SFWA recently announced the nominees for the 2021 Nebula Award, and the lists look very exciting.
Susanna Clarke and N.K. Jemisin who’ve published some of the best books I’ve read in recent years are both nominated in the best novel category.
And for once only half the nominees in the novella category were published at Tor.com. Not that I have anything against Tor.com. They’re an excellent e-zine, but when it comes to Hugo and Nebula awards, they’ve had something of a monopoly on novella nominations in recent years, so this is a welcome change.
Some of my abolute favourite short story writers, Sarah Pinsker and Caroline M. Yoachim, are nominated in the best novelette category, as is A.T. Greenblat whose stories I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed. And looking at the nominees for best novelette and short story I’m once again reminded that I haven’t read nearly enough Uncanny lately (even though I loved nearly everything I’ve read in the magazine).
Speaking of short stories, some well deserved love was send towards Diabolical Plots and Daily Science Fiction, who don’t get nearly as many award nominations as they deserve. I’m especially impressed that Aimee Picchi got a nomination with a flash fiction piece, which has to compete with stories several times its length. The only other time I can remember that happening was when Rachel Swirsky’s If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love won the 2015 Nebulas. It’s well deserved, though. Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math is a great read.
Toby Backman 