In this post I look at the demographics (sex and nationality) of the winners of the Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
I originally only intended to cover Best Novel, so sorry if things are a little disorganised. You can find a parent post for these little studies here.
Best Novelette – some numbers.
I’m going to just quote wholesale from Wiki here as Novelette has had a bit of a weird history. Here we go;
The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in English or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of between 7,500 and 17,500 words…
The Hugo Award for Best Novelette was first awarded in 1955, and was subsequently awarded in 1956, 1958, and 1959, lapsing in 1960. The category was reinstated for 1967 through 1969, before lapsing again in 1970; after returning in 1973, it has remained to date.
This award has never been given as a shared win. This Hugo has been awarded 49 times.
9 writers have won more than one, led by Harlan Ellison and Poul Anderson with 3 each.
Men have won 78% of these Hugos (38 wins), women have won 20% (10 wins) and genderqueer 2% (1 win).
38 individuals have won one of these Hugos. 27 of these individuals are men (71%). 10 are women (26%). 1 was genderqueer (3%).
I believe only three nations have won this Hugo (*). The breakdown looks like this (it’s on wins, not individual winners);
| American | 45 (92%) |
| Female | 9 |
| Genderqueer | 1 |
| Male | 35 |
| British | 2 (4%) |
| Male | 2 |
| Canadian | 1 (2%) |
| Male | 1 |
| Unknown | 1 (2%) |
| Female | 1 |
Some flippant observations.
American men have won this Hugo 35 times (72%), which is more than double the Hugos for Best Novelette won by the rest of humankind.
American women, 9 wins (18%), have won more than double of this Hugo than all non-Americans (8%) combined.
Some graphs.
My data.
I basically just used Wikipedia. I’ve included the list I used below. I’m pretty comfortable with most of it, but please let me know if you spot any errors.
My rounding is always lazy, so if you see a tiny bit of flutter you know what happened.
My only serious concerns were;
1. As mentioned above, I couldn’t find Janet Kagan’s nationality anywhere. If anyone could help I’d appreciate it. I have scored her as unknown.
2. Pat Cadigan moved to the Britain a little bit after she won her award. I scored her as American.
If I’ve got any of the above wrong, please let me know.
| Year | Author(s) | Novelette | Publisher or publication | Nationality | Sex |
| 1955 | Walter M. Miller, Jr. | “The Darfsteller” | Astounding Science-Fiction | American | Male |
| 1956 | Murray Leinster | “Exploration Team” | Astounding Science-Fiction | American | Male |
| 1958 | Fritz Leiber | “The Big Time”[Note 1] | Galaxy Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1959 | Clifford D. Simak | “The Big Front Yard” | Astounding Science-Fiction | American | Male |
| 1967 | Jack Vance | “The Last Castle” | Galaxy Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1968 | Fritz Leiber | “Gonna Roll the Bones” | Dangerous Visions (Doubleday) | American | Male |
| 1969 | Poul Anderson | “The Sharing of Flesh” | Galaxy Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1973 | Poul Anderson | “Goat Song” | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1974 | Harlan Ellison | “The Deathbird” | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1975 | Harlan Ellison | “Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54′ N, Longitude 77° 00′ 13″ W” | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1976 | Larry Niven | “The Borderland of Sol” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1977 | Isaac Asimov | “The Bicentennial Man” | Stellar #2 (Ballantine Books) | American | Male |
| 1978 | Joan D. Vinge | “Eyes of Amber” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Female |
| 1979 | Poul Anderson | “Hunter’s Moon” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1980 | George R. R. Martin | “Sandkings” | Omni | American | Male |
| 1981 | Gordon R. Dickson | “The Cloak and the Staff” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1982 | Roger Zelazny | “Unicorn Variation” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1983 | Connie Willis | “Fire Watch” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 1984 | Greg Bear | “Blood Music” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1985 | Octavia E. Butler | “Bloodchild” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 1986 | Harlan Ellison | “Paladin of the Lost Hour” | Universe #15 (Bantam Spectra) | American | Male |
| 1987 | Roger Zelazny | “Permafrost” | Omni | American | Male |
| 1988 | Ursula K. Le Guin | “Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight” | Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 1989 | George Alec Effinger | “Schrödinger’s Kitten” | Omni | American | Male |
| 1990 | Robert Silverberg | “Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1991 | Mike Resnick | “The Manamouki” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1992 | Isaac Asimov | “Gold” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1993 | Janet Kagan | “The Nutcracker Coup” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | Unknown | Female |
| 1994 | Charles Sheffield | “Georgia on My Mind” | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | British | Male |
| 1995 | David Gerrold | “The Martian Child” | Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1996 | James Patrick Kelly | “Think Like a Dinosaur” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1997 | Bruce Sterling | “Bicycle Repairman” | Intersections (Tor Books) | American | Male |
| 1998 | Bill Johnson | “We Will Drink a Fish Together…” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1999 | Bruce Sterling | “Taklamakan” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 2000 | James Patrick Kelly | “1016 to 1” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 2001 | Kristine Kathryn Rusch | “Millennium Babies” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 2002 | Ted Chiang | “Hell Is the Absence of God” | Starlight #3 (Tor Books) | American | Male |
| 2003 | Michael Swanwick | “Slow Life” | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | American | Male |
| 2004 | Michael Swanwick | “Legions in Time” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 2005 | Kelly Link | “The Faery Handbag” | The Faery Reel (Viking Publishers) | American | Female |
| 2006 | Peter S. Beagle | “Two Hearts” | Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 2007 | Ian McDonald | “The Djinn’s Wife” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | British | Male |
| 2008 | Ted Chiang | “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” | Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 2009 | Elizabeth Bear | “Shoggoths in Bloom” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 2010 | Peter Watts | “The Island” | The New Space Opera #2 (Eos) | Canadian | Male |
| 2011 | Allen Steele | “The Emperor of Mars” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 2012 | Charlie Jane Anders | “Six Months, Three Days” | Tor.com | American | Genderqueer |
| 2013 | Pat Cadigan | “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” | Edge of Infinity (Solaris Books) | American | Female |
| 2014 | Mary Robinette Kowal | “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” | Tor.com | American | Female |
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I think Kagan was American; one of her photojournal entries is of a bug “found in north-eastern New Jersey” while she was weeding her yard. Another entry includes, “When we got home to NJ”. Both photos are 2005. Also, I wish her estate would re-release her books & short stories, because they were really good. (I web searched her name, then poked at the links from her homepage.)
Thanks for the detective work!
Agree on the re-release. I’ve never read any of her stuff. 😦
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