| Hugo Award for Best Short Story | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | The best science fiction or fantasy story of less than 7,500 words published in the prior calendar year |
| Presented by | World Science Fiction Society |
| First awarded | 1955 |
| Most recent winner | Samantha Mills ("Rabbit Test") |
| Website | thehugoawards.org |
The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of fewer than 7,500 words; awards are also given out for pieces of longer lengths in the novelette, novella, and novel categories. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing".[1][2]
The Hugo Award for Best Short Story has been awarded annually since 1955, except in 1957. The award was titled "Best Short Fiction" rather than "Best Short Story" in 1960–1966. During this time no Novelette category was awarded and the Novella category had not yet been established; the award was defined only as a work "of less than novel length" that was not published as a stand-alone book.[3] In addition to the regular Hugo awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro Hugos", have been available to be awarded for 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro Hugos may only be awarded for years after 1939 in which no awards were originally given.[4] To date, Retro Hugo awards have been given for short stories for 1939, 1941, 1943–1946, 1951, and 1954.[5]
During the 77 nomination years, 219 authors have had works nominated; 59 of these have won, including co-authors and Retro Hugos. One translator has been noted along with the author of a story written in a language other than English: Alex Woodend, in 2024, for a translation of a work from Chinese. Harlan Ellison has received the most Hugos for Best Short Story at four, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Mike Resnick, Michael Swanwick, and Connie Willis have each won three times, and Poul Anderson, Joe Haldeman, and Ken Liu have won twice, the only other authors to win more than once. Resnick has received the most nominations at 18, while Swanwick has received 14; no other author has gotten more than 7. Michael A. Burstein, with 7, has the highest number of nominations without winning.
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