Hugo Ballot 2019, Part Three: Related Work, Dramatic Presentations, and More

Some Hugo Award statues of various years

At last I have arrived at Part Three of my Hugo ballot for 2019!  (Check out Part One and Part Two to see how I voted for novel, novella, novelette, and short story).  In this part I'll discuss categories including Best Related Work, Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form), Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form), and some of the artist and fan categories.  There are just too many categories, and I lack the time or discernment to vote for all of them.


I've voted for the editor categories in the past.  Doing some academic editing myself I can say that editing is valuable work that is seldom recognized as much as it ought to be, but I feel like I'm not tuned enough into the behind-the-scenes frequency of SFF to be an educated voter.  I suppose I could judge from the finished results, but that would require more time than I have.

I'm also probably going to avoid the Best Series category, because I've only read one or two things in a couple of the series and don't feel like I can adequately judge even one of the series (there's a non-zero chance I will vote at the last minute for Aliette de Bodard's Xuya Universe just because it seems like the series I'd like to read more from).

When it comes to best Graphic Story, I've voted for this in the past by paging through the samples in the Hugo packet, but unless I find time to do so, I think I'll skip it this year because I'm honestly not a huge fan of graphic novels/comic books and I'm probably not educated enough about the medium to really have any business voting in that category.  I'm also going to skip Best Fancast (there's not enough time and none of the podcasts I do listen are finalists).  I'm thinking about the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, although I've only read two short stories from Prasad and I have one of Chakraborty's books waiting patiently on my shelf.


Best Related Work

If I can use a bit of SF-tinged philosopher lingo, if there are any nearby possible worlds in which I would ever be a Hugo finalist, this is one of the few categories it might be (or maybe it would be Fan Writer?). Anyway, I always try to spend some time with the Related Work category.  There's a lot of great stuff this year, including two websites and a YouTube video.  

While I appreciate that other people are into fan fiction and I see the academic interest in it, it's not my thing.  The Archive of Our Own website is a fantastic achievement and hosts an academic journal. This may be a weird rationale, but it feels like a bit ... too much for this award.  Maybe I'd feel better about giving it to just the journal.  Astounding... is a thorough academic study of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, which is certainly an academic study well worth having.  But we've already had a lot of similar studies, so I'd rather have the award go to something different.  

I never hated Peter Jackson's The Hobbit movies as I felt like I was supposed to (they're okay if you think of them as prequels to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings), but I really appreciated the work Lindsay Ellis put into the video, which as entertaining as it is informative (the third of two parts was particularly excellent and got into some real ethical and political depth).  The Mexicanx Initiative Experience is a valuable resource for a historic event at last year's Worldcon (I was there and saw a bit of a reading from some of the authors in question).  I knew I would appreciate Jo Walton's informal history of the Hugos, but I didn't realize I would like it as much as I did.  It is, well, informal, but it's fascinating to read.  It pulled me in for several hours when I sat down to skim a chapter or two.

But in the end I can't pass up what may be my last chance ever to vote for Ursula Le Guin for a Hugo.  Sorry, other finalists.  I hope you understand.

1. Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing, by Ursula K. Le Guin with David Naimon (Tin House Books)

2. An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000, by Jo Walton (Tor)

3. www.mexicanxinitiative.com: The Mexicanx Initiative Experience at Worldcon 76 (Julia Rios, Libia Brenda, Pablo Defendini, John Picacio)

4. The Hobbit Duology (documentary in three parts), written and edited by Lindsay Ellis and Angelina Meehan (YouTube)

5.  Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, by Alec Nevala-Lee (Dey Street Books)

6. Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

This is the only category that didn't require a bit of scrambling on my part before voting.  I had seen all but one of the films (Into the Spider-Verse) when the finalists were announced.

