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The Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine is given each year to a
periodical
A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also examples ...
publication related to science fiction or fantasy that meets several criteria having to do with the number of issues published and who, if anyone, receives payment.
The award was first presented in 1984, and has been given annually since, though the qualifying criteria have changed. Awards were once also given out for professional magazines in the
professional magazine A professional magazine or professional journal is a periodical published by the governing body of a profession."Professional Magazines or Journals" iProfessional/Trade Journals Piedmont College, Library. The standard of quality of such a periodical ...
category, and are still awarded for fan magazines in the
fanzine
A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...
category.
In addition to the regular Hugo awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro Hugos", have been available to be awarded for years 50, 75, or 100 years prior in which no awards were given.
To date, Retro Hugo awards have been awarded for 1939, 1941, 1943–1946, 1951, and 1954, but for each of those years, the Semiprozine category failed to receive enough nominating votes to form a ballot.
At the 2008 business meeting, an amendment to the World Science Fiction Society's Constitution was passed that would have removed the Semiprozine category. The vote to ratify this amendment was held the following year; the ratification failed and the category remained. Instead, a committee was formed to recommend improvements to the category and related categories.
History of winners and nominees
During the 39 nomination years, 39 magazines have been nominated. Of these, only 9 magazines run by 31 editors have won. ''
Locus
Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to:
Entertainment
* Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front
* ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine
** ''Locus Award' ...
'' won 22 times and was nominated every year until a rules change in 2012 made it ineligible for the category. ''
Uncanny Magazine
''Uncanny Magazine'' is an American science fiction and fantasy online magazine, edited and published by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, based in Urbana, Illinois. Its mascot is a space unicorn.
The editors-in-chief, who originally ...
'' has won 6 times out of 7 nominations, including 5 times in a row in 2016–2020, while ''Science Fiction Chronicle'', ''
Clarkesworld Magazine
''Clarkesworld Magazine'' (ISSN 1937-7843) is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It released its first issue October 1, 2006 and has maintained a regular monthly schedule since, publishing fiction by authors such as Elizabe ...
'', and ''
Lightspeed'' are the only other magazines to win more than once, with 2 awards out of 18 nominations, 3 out of 4, and 2 out of 5, respectively. ''Ansible'' has won 1 out of 7 nominations, ''
Interzone'' has won 1 out of 28, and ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, prin ...
'' and ''
FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction'' have each won 1 out of 4 nominations. As editor of ''Locus''
Charles N. Brown won 21 of 27 nominations, though he shared 5 of those awards with Kirsten Gong-Wong, 3 with Liza Groen Trombi and 2 with Jennifer A. Hall; as ''Locus'' editor Liza Groen Trombi won 1 shared with Kirsten Gong-Wong. ''Uncanny''s awards were primarily earned by a team of 5 people,
Lynne M. Thomas,
Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, Erika Ensign, and Steven Schapansky. The sole editor for ''Chronicle''s awards was
Andrew I. Porter, while
David Pringle
David Pringle (born 1 March 1950) is a Scottish science fiction editor and critic.
Pringle served as the editor of ''Foundation'', an academic journal, from 1980 to 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective whic ...
earned ''Interzone''s, and
Ann VanderMeer
Ann VanderMeer (née Kennedy) is an American publisher and editor, and the second female editor of the horror magazine '' Weird Tales''. She is the founder of Buzzcity Press.
Work from her press and related periodicals has won the British Fantas ...
and
Stephen H. Segal
Stephen H. Segal is a Hugo Award-winning American editor, author, journalist and publication designer.
Editing career
Segal began his editorial career as a journalist at ''In Pittsburgh Weekly'' and WQED's ''Pittsburgh Magazine''. In 2006, he j ...
were the editors for ''Weird Tales''s victory. ''Lightspeed''s wins were under
John Joseph Adams
John Joseph Adams (born 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy editor, critic, and publisher.
Career Editor
Adams worked as Assistant Editor at ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' from May 2001 to December 2009. In January 20 ...
, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki, with Wendy N. Wagner and Christie Yant added for the second win, while
David Langford
David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'', and holds the all-time record for most ...
was the editor when ''Ansible'' was awarded. ''Clarkesworld Magazine''s winning years were under
Neil Clarke,
Sean Wallace
Sean Wallace (born January 1, 1976) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologist, editor, and publisher best known for founding the publishing house Prime Books and for co-editing three magazines, '' Clarkesworld Magazine'', '' ...
, and Kate Baker, with 2 of the three also under
Cheryl Morgan
Cheryl Morgan is a British science fiction critic and publisher. She has won Hugo Awards for her work on the fanzine ''Emerald City'' from 1995 to 2006, and as non-fiction editor of ''Clarkesworld'' magazine from 2009 to 2011. Morgan was the f ...
and the other under Jason Heller. ''FIYAH''s win was under Troy L. Wiggins, DaVaun Sanders, Eboni Dunbar, Brandon O'Brien, Brent Lambert, and L. D. Lewis. ''
The New York Review of Science Fiction
''The New York Review of Science Fiction'' is a monthly literary magazine of science fiction that was established in 1988. It includes works of science fiction criticism, essays, and in-depth critical reviews of new works of fiction and scholarsh ...
'' has received the most number of nominations without ever winning at 22, under the helm of
David G. Hartwell,
Kathryn Cramer
Kathryn Elizabeth Cramer (born April 16, 1962) is an American science fiction writer, editor, and literary critic.
Early years
Kathryn Cramer is the daughter of physicist John G. Cramer. She grew up in Seattle and graduated from Columbia Univ ...
, Kevin J. Maroney, and 8 other editors.
The Hugo Award nomination process
Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual
World Science Fiction Convention
Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during ...
(Worldcon). The selection process is defined in the World Science Fiction Society Constitution as
instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the Un ...
among six nominees, or more in the case of a tie. The works on the ballot are the ones nominated by members that year, ranked according to a complex algorithm, with no limit on the number of works that can be nominated. The 1953 through 1956 and 1958 awards did not include any recognition of runner-up magazines, but since 1959 all six candidates were recorded.
Initial nominations are made by members in the first months of each year, while voters vote on the ballot of six nominations in the middle of the year, with exact timing varying from year to year.
Prior to 2017, the final ballot consisted of five works; it was changed that year to six, with each initial nominator limited to five nominations.
Winners and nominees
In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the work was first published. Each date links to the "year in literature" article corresponding with when the work was eligible. Entries with a blue background won the award for that year; those with a white background are the other nominees on the short-list. Note that ''Thrust'' was renamed to ''Quantum'' and was nominated under both names; no other nominated magazine has undergone a name change during the period the award has been active.
* Winners and joint winners
Notes
References
External links
Hugo Award official site
{{featured list
Semiprozine
Literary awards for magazines
Awards established in 1984