Susanna Clarke, N.K. Jemisin, and Rebecca Roanhorse are among the finalists for this year’s Hugo Awards, given annually for outstanding achievement in science fiction and fantasy.
Jemisin made the shortlist for best novel for The City We Became, the first installment in a planned trilogy. Jemisin was the first author to win the Hugo Award for best novel three years in a row, for her Broken Earth trilogy.
Clarke’s Piranesi, which has also been nominated for a Nebula Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, made the best novel shortlist, along with Roanhorse’s Black Sun. Rounding out the novel shortlist were Tamsyn Muir’s Harrow the Ninth, Martha Wells’ Network Effect, and Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Relentless Moon.
Kowal and Wells were also named finalists in the best series category, for The Lady Astronaut Universe and The Murderbot Diaries, respectively. Also nominated in that category were John Scalzi for The Interdependency, S.A. Chakraborty for The Daevabad Trilogy, Seanan McGuire for October Daye, and R.F. Kuang for The Poppy War.
Maria Dahvana Headley’s new translation of Beowulf was nominated in the best related work category, along with, notably, Natalie Luhrs’ blog post reacting to last year’s Hugo Awards ceremony, “George R.R. Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun, Or: The 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony (Rageblog Edition).”
The winners of the awards will be announced in December at a ceremony hosted by Sheree Renée Thomas and Malka Older (and not George R.R. Martin).
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