Avengers... do we have to?  Really?  I find the Avengers movies entertaining, but just... no, sorry, no Hugo for you.  Be content with your billions and billions of dollars.  A Quiet Place was pretty good, but it was not as ground-breaking as it seemed to think it was. People have been raving about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which I finally saw last week.  While I feel like a mandated Spider-Man movie every month (or whatever we're doing these days) is a bit much, I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would, especially its animation style and the science fictional angle of parallel universes.  Black Panther is both entertaining and culturally important, definitely one of my favorite Marvel movies.  And that Afrofuturist aesthetic!  So cool!  Annihilation is one of the best science fiction horror movies of recent decades (see what I had to say about it here).

But I have to give the #1 spot to one of the weirdest and most creative movies I've seen in a long time.  See what I said about it.  If you haven't seen Sorry to Bother You, check it out and get ready for some thoughtful WTF? moments.

1. Sorry to Bother You, written and directed by Boots Riley (Annapurna Pictures)

2. Annihilation, directed and written for the screen by Alex Garland, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer (Paramount Pictures / Skydance)

3. Black Panther, written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, directed by Ryan Coogler (Marvel Studios)

4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman (Sony)

5. A Quiet Place, screenplay by Scott Beck, John Krasinski and Bryan Woods, directed by John Krasinski (Platinum Dunes / Sunday Night)

6. Avengers: Infinity War, screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Studios)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Alright, the TV category... sort of.  I usually have to work at this category a bit more than the previous one, but this year I organically saw everything except the Doctor Who episodes, which I will leave off my ballot.  It's not that I don't like Doctor Who, I just never get around to watching it (okay, I do have a preference for classic Who.  Doctor Who without cheesy rubber suits or Tom Baker is not the same for me, although some of the new stuff is pretty good).

The Expanse is without a doubt one of the best science fiction shows on TV right now, maybe one of the best "hard SF" shows ever made.  I loved it all, but the episode "Abaddon's Gate" was especially mind-blowing (I really need to read the rest of those books sometime, picking up with the book called Abaddon's Gate, but they keep writing more and I despair of ever getting to all of them).  The Good Place is not just a hilarious show with fantastic/science fictional elements, but it explicitly deals with philosophy.  One of the main characters is a philosophy professor.  How could I not love it?  While the show tends to deal predominantly with ethical issues (like last year's Hugo-winning episode, "The Trolley Problem"), "Janet(s)" covers the issue of personal identity.  One of the students in my personal identity course even did a presentation on it!  

I'm a huge Janelle Monáe fan.  She's been writing science fiction-themed concept albums for over a decade.  While her latest album, Dirty Computer, had less of an over-arching concept, the "emotion picture" version of the album has an explicitly science-fictional story and a cool Logan's Run sort of retrofuturist aesthetic, all while incorporating the music videos for the songs. Great stuff!  Let's give a Hugo to something a little different, I say.

1. Dirty Computer, written by Janelle Monáe and Chuck Lightning, directed by Andrew Donoho and Chuck Lightning (Wondaland Arts Society / Bad Boy Records / Atlantic Records)

2. The Good Place: “Janet(s),” written by Josh Siegal & Dylan Morgan, directed by Morgan Sackett (NBC)

3.  The Expanse: “Abaddon’s Gate,” written by Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck and Naren Shankar, directed by Simon Cellan Jones (Penguin in a Parka / Alcon Entertainment)

4. The Good Place: “Jeremy Bearimy,” written by Megan Amram, directed by Trent O’Donnell (NBC)

Not on my ballot (sorry, Doctor):

Doctor Who: “Demons of the Punjab,” written by Vinay Patel, directed by Jamie Childs (BBC)

Doctor Who: “Rosa,” written by Malorie Blackman and Chris Chibnall, directed by Mark Tonderai (BBC)

Best Professional Artist

I lack the vocabulary needed to discuss art with any level of erudition or detail, so I'll say that these artists are ranked by whose work struck my fancy the most.  These are all incredibly talented artists who I am probably not worthy to judge.  Also, John Picacio did the design for the Worldcon t-shirt last year, so I wear his art sometimes.

