Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Hugo Awards, Dealer’s room, Aussiecon 4, Melbourne, Australia, September 2, 2010. Photo courtesy Cory Doctorow/Flickr What on Earthsea is happening with the 2015 Hugo Awards? On Saturday, nominations for the prestigious science fiction and fantasy prizes were announced. As usual, the finalists were determined by ballot; any member of the 2014, 2015, or 2016 WorldCons…
I’m awake too early to leave for the airport but too late to go back to sleep, so as long as I’m up, some additional thoughts on the recent Hugo-related drama. * I’m feeling increasingly sorry for the nominees on the Hugo award ballot who showed up on either Puppy slate but who aren’t card-carrying Puppies…
It is: 1. Yes, I’ve seen the slate. The slate shows up even in Australia! And I woke up early because I crashed from exhaustion last night before 7pm. Finishing a book takes it out of you. 2. I’m very pleased for the several friends and/or writers who are on the ballot this year. This includes…
Today there were major responses to a pair of Hugo nominees withdrawing their work from the ballot, Marko Kloos and Annie Bellett, which raised the temperature of the discussion even higher. John Scalzi comments on comparisons drawn between the eligibility of his 2006 novel and a 2013 John C. Wright story. Sarah Hoyt turns an…
Now we get to the crux of the matter. So… what is behind Puppygate? What is it the Sad Puppies want? They have been doing this for three years now, three separate campaigns, with a fourth threatened… and presumably a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh if this goes on. That’s a lot of effort,…
Let me begin with the basics: Who owns the Hugo Awards? You know, looking back, I am probably partly to blame for some of the misconceptions that seem to exist on this point. For years now I have been urging people to nominate for the Hugo Awards, and saying things like “this is your award”…
Last August, the Hugo Awards for science fiction and fantasy were swept by a younger group of women and people of color. At the time, we said “This was really a year that underscored that a younger generation of diverse writers are becoming central to the genre.” So maybe it’s not surprising that there was…
George R R Martin said the Hugo awards have been dealt a mortal blow by right-wing writers after they promoted a list of their selections so successfully that they dominated the shortlist. The campaign was started by a group calling itself Sad Puppies as they sought to right the wrong, as they saw it, of the…
One of the false promises we’ve been made that people keep buying into is that the Internet is a “democratizing” force, that the digital world gives us instant access to the real vox populi, that the simple fact that anyone can leave a comment, or answer a poll, or submit an entry to a contest…
I am a novelist. I also have a Master’s degree from MIT. So numbers appeal to me, especially numbers that provide clear data on thorny issues, like, oh, sexism and racism in literature. This year, the Hugo Awards—probably the most famous and visible awards in speculative literature—were hijacked by a coordinated campaign of conservative writers…