Friday, January 2, 1970

1969 Nebula Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: I was born in 1969, and I'm pleased to say that in this the fourth year of the Nebula Awards, women began seriously making their mark in the world of science fiction. After being nominated in 1968, both Anne McCaffrey and Kate Wilhelm followed up in 1969 by winning Nebula Awards. Not only that, Joanna Russ secured a nomination for her novel Picnic on Paradise. Sadly, despite this strong performance, these were the only three Nebula nominations garnered by women in 1969. As with the Hugo Awards, it seemed that a woman had to be truly outstanding just to get nominated, leading to the odd distribution that resulted in a reasonable number of female Nebula winners, but relatively few Nebula nominees.

In a kind of quirky development that is probably only of interest to fans of obscure trivia like me, the science fiction writer H.H. Hollis was nominated for two Nebula nominations in 1969. He didn't win for either of his nominated stories, but the interesting thing is that these were the only two nominations he received in his entire writing career for any kind of writing award.

Best Novel

Winner:
Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin

Other Nominees:
Black Easter by James Blish
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
The Masks of Time by Robert Silverberg
Past Master by R.A. Lafferty
Picnic on Paradise by Joanna Russ
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

Best Novella

Winner:
Dragonrider by Anne McCaffrey

Other Nominees:
The Day Before Forever by Keith Laumer
Hawk Among the Sparrows by Dean McLaughlin
Lines of Power by Samuel R. Delany

Best Novelette

Winner:
Mother to the World by Richard Wilson

Other Nominees:
Final War by K.M. O'Donnell
The Guerrilla Trees by H.H. Hollis
The Listeners by James E. Gunn
Once There Was a Giant by Keith Laumer
The Sharing of Flesh by Poul Anderson (reviewed in More Stories from the Hugo Winners, Volume II)
Total Environment by Brian W. Aldiss

Best Short Story

Winner:
The Planners by Kate Wilhelm

Other Nominees:
The Dance of the Changer and the Three by Terry Carr
Idiot's Mate by Robert Taylor
Kyrie by Poul Anderson
Masks by Damon Knight
Sword Game by H.H. Hollis

Go to previous year's nominees: 1968
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1970

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