1. John Picacio

2. Yuko Shimizu

3. Charles Vess

4. Jaime Jones

5. Galen Dara

6. Victo Ngai


Best Semiprozine

A semiprozine is, well, I never remember what that means, but if you really want to know, it says on the Hugo website.  Since Fireside published two of my favorite short stories this year, I feel good about giving them the #1 spot.  I am less familiar with FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, but I'm impressed with what's in their packet and look forward to more great things from a magazine that definitely needs to exist (I loved the poem about the android from Janelle Monáe's albums!).  Uncanny is another good one that I always enjoy.  Strange Horizons is probably the most international in focus.  All the semiprozines look like they're doing good work, so I'd be happy to see any of them win.

1. Fireside Magazine, edited by Julia Rios, managing editor Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, copyeditor Chelle Parker, social coordinator Meg Frank, special features editor Tanya DePass, founding editor Brian White, publisher and art director Pablo Defendini

2. FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, executive editors Troy L. Wiggins and DaVaun Sanders, editors L.D. Lewis, Brandon O’Brien, Kaleb Russell, Danny Lore, and Brent Lambert

3. Uncanny Magazine, publishers/editors-in-chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, managing editor Michi Trota, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky, Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction Special Issue editors-in-chief Elsa Sjunneson-Henry and Dominik Parisien

4. . Strange Horizons, edited by Jane Crowley, Kate Dollarhyde, Vanessa Rose Phin, Vajra Chandrasekera, Romie Stott, Maureen Kincaid Speller, and the Strange Horizons Staff

5. Shimmer, publisher Beth Wodzinski, senior editor E. Catherine Tobler

6. Beneath Ceaseless Skies, editor-in-chief and publisher Scott H. Andrews

Best Fanzine

There are a lot of repeats from previous years, but, wait, what's this?  No File 770?  No Mike Glyer in the Fan Writer category?  I thought I remembered something about that, and sure enough, he asked not to be nominated any more to give more other people a chance.  So here are my File 770-less rankings.

1. nerds of a feather, flock together, editors Joe Sherry, Vance Kotrla and The G

2. Galactic Journey, founder Gideon Marcus, editor Janice Marcus

3. Lady Business, editors Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay & Susan

4. Rocket Stack Rank, editors Greg Hullender and Eric Wong

5. Quick Sip Reviews, editor Charles Payseur

6. Journey Planet, edited by Team Journey Planet

Best Fan Writer

Is there a nearby possibly world in which I would ever be a Hugo finalist in the category?  Does possible world semantics actually make any sense?  Anyway, these finalists are all pretty great here in the actual world.

1. Bogi Takács

2. Elsa Sjunneson-Henry

3. James Davis Nicoll

4. Charles Payseur

5. Alasdair Stuart

6. Foz Meadows

Best Fan Artist

More art!  From fans!  Even some jewelry!  And some calligraphy inspired by Neal Stephenson's Anathem!

1. Grace P. Fong

2. Ariela Housman

3. Sara Felix

4. Likhain (Mia Sereno)

5. Spring Schoenhuth

6. Meg Frank

Best Art Book

A new category!  From the Hugo website: "Under the WSFS Constitution every Worldcon has the right to add one category to the Hugo Awards for that year only. Dublin 2019 has chosen to use this right to create an award for an art book."

1. The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, illustrated by Charles Vess, written by Ursula K. Le Guin (Saga Press /Gollancz)

2. Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History, by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, Sam Witwer (Ten Speed Press)

3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – The Art of the Movie, by Ramin Zahed (Titan Books)

4. Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, ed. Catherine McIlwaine (Bodleian Library)

5. Daydreamer’s Journey: The Art of Julie Dillon, by Julie Dillon (self-published)

6. Spectrum 25: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, ed. John Fleskes (Flesk Publications)

So there you have it!  There's a chance I might change my mind and vote in more categories by 11:59pm US Pacific time, but this is probably pretty much my 2019 Hugo ballot. Unfortunately I won't be in Dublin to see how it all plays out at the Hugo Award Ceremony, but I will be eagerly awaiting the news online.  Wait until next year when we'll be seeing 2020!