Awards

Entry updated 23 December 2023. Tagged: Award, Community.

The following genre-related awards receive detailed individual entries in this encyclopedia:

Aelita Award (Russia)
Andre Norton Award: see Nebula.
Arthur C Clarke Award (for novels)
British Fantasy Award (1966-1969)
BSFA Award
Carnegie Medal (listing confined to winners of sufficient sf relevance to have entries in this encyclopedia)
Chesley Awards (for art and illustration)
Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Memorial Award (for first novels)
Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award (for perhaps neglected authors)
Chandler Award (for lifetime contribution to sf in Australia)
Ditmar Award (Australia only since the abolition of past International Fiction category; partial listing)
Doc Weir Award (for unsung services to Fandom)
Eaton Award (for life achievement; formerly for nonfiction about the genre)
FAAn Awards (Fanzine Activity Achievement awards)
First Fandom Hall of Fame (for long-time contributions to sf and/or Fandom)
Frank R Paul Award
Gandalf Award (for life achievement in fantasy)
Hugo
IAFA Award (for sf scholarship)
Ignotus Award (Spain)
International Fantasy Award
Jack Gaughan Award (for Best Emerging Artist)
James Tiptree Jr Award (for gender-exploring sf); renamed the Otherwise Award in 2019
Janusz A Zajdel Award (Poland; for novels and short fiction)
John W Campbell Award (for new writers, presented in association with the Hugos); renamed the Astounding Award in 2019
John W Campbell Memorial Award (for novels)
Kitschies (various categories)
Locus Award
Lodestar Award (for Young Adult books, presented in association with the Hugos)
Nebula (see also SFWA Grand Master Award). This entry also covers the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult sf/fantasy, and the Ray Bradbury Award, a renaming of the Nebula category for dramatic presentations or scripts.
Nobel Prize for Literature (listing confined to winners of sufficient sf relevance to have entries in this encyclopedia)
Nova Awards (given at the UK Novacon for UK Fanzine activity)
Otherwise Award (for gender-exploring sf); the renamed James Tiptree Jr Award
Philip K Dick Award (for US paperback originals)
Pilgrim Award (for criticism), renamed in 2019 as The SFRA Award for Lifetime Contributions to SF Scholarship
Prometheus Award (for Libertarian SF)
Ray Bradbury Award: see Nebula.
Retro Hugo
Rhysling Award (for Poetry)
Robert A Heinlein Award (for work inspiring space exploration)
Rotsler Award (for life achievement as a fanzine artist)
Science Fiction Hall of Fame (for life achievement)
SFWA Grand Master Award (for life achievement); this entry also covers other SFWA career awards such as Author Emeritus/Emerita and the Solstice Award.
Scribe Award (for media Ties; partial listing)
Seiun Award (Japan; for novels and stories, both Japanese originals and translated works)
SFRA Award for Lifetime Contributions to SF Scholarship, formerly the Pilgrim Award
Sidewise Award (for Alternate History)
Skylark Award (for general contributions to the field)
Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (for short stories)
Thomas D Clareson Award (for various services to sf)
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame (life achievement in comics)
World Fantasy Award (partial listing);
Writers of the Future Contest
Yinhe Award (China; various categories)

Past editions of this encyclopedia covered only English-language awards, but we are gradually extending the coverage to other major sf awards. Likewise, past editions did not list awards based in countries other than the UK and USA, especially in cases where only natives of the host country are eligible: the sheer proliferation of sf-related prizes necessitated this chauvinist ruling. With the relaxing of space restrictions, exceptions are being made for some well-established awards, including so far the Australian Ditmar Award, the Chinese Yinhe Award, the Japanese Seiun Award and the Polish Janusz A Zajdel Award, all listed above.

We still do not list individually the following country-specific awards. Those marked with a paragraph sign in the list are further documented online [see links below].

Australia: the William Atheling Jr Award for criticism, associated with the Ditmar Award; the Norma K Hemming Award for "excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, class and sexuality" ¶
Canada: the Prix Aurora (known until 1991 as the Casper) given in to local sf in both English and French; the Sunburst, again restricted to Canada, for adult and Young Adult speculative books in English only ¶
Europe in general: the various European Science Fiction Society Awards given at the annual pan-European Convention known as Eurocon ¶
Finland: the Atorox award, given by the Turku Science Fiction Society for the year's best short story ¶
France: the Prix Jules Verne, given to novels in the spirit of Jules Verne but discontinued in 1980; the Prix Apollo, another French award given from 1972 until 1990 to the best sf novel published in France, regardless of whether it is French or translated ¶; and the Prix Rosny aîné (see J H Rosny aîné) for best sf in French
Germany: the Kurd Laßwitz Preis (Award), the German equivalent of the Nebula; and the SFCD-Literaturpreis, given by a large German fan club
Italy: the Nova Science Fiction Award.
New Zealand: the Vogel Award or Sir Julius Vogel Award, presented for local achievement in numerous professional and fan categories with a similar scope to the Hugo ¶
Spain: the Gigamesh Award given by bookshops for sf in Spanish and translation; and the Xatafi-Cyberdark Award, 2006-current ¶

These and others may be added at some future date. In particular we traditionally do not list awards whose eligibility is restricted to particular regions within a country, such as the Chronos awards for Victoria, Australia, and the Endeavour awards for the US Pacific Northwest [see links below].

Most awards given exclusively (or almost so) for Fantasy or Horror, such as the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy Award, Crawford (William L Crawford Memorial Award), David Gemmell Legend, International Horror Guild, Mythopoeic or Shirley Jackson awards do not receive full entries. Nor for the most part do awards for fields or genres whose overlap with sf is only partial: the Eagle Award and Will Eisner Award for Comics are good examples here, though we list the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.

