Using Awards Lists As A RA Tool: Nebula Award Finalists Edition

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have released their nominees for the 54th Annual Nebula Awards, so that means today I have a reminder of what a wonderful tool all awards lists are for you, the library worker-- my post on Using Award Lists As A RA Tool.

But specifically, the Nebula's are useful because they combine the best of Science Fiction and Fantasy as chosen by the authors [as opposed to the Hugos which include fans]. I often find that they are a good predictor of up and coming authors, especially in the story and novelette categories.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with the novel category. I am hoping that none of the titles below surprise any of you. In fact, I would expect that every library has them. If you don't, stop reading this post and go order the ones you are missing, right this minute. I can wait.

Now for the other categories. As I mentioned above, you can look at the story and novelette categories to find authors who you should keep an eye out for. But, don't sleep on the game writing category either because that's how novel nominee and best selling author, Naomi Novik started out.

But also, genre magazine, both print and online are really making a come back and we should be including them in our collections. For example, Lightspeed and Apex are two magazines that have nominated stories here but they also tend to show up on all of the SF/F awards lists. That should be a sign that we should have them available for SF/F fans to read too. I know it is an expense, but we can offer digital copies too, either through Flipster or with card number access from our websites.

Finally, the Nebula Finalists lists are an excellent way to have a display that showcases the breadth of your holdings, and you have the pull list all done for you. You can make a display with novels, story collections, magazines [if you subscribe to any of the magazines with nominated stories], YA, video games, movies, and TV shows. You can also include older titles by nominated authors, giving you an excuse to put all the Murderbot books on display.

And finally, a shout out to Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark which I read back in June and "raved" at ALA. In fact, after that program, this was the first title someone came up and asked take for themselves. I am really glad others are enjoying this novella too. 

Now go forth and use this list as a RA tool. Make the SFWA's work work for you.

Nebula Award Finalists Announced

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA, Inc.) is pleased to announce the nominees for the 54th Annual Nebula Awards, including the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book, and for the first time, the Nebula Award for Game Writing. The awards will be presented in Woodland Hills, CA at the Warner Center Marriott during a ceremony on the evening of May 18th.

2018 Nebula Award Finalists

Novel

• The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
• The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
• Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK)
• Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey; Macmillan)
• Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)
• Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)

Novella

• Fire Ant, Jonathan P. Brazee (Semper Fi)
• The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
• Alice Payne Arrives, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing)
• Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)
• Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

Novelette

• The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)
• “The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections”, Tina Connolly (Tor.com 7/11/18)
• “An Agent of Utopia”, Andy Duncan (An Agent of Utopia)
• “The Substance of My Lives, the Accidents of Our Births”, José Pablo Iriarte (Lightspeed 1/18)
• “The Rule of Three”, Lawrence M. Schoen (Future Science Fiction Digest 12/18)
• “Messenger”, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and R.R. Virdi (Expanding Universe, Volume 4)

Short Story

• “Interview for the End of the World”, Rhett C. Bruno (Bridge Across the Stars)
• “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington”, Phenderson Djèlí Clark (Fireside 2/18)
• “Going Dark”, Richard Fox (Backblast Area Clear)
• “And Yet”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 3-4/18)
• “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies”, Alix E. Harrow (Apex 2/6/18)
• “The Court Magician”, Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed 1/18)

Game Writing

• Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Charlie Brooker (House of Tomorrow & Netflix)
• The Road to Canterbury, Kate Heartfield  (Choice of Games)
• God of War, Matt Sophos, Richard Zangrande Gaubert, Cory Barlog, Orion Walker, and Adam Dolin (Santa Monica Studio/Sony/Interactive Entertainment)
• Rent-A-Vice, Natalia Theodoridou (Choice of Games)
• The Martian Job, M. Darusha Wehm (Choice of Games)

The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation: 

• The Good Place: “Jeremy Bearimy”, Written by: Megan Amram
• Black Panther, Written by: Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
• A Quiet Place, Screenplay by: John Krasinski and Bryan Woods & Scott Beck
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Screenplay by: Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman
• Dirty Computer, Written by: Janelle Monáe and Chuck Lightning
• Sorry to Bother You, Written by: Boots Riley

The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book:

• Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt; Macmillan)
• Aru Shah and the End of Time, Roshani Chokshi (Rick Riordan Presents)
• A Light in the Dark, A.K. DuBoff (BDL)
• Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman (Random House)
• Dread Nation, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)
• Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword, Henry Lien (Henry Holt)

The Nebula Awards will be presented during the annual SFWA Nebula Conference, which will run from May 16th-19th and feature programming developed and geared toward SFF professionals. On May 18th, a mass autograph session will take place at the Warner Center Marriott Woodland Hills and will be free and open to the public.

The Nebula Awards, presented annually, recognize the best works of science fiction and fantasy published in the previous year. They are selected by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The first Nebula Awards were presented in 1966.

The Nebula Awards include four fiction awards, a game writing award, the Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book. SFWA also administers the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Awards, the Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. Service to SFWA Award, and the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.