In this post I look at the demographics (sex and nationality) of the winners of the Hugo Award for Best Novella.

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 Novella – some numbers

The Hugo for Best Novella is awarded to a work of speculative fiction of between 17,500 and 40,000 words. It was first awarded in 1968 and, unlike some of the other categories, has been awarded anually since.

50 awards have been granted and there have been shared wins in 1968, 1977 and 1978.

13 writers have won more than one Hugo for Best Novella, led by Connie Willis and Charles Stross on 4 and 3 respectively.

Men have won 72% (36) of these Hugos, women 28% (14).

34 individuals have won one (or more) of these Hugos. 74% are men (25) and 26% women (9)

Only three (!) nationalities have won this Hugo. The breakdown works like this (it’s on wins, not individual winners);

American	45 (90%)
Female	14
Male	31
Australian (huzzah)	1 (2%)
Male	1
British	4 (8%)
Male	4

Some flippant observations.

Again, American men have won 31 times (62%) – which is more of these Hugos than the rest of humankind.

And again, American women have won 14 times (28%) – which more than double of this Hugo than all non-Americans (10%) combined.

Some graphs.

My data.