Yet other awards, such as the Balrog (chiefly for Fantasy), the James Blish (for criticism, won by Brian Aldiss in 1977 and thereafter discontinued) and the Jupiter, did not receive the necessary administrative and/or public support and have been short-lived. The Richard Evans Award – presented 1999-2006 to encourage writers whose success had been more critical than commercial – was not intended to outlast its initial funding.

There are many fan awards largely given to professionals, like the Hugo. An early example was a US fan poll for best sf of 1932 in The Time Traveller which became the short-lived Jules Verne Prize (see Raymond A Palmer). Others are given by fans to fans: long-running examples include the international Fanzine Activity Achievement Awards (FAAn Awards) and UK Nova Awards, presented for Fanzine publication and contributions. The Ken McIntyre Award for Fanzine art was presented at Eastercons from 1971 in memory of its UK fan artist eponym: its restrictive rules (both the original artwork and its fanzine appearance had to be displayed in the convention art show; judges were to be drawn from specified UK groups including the even then moribund "Knights of St Fantony") led to frequent non-presentation and apparent death after 2000. Quasi-awards that most strikingly demonstrate fannish generosity are the Fan Funds, for which it costs money to vote. Winners have their expenses paid to foreign Conventions and are often treated as honoured guests. The Pegasus Awards are given in many categories for Filk [see links below]. A Japanese fan honour is the Takumi Shibano Award.

To summarize most of the awards noted above, plus various others which remain, the following are considered too specialist (e.g. devoted Fantasy or Horror), recent and not yet fully established, or small-scale to warrant full entries, though links are provided where available. Awards excluded on geographical grounds have already been listed. Again, the paragraph sign ¶ marks awards about which more information may be found on relevant websites [see links below].

Balrog Award: fan-voted award, principally for Fantasy (though with some sf winners and a specifically sf film-classic category) presented from 1979 to 1985.
Big Heart Award: originally sponsored by Forrest J Ackerman for services to Fandom ¶
British Fantasy Award presented at the UK Fantasycon Convention in various categories for Fantasy and Horror, with a general bias towards the latter.
David Gemmell Awards: presented since 2009 for Heroic Fantasy novels and cover artist.
Davis Awards: voted on by readers of Analog and Asimov's Science Fiction – renamed the Dell Awards in 1992 when Davis sold out its two sf magazines to Dell.
Dell Awards: see Davis Awards above.
Dragon Awards: presented since 2016 in numerous categories under the auspices of the very large US Convention Dragon Con (Atlanta, Georgia); voting is not confined to convention members and is conducted online on a basis of one vote per email address, leading to some concern about manipulability. ¶
International Horror Guild Award: for horror ¶
James White Award: for an unpublished short story by a non-professional author ¶
Jupiter Awards: presented by the Instructors of Science Fiction in Higher Education in four fiction categories corresponding to the principal Hugos, in 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1978 only.
Ken McIntyre Award: presented at Eastercon for fan art from 1971 to 2001. ¶
Kurd Laßwitz Preis (Germany; in German)
Mark Time Awards for Audio Theater: the Mark Time Award itself is given for sf audio/Radio productions; other awards under the Mark Time aegis include the Charles Ogle Award for fantasy and horror audio productions. ¶
Mythopoeic Award: given for Fantasy by the Mythopoeic Society, for Adult and Children's fiction plus the nonfiction categories Inklings Studies and General Myth and Fantasy Studies ¶
Raymond Z Gallun Award: in its first years the I-CON Lifetime Achievement Award; presented to Gallun in 1985 by the US Convention I-CON and subsequently renamed for him ¶
Readercon Small Press Awards: inaugurated 1989 and presented at the literary Convention Readercon for best work in various sf categories published by Small Presses ¶
Sam Moskowitz Archive Award: given by First Fandom for "excellence in collecting" ¶
Saturn Awards for sf/fantasy film and television work, given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films ¶
SFBC Awards: chosen by a popularity poll among the members of the US Science Fiction Book Club.
SFRA Pioneer Award: given by the Science Fiction Research Association from 1990 for best critical essay of the year about sf ¶
Shirley Jackson Award: presented in various categories for psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic ¶
Speculative Literature Foundation Fountain Award: jury-selected $1000 prize for "a speculative short story of exceptional literary quality" ¶
Turner Tomorrow Award: more on this follows the current listing.
Ursa Major Award: for anthropomorphic ("furry") sf and fantasy ¶
William L Crawford Memorial Award: given by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for a first novel in the Fantasy field ¶

Particular media attention was attracted by the early-1990s Turner Tomorrow Award, a literary competition with an unbelievable $500,000 first prize sponsored by broadcasting magnate Ted Turner, for best original sf-novel manuscript to be published in hardcover by Turner Publishing and containing practical solutions to world problems. When the initial winner, Daniel Quinn's Ishmael (1992) – selected from some 2500 entries – was announced in June 1991, three of the judges, including novelist William Styron, declared their dismay at so huge a sum going to the winner of a contest in which none of the place-getters was, in their view, especially distinguished. This award was not repeated.

The best book reference on the subject used to be Reginald's Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards: A Comprehensive Guide to the Awards and their Winners (1991) by Daryl F Mallett and Robert Reginald. More and more, however, the full tabulations of award winners are most conveniently found on line – see links from individual award entries in this encyclopedia [and more general links below]. [PN/DRL]

links

Science Fiction Awards Database

links for specific awards (selected)

Awards mentioned above which have official or definitive websites but not (at least as yet) full entries in this encyclopedia:

previous versions of this entry

Internet Archive