The Hugo Awards are drawing criticism after it was revealed that some authors were ruled ineligible for the science fiction and fantasy prizes last year, Gizmodo reports.
The most recent Hugos were awarded last October at the World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu, China. On Jan. 20, the website for the awards posted a link to newly released data on the nomination process.
The following day, author Xiran Jay Zhao posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “wait wait wait I just found out RF Kuang and I were deliberately excluded from the Hugo Awards in Chengdu last year for unspecified reasons despite having the votes to be finalists in our categories??” The post included a screenshot from the nomination data, showing Zhao’s name and Kuang’s Nebula Award– and Locus Award–winning novel Babel both accompanied by an asterisk that indicated they were “not eligible.”
It was not explained why Zhao and Kuang were ruled ineligible.
On the Hugo Awards website, a statement read in part, “Each year’s Awards are administered by that year’s World Science Fiction Convention, which is solely responsible for the conduct of that year’s Awards. If you send questions regarding the 2023 Hugo Awards to us, we can only forward them to the current year’s Hugo Award Administrators.”
Kuang responded to the snub on Instagram, writing, “I assume this was a matter of undesirability rather than ineligibility. Excluding ‘undesirable’ work is not only embarrassing for all involved parties, but renders the entire process and organization illegitimate. Pity.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
