Nebula Award Winners for Best Short Story

The Nebula Awards seem to have saved up all of their controversies and shunted them into the Best Short Story category, an award that honors works of science fiction and fantasy of less than 7,500 words in length. This is the only Nebula Award category in which a "No Award" result has occurred, an event that took place in 1971 when the voters decided no short story published that year was worthy of the trophy.

A more substantive controversy took place in 1982, when Lisa Tuttle withdrew her winning story The Bone Flute from the competition in protest over George Guthridge's alleged overt campaigning in favor of his story The Quiet.

1966: "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison
1967: The Secret Place by Richard McKenna
1968: Aye, and Gomorrah. . . by Samuel R. Delany
1969: The Planners by Kate Wilhelm
1970: Passengers by Robert Silverberg
1971: No Award
1972: Good News from the Vatican by Robert Silverberg
1973: When It Changed by Joanna Russ
1974: Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death by James Tiptree, Jr.
1975: The Day Before the Revolution by Ursula K. Le Guin
1976: Catch That Zeppelin! by Fritz Leiber
1977: A Crowd of Shadows by Charles L. Grant
1978: Jeffty Is Five by Harlan Ellison
1979: Stone by Edward Bryant
1980: giANTS by Edward Bryant
1981: Grotto of the Dancing Deer by Clifford D. Simak
1982: The Bone Flute by Lisa Tuttle [award declined]
1983: A Letter from the Clearys by Connie Willis
1984: The Peacemaker by Gardner Dozois
1985: Morning Child by Gardner Dozois
1986: Out of All Them Bright Stars by Nancy Kress
1987: Tangents by Greg Bear
1988: Forever Yours, Anna by Kate Wilhelm
1989: Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge by James Morrow
1990: Ripples in the Dirac Sea by Geoffrey A. Landis
1991: Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson
1992: Ma Qui by Alan Brennert
1993: Even the Queen by Connie Willis
1994: Graves by Joe Haldeman
1995: A Defense of the Social Contracts by Martha Soukup
1996: Death and the Librarian by Esther M. Friesner
1997: A Birthday by Esther M. Friesner
1998: Sister Emily's Lightship by Jane Yolen
1999: Thirteen Ways to Water by Bruce Holland Rogers
2000: The Cost of Doing Business by Leslie What
2001: macs by Terry Bisson
2002: The Cure for Everything by Severna Park
2003: Creature by Carol Emshwiller
2004: What I Didn't See by Karen Joy Fowler
2005: Coming to Terms by Eileen Gunn
2006: I Live With You by Carol Emshwiller
2007: Echo by Elizabeth Hand
2008: Always by Karen Joy Fowler
2009: Trophy Wives by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
2010: Spar by Kij Johnson
2011: (tie) Ponies by Kij Johnson
          (tie) How Interesting: A Tiny Man by Harlan Ellison
2012: The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
2013: Immersion by Aliette de Bodard

2014: If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky (reviewed in 2014 Hugo Voting - Best Short Story)

2015: Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon (reviewed in 2015 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)

2016: Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong
2017: Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar
2018: Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience^TM by Rebecca Roanhorse
2019: The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by Phenderson Djèlí Clark
2020: TBD

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