Monday, September 4, 1989

1989 Hugo Award Nominees

Location: Noreascon III in Boston, Massachusetts.

Comments: 1989 was a year of some controversy for the Hugo Awards. Two nominations - one for Best Novel for The Guardsman by P.J. Beese and Todd Cameron Hamilton, and one for Best Professional Artist for Todd Cameron Hamilton - were removed from the ballot due to apparent irregularities in the nominating process. The "irregularity" was bloc voting on the part of some enthusiastic New York area fans. Although I am generally in favor of maintaining the integrity of the Hugo Awards, they are a fan voted award. Given that reality, it seems somewhat hypocritical to me for the Hugo committee to remove a particular nomination because they don't like the way a group of fans decided to exercise their vote. Either the Hugo Awards are fan voted, or they aren't. In 1989, it seems, at least to a certain extent they were not.

The Guardsman had no realistic chance of winning the Best Novel award anyway, so removing it seems pointless and meddlesome. And if it had been left on the ballot and had won, then those who nominated it would have been vindicated, which means the only reason it was removed was because the Hugo committee had a fit of pique and decided to eliminate a novel just on the off-chance that they would look bad because some fans got their way. In the end, the Hugo Award went to C.J. Cherry's Cyteen, which was a fine winner, although I have always been partial to Lois McMaster Bujold's Falling Free. But the whole Guardsman fracas, and the pettiness of removing it from the ballot just made this year's Hugo committee look bad.

Best Novel

Winner:
Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh

Other Nominees:
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Guardsman by P.J. Beese and Todd Cameron Hamilton [nomination deleted]
Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card

Best Novella

Winner:
The Last of the Winnebagos by Connie Willis

Other Nominees:
The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians by Bradley Denton
Journals of the Plague Years by Norman Spinrad
The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter by Lucius Shepard
Surfacing by Walter Jon Williams

Best Novelette

Winner:
Schrödinger's Kitten by George Alec Effinger

Other Nominees:
Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance? by Howard Waldrop
The Function of Dream Sleep by Harlan Ellison
Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus by Neal Barrett, Jr.
Peaches for Mad Molly by Steven Gould

Best Short Story

Winner:
Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick

Other Nominees:
The Fort Moxie Branch by Jack McDevitt
The Giving Plague by David Brin
Our Neural Chernobyl by Bruce Sterling
Ripples in the Dirac Sea by Geoffrey A. Landis
Stable Strategies for Middle Management by Eileen Gunn

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Work

Winner:
The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village 1957-1965 by Samuel R. Delany

Other Nominees:
A Biographical Dictionary of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists by Robert Weinberg
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen W. Hawking [unclear whether this was ineligible or withdrawn]
First Maitz by Don Maitz
The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by James E. Gunn
Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror: 1987 by Charles N. Brown and William G. Contento

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Other Nominees:
Alien Nation
Beetlejuice
Big
Willow

Best Professional Editor

Winner:
Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:
Edward L. Ferman
David G. Hartwell
Charles C. Ryan
Stanley Schmidt

Best Professional Artist

Winner:
Michael Whelan

Other Nominees:
Thomas Canty
David A. Cherry
Bob Eggleton
Todd Cameron Hamilton [nomination deleted]
Don Maitz

Best Semi-Prozine

Winner:
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown

Other Nominees:
Aboriginal SF edited by Charles C. Ryan [ineligible]
Interzone edited by David Pringle and Simon Ounsley
The New York Review of Science Fiction edited by David G. Hartwell, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Susan Palwick, and Kathryn Cramer
Science Fiction Chronicle edited by Andrew I. Porter
Thrust edited by D. Douglas Fratz

Best Fanzine

Winner:
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer

Other Nominees:
FOSFAX edited by Timothy Lane
Lan's Lantern edited by George "Lan" Laskowski
Niekas edited by Edmund R. Meskys, Mike Bastraw, and Anne Braude
OtherRealms edited by Chuq Von Rospach

Best Fan Writer

Winner:
Dave Langford

Other Nominees:
Avedon Carol
Mike Glyer
Arthur D. Hlavaty
Guy H. Lillian, III
Chuq Von Rospach

Best Fan Artist

Winner:
(tie) Brad W. Foster
(tie) Diana Gallagher Wu

Other Nominees:
Teddy Harvia
Merle Insinga
Stu Shiffman
Taral Wayne

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Winner:
Michaela Roessner

Other Nominees:
P.J. Beese and Todd Cameron Hamilton
Christopher Hinz
Elizabeth Moon [ineligible]
Daniel Keys Moran [ineligible]
Melanie Rawn
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
William Sanders
Delia Sherman

What Are the Hugo Awards?

Go to previous year's nominees: 1988
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1990

1989 Hugo Longlist     Book Award Reviews     Home