The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has released its nominees for the 2017 Nebula Awards, and it’s an impressive reading list that is once again dominated by women writers.
The Nebula Awards are issued annually by SFWA to the best works in genre novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories published in the last year, alongside the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy and the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation. The Nebulas are a sort of industry award, determined by professional authors. Last year’s winners included Charlie Jane Anders’ All the Birds in the Sky, Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart A Doorway, William Ledbetter’s The Long Fall Up, and Amal El-Mohtar’s Seasons of Glass and Iron.
The winners will be announced on May 19th at this year’s Nebula conference, which will be held from May 17th–20th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This year’s crop of nominees is a strong group, with several of the novels appearing on our list of the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels of 2017. They represent a nice mix of seasoned and critically acclaimed pros such as Daryl Gregory, Mur Lafferty, and N.K. Jemisin, and debut novelists such as Lara Elena Donnelly, Theodora Goss, and io9 co-founder Annalee Newitz.
Here’s the full list of nominees. Links have been added for our reviews or where stories are publicly available online.
Best Novel
- Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly (Tor)
- The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss (Saga)
- Spoonbenders, Daryl Gregory (Knopf; riverrun)
- The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty (Orbit US)
- Jade City, Fonda Lee (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Autonomous, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK 2018)
Best Novella
- River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)
- Passing Strange, Ellen Klages (Tor.com Publishing)
- And Then There Were (N-One), Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 3-4/17)
- Barry’s Deal, Lawrence M. Schoen (NobleFusion Press)
- All Systems Red, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
- The Black Tides of Heaven, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)
Best Novelette
- Dirty Old Town, Richard Bowes (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 5-6/17)
- Weaponized Math, Jonathan P. Brazee (The Expanding Universe, Vol. 3)
- Wind Will Rove, Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 9-10/17)
- A Series of Steaks, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld 1/17)
- A Human Stain, Kelly Robson (Tor.com 1/4/17)
- Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time, K.M. Szpara (Uncanny 5-6/17)
Best Short Story
- Fandom for Robots, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny 9-10/17)
- Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience TM, Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex 8/17)
- Utopia, LOL?, Jamie Wahls (Strange Horizons 6/5/17)
- Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 9-10/17)
- The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard), Matthew Kressel (Tor.com 3/15/17)
- Carnival Nine, Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 5/11/17)
The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
- Get Out (Written by Jordan Peele)
- The Good Place: “Michael’s Gambit” (Written by Michael Schur)
- Logan (screenplay by Scott Frank, James Mangold, and Michael Green)
- The Shape of Water (Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor)
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Written by Rian Johnson)
- Wonder Woman (Screenplay by Allan Heinberg)
The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book
- Exo, Fonda Lee (Scholastic Press)
- Weave a Circle Round, Kari Maaren (Tor)
- The Art of Starving, Sam J. Miller (HarperTeen)
- Want, Cindy Pon (Simon Pulse)