Why I Like Taking Part in the Hugo Awards

[forestofglory]

Since Archive of Our Own (AO3) recently won a Hugo, and Lady Business the fanzine I write for also won its second Hugo I wanted to talk a bit about the Hugos and why I like taking part in them. I’ve been nominating and voting for the Hugo Awards for a while now and have had a really positive experience, of the Hugos as a fun communal event where a lot of people I like talk about media they like. I also enjoy the way the awards process lets me and others share and receive recs, and celebrate the SFF community.

Worldcon and the Hugo awards are fan projects run by Wold Science Fiction Society (WSFS) just as AO3 and Fanlore are fan projects run by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW). If you went to Worldcon or voted in the Hugos then you've been a member of WSFS. Just like the OTW, WSFS is diffuse body made up of a disparate membership.

Like all fannish communities Hugo voters are far from perfect. While the recent puppies controversy has died down, the community still has offensive elements. There are still racist assholes, there are still frustrating gatekeepers who don’t like the “wrong” kind of fans, and there have been and will always be occasional massive online blow ups about these things. Yet I persist in loving the Hugos and taking part each year. For me these awards, despite their problems, are way to celebrate work that I love with other SFF fans.

I originally began voting in the Hugo awards after reading a lot of marginalized people saying that the Hugo awards were being dominated by a relatively small group of people, which was excluding a lot the more diverse writers and works in the genre from being considered for the award. They said, and I agreed that if more people began to take part, the full range of the genre, and all the unique works it brings would be better represented in the awards. It certainly didn’t hurt that renay became a member of WSFS and blogged about the Hugos, making the whole thing sound really fun!

Anyone can buy a supporting membership to Worldcon and be eligible to vote. This generally costs between $40 and $60. Membership generally comes with a Hugo voter packet of the nominated works. (Authors and publishers decide what to include so you don’t always get everything but generally it’s quite a bit). If you buy your membership before December 31, or are a member of this year's Worldcon, you’ll be eligible to nominate works for next year’s awards. You can go to the registration page of the 2020 Worldcon to buy a supporting membership.

The Hugo voting process begins with nominations, which are my personal favorite, because it’s like a big rec party. I get to tell people about my favorite things from the last year and hear about their favorite things. There is much joyful squeeing! If you want to get started on this part early you can check out the 2020 Hugo recs sheet maintained by the folks at ladybusiness

The next phase is reading and voting. For me, the reading part is great, because a lot of my friends all read and discuss the finalist and it's fun to have a lot of people reading and discussing the same things at the same time. I struggle more with voting, because the Hugos use ranked choice voting and it's sooo hard to rank things-- and in recent years I haven’t been a very complete voter because of that difficulty. But the reading phase generally gets me to read a couple of things that are out of my comfort zone and I often discover something enjoy that I wouldn’t have read otherwise.

Finally there’s the awards ceremony! I always try to watch this online with friends, where time-zones allow. It's a great community celebration full of so many things I love to watch: the shiny things people choose to wear to the ceremony, all the speeches about the nature of the genre, and of course, talking to my friends about everything while we’re watching. Whether my favorites win or not, I always come away from the ceremony feeling excited to be part of the SFF community and hopeful about the future of the genre.

The Hugo are communal fandom experience that I really love. For me they’ve been a great way to discover new things, squee about things I love, start conversations about books, and feel connected to the larger SFF community.

Comments

[clevermanka]

This is so well and encouragingly written! I think most people don't know it's this easy. Would you mind if I linked to this from my personal (not DW) blog on Thursday?

[forestofglory]

Thank you!

Yes please link! I love helping more people learn about and take part in in the Hugos!

[lunabee34]

Thanks for sharing how this works. I've never taken part, but you've made me consider doing so.

[forestofglory]

Yay! I've had a ton of fun doing this, so I hope if you decide to take part you to too.

[lunabee34]

Thank you!

[suncani]

Ah, you've literally taken the same messy feelings I have about the Hugos and turned them into actual words :D I first became a member because of sad puppies, I remember reading about the whole kerfuffle the first time round on John Scalzi's blog and thought *F*ck it, I'm going to get involved too" and never looked back. I think that was also what got me reading short fic as well, as I had no clue who to nominate *grin. Although I've never actually watched the ceremony

[forestofglory]

Thank you!

I got in a few years before the puppies so I got to watch the whole trainwreck live. But at least it got some more people to take part.

I've really enjoyed the ceremony every time I've watched. Last year I think the highlights where Jeannette Ng's speech, and when AO3 won and they asked everyone in the audience who was part of the AO3 community to stand up. (And on a more personal note when Ladybusiness won!) I'm not sure that it will makes sense for me to watch next year though since the con will be in New Zealand.

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for this lovely essay.

I just joined ConNZ as a supporter and look forward to playing the recs-and-reading games with you.

[forestofglory]

Yay!

[dolorosa_12]

This was beautiful to read. This year's Worldcon in Dublin was the first time I attended or was a member of Worldcon, and it was the first con I ever attended as well. It was a really positive experience, and something wonderful to be a part of. It's unlikely I'll be able to attend another Worldcon any time soon, but supporting membership is definitely manageable, so thank you for the reminder.