Using Awards Lists as a RA Tool: Hugo Awards Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

This week the Hugo Award Finalists were announced. The Hugo Award and the Nebula Award are the two most prestigious awards in Speculative Fiction, but it is important to note the difference in how each are chosen. The Nebulas are the official award of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Much like the Bram Stoker Awards for which I am a voter, this award is voted on by the professional writers. While the Hugo Awards are nominated by and chosen by those that have signed up to attend WorldCon each year. That grouping of people is a mix of writers and fans. [Click here to see the full explanation of the process.]

For this reason, I tend to go to the Hugos first as a resource for the casual Speculative Fiction reader and the Nebula first for the more seasoned reader. Now to be fair, they tend to have overlapping finalists, and this year is an example of that. [You can click here to see the Nebula Finalists announced in March]. 

Side note: the finalists for both awards in the novel category are all women!

The Hugo also has a more reader focused view of the genre as a result of its process. These categories are useful as we help readers, for displays, and collection development. Here are a few examples:

• There is a category for best series and one for new writers. This second one gives the authors 3 years of eligibility and it is great place to identify emerging writers for our collections and our readers.
• Best Editor in long form and short form is also a category. They do not give an anthology award like other Speculative Fiction awards. As you can see here in my post about how an editor can serve as a readalike suggestion tool, I think this is a valuable resource as we serve leisure readers.
• Separating out long form and short form media is invaluable to us as we suggest movies vs TV shows to readers.
• There are numerous fan based categories.

This is just a sampling of why this award is useful as a resource. Check out the full list of current Hugo Award nominees here.

And finally, like all of my favorite awards lists that I use as a resource, the Hugo Awards make backlist access very easy.