The winners of the 56th Annual Nebula Awards were announced in a virtual ceremony on June 5th hosted by Toastmaster Aydrea Walden. The evening celebrated both the best works of 2020, and the cumulative works of Nalo Hopkinson, who was recognized as the 37th SFWA Damon Knight Grand Master. Additionally, posthumous tributes were paid to authors Rachel Caine and Ben Bova, both of whom passed away in 2020.
See the complete list of 2020 Nebula Award Winners below!
2020 Nebula Award for Best Novel
Network Effect
The first full-length novel in the beloved Murderbot Diaries series, Network Effect follows the titular robot on a mission to save his favorite humans. Wells previously won the Best Novella Nebula in 2018 for All Systems Red.
Nominees:
- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
- The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia-Moreno Garcia
- The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
- Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
- Network Effect by Martha Wells
2020 Nebula Award for Best Novella
Ring Shout
Clark previously won the 2018 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, for his work "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington."
Clark's acclaimed novella Ring Shout follows a group of resistance fighters taking down the literal and figurative demons within the Ku Klux Klan. FIYAH praised Clark's novella as "a skillful feat of establishing distinctive characters, fleshed-out relationships, multiple set pieces, and exploration of racism and hate in the world, without feeling rushed."
Nominees:
- “Tower of Mud and Straw,” Yaroslav Barsukov (Metaphorosis)
- Finna, Nino Cipri (Tordotcom Publishing)
- Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom Publishing)
- “Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon,” Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo)
- The Four Profound Weaves, R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)
- Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom Publishing)
2020 Nebula Award for Best Novelette
Two Truths and a Lie
Stella doesn't remember the eerie, public broadcast TV show she and the other neighborhood kids appeared on years ago. Why has she forgotten, when others from her hometown can't?
Pinsker previously won the 2019 Best Novel Nebula Award for A Song for a New Day.
Nominees:
- “Stepsister,” Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20)
- “The Pill,” Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
- “Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super,” A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20)
- “Two Truths and a Lie,” Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
- “Where You Linger,” Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20)
- “Shadow Prisons,” Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as “The Shadow Prison Experiment,” “Shadow Prisons of the Mind,” and “The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma,” Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
2019 Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book
A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking
A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking is a cozy mystery about sentient gingerbread men, a body in a bakery, and a 14-year-old searching for her place in the world. NPR Books writes that T. Kingfisher's award-winner is populated with "instantly memorable characters, and inhuman creatures capable of inspiring awe and wonder."
Nominees:
- Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
- Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
- A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
- A Game of Fox & Squirrels, Jenn Reese (Holt)
- Star Daughter, Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)
See the full list of nominees and winners below (winners in bold)!
Short Story
- “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse,” Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
- “Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math,” Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20)
- “A Guide for Working Breeds,” Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
- “The Eight-Thousanders,” Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20)
- “My Country Is a Ghost,” Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
- “Open House on Haunted Hill,” John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)
Game Writing
- Blaseball, Stephen Bell, Joel Clark, Sam Rosenthal (The Game Band)
- Hades, Greg Kasavin (Supergiant)
- Kentucky Route Zero, Jake Elliott (Cardboard Computer)
- The Luminous Underground, Phoebe Barton (Choice of Games)
- Scents & Semiosis, Sam Kabo Ashwell, Cat Manning, Caleb Wilson, Yoon Ha Lee (Self)
- Spiritfarer, Nicolas Guérin, Maxime Monast, Alex Tommi-Morin (Thunder Lotus Games)
The Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Drama Presentation
- Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Christina Hodson (Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Entertainment)
- The Expanse: “Gaugamela,” Dan Nowak (Amazon)
- The Good Place: “Whenever You’re Ready,” Michael Schur (NBC)
- Lovecraft Country Season 1, Misha Green, Shannon Houston, Kevin Lau, Wes Taylor, Ihuoma Ofordire, Jonathan I. Kidd, Sonya Winton-Odamtten (HBO Max)
- The Mandalorian: “The Tragedy,” Jon Favreau (Disney+)
- The Old Guard, Greg Rucka (Netflix)
Additional awards and honors presented:
THE SFWA DAMON KNIGHT MEMORIAL GRAND MASTER AWARD
Nalo Hopkinson
THE KATE WILHELM SOLSTICE AWARD
Jarvis Sheffield
Rachel Caine (posthumous)
THE KEVIN J. O’DONNELL, JR. SERVICE TO SFWA AWARD
Connie Willis
[via sfwa.org]
