, beginning with Wild Seed.

Jules Jackson, directing manager of the Octavia E. Butler Estate, shared the following remarks: “For those who have chosen to pay attention, there is one thing that has become clear and apparent…. Octavia Estelle Butler, the mother of Afrofuturism, has literally written herself into history. And now the Estate is tasked with the honor of archiving, diagramming, and extending the reach of Octavia Estelle Butler’s cherished body of work. Octavia taught her readers to imagine relentlessly, our collective figures…Octavia painted the ‘least respected of us’ into the center of every narrative, re-framing a genre…I am beyond excited to accept this inaugural Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association award, for and on behalf of Octavia Butler, The Octavia E. Butler Estate, and all of the incredible storytellers who are, and continue to be inspired and those who follow in Octavia Estelle Butler’s prescient wake.”

Jackson will receive the award on Butler’s behalf at the Nebula Awards Ceremony. The award will be presented by Chinaka Hodge, writer and showrunner of the upcoming Wild Seeds television series. 

Rather than a physical award, SFWA will make a donation to a cause that an Infinity Award honoree supported or that their loved ones request. For this first award, and in future years when a specific charity is not requested, that donation will go to the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship to the Clarion West workshop, which is administered by the Carl Brandon Society.  

Countdown to the SFWA Nebula Conference

The annual SFWA Nebula Conference and 58th Nebula Awards will be held May 12–14, 2023. The conference will take place in Anaheim, California and aboard the virtual Airship Nebula. Registration Price: $449.00 for in-person attendance, $150.00 for Virtual attendance.

Register here.