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.
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. Anne McCaffrey moved to Ireland soon after winning her Hugo. She later became an Irish citizen – I have scored her as American.
2. Spider Robinson became a Canadian citizen in 2002. This was significant time after his wins and I have scored him as American.
If I’ve got any of the above wrong, please let me know.
| Year | Author(s) | Novella | Publisher or publication | Nationality | Sex |
| 1968 | Philip José Farmer | “Riders of the Purple Wage” | Dangerous Visions (Doubleday) | American | Male |
| 1968 | Anne McCaffrey | “Weyr Search” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Female |
| 1969 | Robert Silverberg | “Nightwings” | Galaxy Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1970 | Fritz Leiber | “Ship of Shadows” | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1971 | Fritz Leiber | “Ill Met in Lankhmar” | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1972 | Poul Anderson | “The Queen of Air and Darkness” | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1973 | Ursula K. Le Guin | “The Word for World Is Forest” | Again, Dangerous Visions (Doubleday) | American | Female |
| 1974 | James Tiptree, Jr. | “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” | New Dimensions 3 (Doubleday) | American | Female |
| 1975 | George R. R. Martin | “A Song for Lya” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1976 | Roger Zelazny | “Home Is the Hangman” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1977 | Spider Robinson | “By Any Other Name” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1977 | James Tiptree, Jr. | “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” | Aurora: Beyond Equality (Fawcett Publications) | American | Female |
| 1978 | Spider Robinson | “Stardance” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1978 | Jeanne Robinson | “Stardance” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Female |
| 1979 | John Varley | “The Persistence of Vision” | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1980 | Barry B. Longyear | “Enemy Mine” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1981 | Gordon R. Dickson | “Lost Dorsai” | Destinies #2 (Ace Books) | American | Male |
| 1982 | Poul Anderson | “The Saturn Game” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1983 | Joanna Russ | “Souls” | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 1984 | Timothy Zahn | “Cascade Point” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Male |
| 1985 | John Varley | “Press Enter ■” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1986 | Roger Zelazny | “24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1987 | Robert Silverberg | “Gilgamesh in the Outback” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1988 | Orson Scott Card | “Eye for Eye” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1989 | Connie Willis | “The Last of the Winnebagos” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 1990 | Lois McMaster Bujold | “The Mountains of Mourning” | Analog Science Fact & Fiction | American | Female |
| 1991 | Joe Haldeman | “The Hemingway Hoax” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1992 | Nancy Kress | “Beggars in Spain” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 1993 | Lucius Shepard | “Barnacle Bill the Spacer” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1994 | Harry Turtledove | “Down in the Bottomlands” | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | American | Male |
| 1995 | Mike Resnick | “Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge” | Fantasy & Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1996 | Allen Steele | “The Death of Captain Future” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1997 | George R. R. Martin | “Blood of the Dragon” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1998 | Allen Steele | “…Where Angels Fear to Tread” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 1999 | Greg Egan | “Oceanic” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | Australian | Male |
| 2000 | Connie Willis | “The Winds of Marble Arch” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 2001 | Jack Williamson | “The Ultimate Earth” | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | American | Male |
| 2002 | Vernor Vinge | “Fast Times at Fairmont High” | The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge (Tor Books) | American | Male |
| 2003 | Neil Gaiman | Coraline | HarperCollins | British | Male |
| 2004 | Vernor Vinge | “The Cookie Monster” | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | American | Male |
| 2005 | Charles Stross | “The Concrete Jungle” | The Atrocity Archives (Golden Gryphon Press) | British | Male |
| 2006 | Connie Willis | “Inside Job” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 2007 | Robert Reed | “A Billion Eves” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Male |
| 2008 | Connie Willis | “All Seated on the Ground” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 2009 | Nancy Kress | “The Erdmann Nexus” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 2010 | Charles Stross | “Palimpsest” | Wireless (Ace Books) | British | Male |
| 2011 | Ted Chiang | The Lifecycle of Software Objects | Subterranean Press | American | Male |
| 2012 | Kij Johnson | “The Man Who Bridged the Mist” | Asimov’s Science Fiction | American | Female |
| 2013 | Brandon Sanderson | The Emperor’s Soul | Tachyon Publications | American | Male |
| 2014 | Charles Stross | “Equoid” | Tor.com | British | Male |
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