Hugo Demographics – Best Short Story.

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

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 Short Story – some numbers.

The Best Short Story Hugo is awarded to a spec fic work under 7, 5000 words. It was first awarded in 1955 and since then has been awarded annually every year, except in 1957. For a period in the 60s it was called Best Short Fiction and I believe it may have cannibalised Best Novelette during this time (until Novelette escaped).

Since it’s inception 60 Hugos have been awarded in this category. The only shared win was in 1973.

10 writers have one more of this Hugo led by Harlan Ellison and Connie Willis on 4 and 3 respectively.

Men have won 83% of this Hugo (50 wins). Women have won 17% ( 10 wins).

44 individuals have won one of these Hugos. 36 of these individuals are men (82%). 8 are women (18%).

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

American 55 (92%)
Female 10
Male 45
British 5 (8%)
Male 5

Some flippant observations.

American men have won this Hugo 75% of the time (45 wins).

As a consolation American women have won 10 wins (17%) – double the rest of the human race, which in this case is represented by five British male wins.

Some graphs.

Best SS, Pie

Best SS, Col

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.

I didn’t have any major concerns with this data set. I’ve probably still done something stupid though – so if you see something weird sing out in the comments.

Year Author(s) Short story Publisher or publication Nationality Sex
1955 Eric Frank Russell “Allamagoosa” Astounding Science-Fiction British Male
1956 Arthur C. Clarke “The Star” Infinity Science Fiction British Male
1958 Avram Davidson “Or All the Seas with Oysters” Galaxy Science Fiction American Male
1959 Robert Bloch “That Hell-Bound Train” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction American Male
1960 Daniel Keyes “Flowers for Algernon” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction American Male
1961 Poul Anderson “The Longest Voyage” Analog Science Fact & Fiction American Male
1962 Brian Aldiss “Hothouse” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction British Male
1963 Jack Vance “The Dragon Masters” Galaxy Science Fiction American Male
1964 Poul Anderson “No Truce with Kings” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction American Male
1965 Gordon R. Dickson “Soldier, Ask Not” Galaxy Science Fiction American Male
1966 Harlan Ellison “”Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman” Galaxy Science Fiction American Male
1967 Larry Niven “Neutron Star” If American Male
1968 Harlan Ellison “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” If American Male
1969 Harlan Ellison “The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World” Galaxy Science Fiction American Male
1970 Samuel R. Delany “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones” New Worlds American Male
1971 Theodore Sturgeon “Slow Sculpture” Galaxy Science Fiction American Male
1972 Larry Niven “Inconstant Moon” All the Myriad Ways (Ballantine Books) American Male
1973 R. A. Lafferty “Eurema’s Dam” New Dimensions #2 (Doubleday) American Male
1973 Frederik Pohl “The Meeting” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction American Male
1974 Ursula K. Le Guin “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” New Dimensions #3 (Doubleday) American Female
1975 Larry Niven “The Hole Man” Analog Science Fact & Fiction American Male
1976 Fritz Leiber “Catch That Zeppelin!” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction American Male
1977 Joe Haldeman “Tricentennial” Analog Science Fact & Fiction American Male
1978 Harlan Ellison “Jeffty Is Five” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction American Male
1979 C. J. Cherryh “Cassandra” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction American Female
1980 George R. R. Martin “The Way of Cross and Dragon” Omni American Male
1981 Clifford D. Simak “Grotto of the Dancing Deer” Analog Science Fact & Fiction American Male
1982 John Varley “The Pusher” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction American Male
1983 Spider Robinson “Melancholy Elephants” Analog Science Fact & Fiction American Male
1984 Octavia E. Butler “Speech Sounds” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Female
1985 David Brin “The Crystal Spheres” Analog Science Fact & Fiction American Male
1986 Frederik Pohl “Fermi and Frost” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
1987 Greg Bear “Tangents” Omni American Male
1988 Lawrence Watt-Evans “Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
1989 Mike Resnick “Kirinyaga” Fantasy & Science Fiction American Male
1990 Suzy McKee Charnas “Boobs” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Female
1991 Terry Bisson “Bears Discover Fire” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
1992 Geoffrey A. Landis “A Walk in the Sun” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
1993 Connie Willis “Even the Queen” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Female
1994 Connie Willis “Death on the Nile” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Female
1995 Joe Haldeman “None So Blind” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
1996 Maureen F. McHugh “The Lincoln Train” Fantasy & Science Fiction American Female
1997 Connie Willis “The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson’s Poems: A Wellsian Perspective” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Female
1998 Mike Resnick “The 43 Antarean Dynasties” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
1999 Michael Swanwick “The Very Pulse of the Machine” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
2000 Michael Swanwick “Scherzo with Tyrannosaur” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
2001 David Langford “Different Kinds of Darkness” Fantasy & Science Fiction British Male
2002 Michael Swanwick “The Dog Said Bow-Wow” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
2003 Geoffrey A. Landis “Falling Onto Mars” Analog Science Fiction and Fact American Male
2004 Neil Gaiman “A Study in Emerald” Shadows Over Baker Street (Del Rey Books) British Male
2005 Mike Resnick “Travels with My Cats” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
2006 David D. Levine “Tk’tk’tk” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
2007 Tim Pratt “Impossible Dreams” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
2008 Elizabeth Bear “Tideline” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Female
2009 Ted Chiang “Exhalation” Eclipse #2 (Night Shade Books) American Male
2010 Will McIntosh “Bridesicle” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Male
2011 Mary Robinette Kowal “For Want of a Nail” Asimov’s Science Fiction American Female
2012 Ken Liu “The Paper Menagerie” Fantasy & Science Fiction American Male
2013 Ken Liu “Mono no Aware” The Future is Japanese (Viz Media) American Male
2014 John Chu “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” Tor.com American Male

One thought on “Hugo Demographics – Best Short Story.”

  1. Pingback: The Rocket Crew | One eyed scribe

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