Comments: In 1975, the SFWA changed the rules relating to Nebula Award nominations very slightly, limiting the number of finalists on the ballot to three in most categories. Starting in this year, a jury would select the three finalists from the preliminary ballot, and then the SFWA membership would vote on the overall winner. As a result, getting on the final ballot for the Nebula Awards in this year was almost as difficult as actually winning the award.
As to the awards themselves, Ursula K. Le Guin became the first author to win the Nebula Award for Best Novel twice with The Dispossessed, a brilliant book that is one of the many reasons I love her writing so much. Not only that, Le Guin also won the Best Short Story Nebula for The Day Before the Revolution, pulling off the impressive feat of winning two Nebulas in one year. Given his dominance of the 1970s thus far, it should come as no surprise that Robert Silverberg won the Best Novella Nebula for Born with the Dead. In fact, the only unusual Nebula winner this year was Woody Allen, who won for his screenplay for the movie Sleeper.
Best Novel
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Other Nominees:
334 by Thomas M. Disch
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
The Godwhale by T.J. Bass
Best Novella
Born with the Dead by Robert Silverberg
Other Nominees:
On the Street of the Serpents by Michael Bishop
A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin (reviewed in The Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Book 2)
Best Novelette
If the Stars Are Gods by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford
Other Nominees:
The Rest Is Silence by Charles L. Grant
Twilla by Tom Reamy
Best Short Story
The Day Before the Revolution by Ursula K. Le Guin
Other Nominees:
After King Kong Fell by Philip José Farmer
The Engine at Heartspring's Center by Roger ZelaznyBest Dramatic Presentation
Sleeper by Woody Allen
Other Nominees:
Fantastic Planet screenplay by René Laloux and Roland Topor; based on work by Stefan Wul
Frankenstein: The True Story teleplay by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy; based on the novel by Mary Shelley
Go to previous year's nominees: 1974
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1976
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