Thanks to @offby1 for leading the work on the Hugo, Lodestar, & Astounding Awards nominations and ballot voting system in use this year, NomNom. I used it yesterday and it worked so smoothly, with lots of little touches to reassure & inform me, and help me help celebrate the best of sf/f.
Chris started it in December 2023, for the 2024 Worldcon to use. Grateful for his efforts & for everyone who's contributed!
More than 300 fraudulent votes and 10s of thousands paid for them. Amazing.
Hey, I've revived my moribund personal book review blog in order to post my thoughts on the Hugo Nominated 'Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet' novella by He Xi, because it requires a certain . . . vigour of expression to convey the strength of my displeasure that would probably not be welcome at other outlets.
CW: The words 'genocide' and 'fuck' appear frequently, in a variety of forms.
https://dampskunk.wordpress.com/2024/07/14/life-does-not-allow-us-to-meet-2023-by-he-xi/
Dearest Mastodonians, if you're reading for awards season I ask you to consider my only eligible work of 2023, my Taínofuturism novella SORDIDEZ. It's a queer science fiction about indigenous peoples working together to battle future colonialisms and involves giant 3D printed robots, genetically engineered wolves, and cyberpunk Vejigante masks that wreck things. Also, coquí frogs...lots of them 
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#nebulas2023 #hugos
#bookstodon #indigenous #ScifiLit #taino
And across my feeds comes a "Somehow, It Got Worse" article about the #hugos in which it appears a large number of Chinese member ballots were disqualified as a "slate". http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-2023-hugo-awards-somehow-it-got.html
In this Publishing in Africa column, @penprince_ and Alan discuss how virtual conferences could improve, a bit about the Hugos, some African authors to look out for, as well as what Oghenechovwe is up to for 2024. https://itgodp.libsyn.com/publishing-in-africa-safety-is-subject-with-oghenechovwe-donald-ekpeki #sciencefiction #fantasy #africa #publishing #hugos
Sad thing about the #Hugos is, that this has gotten so much mainstream coverage that even if the next 20 #hugoawards happen with zero issues, it will have people still thinking it's corrupt or corruptible.
3/
More fallout from the #HugoAwardsDebacle includes a number of resignations...
I kept noticing that so many of the emails (from the people making the award decisions!) had things in them along the lines of, "I've never read it, but it MIGHT be a problem..." and "I've never read it, but I've heard..."
Censorship is always based on ignorance-- not only the desire to remain ignorant of new ideas, but the opinions of people who have never actually read or viewed the books/film/art they are trying to censor.
I guess now we can only *hope* that the people who vote on #TheOscars actually spend a few hours watching all of the nominated films before voting. 
2/ For anyone wanting to read more about the backstory to this #HugoAwardsDebacle, this article gives more details about the specific authors, books, and short stories which were blocked from consideration and about the Committee's leaked emails.
Something which should also be scandalous on some level, imo, is that the Committee was voting on works they say they had never read. How can you fairly evaluate and compare stories you've never read?
Apparently, the Hugos are decided on book sleeve blurbs and social media posts.
[The linked article says it is "Free for a limited time." I generally try not to post articles if they are behind paywalls.]
#HugoAward #TheHugoAwards #Hugos #SciFi #SciFiFandom #ScienceFictionBooks #Fascism #Censored #CensorshipIssues #ScienceFictionLiterature #ScienceFictionLit #ScienceFiction #HugoAwards #Literature #WritingCommunity #WritersLife #Writers #AuthorsLife #Authors #Writing
https://www.vulture.com/article/hugo-awards-china-censorship-controversy.html
1/ You might have heard there's been a #censorship scandal rocking #ScienceFiction literature's biggest award, the #HugoAwards.
The annual ceremony was held in #Chengdu, #China. Although no evidence has been found linking any direct Chinese govt influence on the Award Committee's actions, leaked emails prove that the Hugo Committee DID remove potential nominees before they could be considered, because they were anticipating possible offenses against Chinese govt policies.
(This is how #Fascist governments work-- not only because govt cronies enforce their own authoritarian laws, but because ordinary people join in and support their policies.)
Now, author #SamanthaMills (who won the Hugo for her #ShortStory "RabbitTest," about abortion access) has posted that she has refused her Hugo and removed mentions of her award from her website and books.
#HugoAward #TheHugoAwards #Hugos #SciFi #SciFiFandom #ScienceFictionBooks #Fascism #Censored #HugoAwardsDebacle
https://samtasticbooks.com/2024/02/17/rabbit-test-unwins-the-hugo/
I've been hearing about this Hugo Awards mess for a while now on social media, but this is the first article I've seen summing it up.
As Paul Weimer put it: “Censoring people based on what you think that a government might not like is completely against what the whole science fiction project is.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/science-fiction-authors-excluded-hugo-awards-china-rcna139134
Based on leaked emails sounds like the 2023 #hugos administration team self-censored certain works in anticipation of having to comply with Chinese law https://file770.com/the-2023-hugo-awards-a-report-on-censorship-and-exclusion/
This story is truly astonishing. Excellent journalism revealing a shocking pattern of pre-emptive censorship, not by the Chinese government, but by westerners who didn’t want to risk offending the Chinese government by letting fans vote for a writer who maybe once had a Tibetan takeaway or something. #Hugos https://www.patreon.com/posts/98498779
Science fiction must escape from the dystopias it has trapped itself in.
We create the future we imagine, so it’s important to imagine what we desire.
https://www.nitinpai.in/2024/02/12/science-fiction-must-escape-the-dystopia-it-has-trapped-itself-in
#Bookstodon #LGBTQstodon Like #novellas? Nominating for #awards? Dee Holloway’s terrific #sapphic #historicalfantasy, LITTLE NOTHING (Queen of Swords Press, 2023) is on the #BSFA Long List and is eligible for the #Nebulas, #Hugos, #WorldFantasyAwards and the #LocusAwards when they open up! https://books2read.com/LIttleNothingHolloway
Yikes the Hugo award scandal now sounds even worse 
I've always liked Daniel Greene's videos, he does a great job covering scifi and fantasy news and this video does a deep dive into how the Hugos work and what on earth happened with popular books being mysteriously marked "ineligible" last year. There are also some insightful comments. #Hugos #Scifi #Fantasy #Bookstodon
https://youtu.be/85CFDXrORdw?si=u4SdfGGGyn7b5uM_
Well thanks to the shenanigans at last year's Hugo awards I found out about author Xiran Jay Zhao who was mysteriously "ineligible" for any awards, so I got her book. The story sounds good and the cover is gorgeous. #Hugos #XiranJayZhao #Bookstodon
Science fiction awards held in China under fire for excluding authors
Concerns raised about interference or censorship after documents showed writers were barred despite receiving enough nominations
