The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have just announced the finalists for the 2020 Nebula Awards. The finalists were announced this evening in a presentation hosted by SFWA President Mary Robinette Kowal and featuring brief readings from each work.
This year’s awards will be presented June 5th, 2021, in a virtual ceremony hosted by writer and performer Aydrea Walden. The awards ceremony takes place during the 2021 Nebula Conference Online, June 4–6, 2021, which is open to SFWA members and nonmembers.
Congratulations to all the finalists! You can find the complete list below.
2020 Nebula Award Finalists
Novel
- Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
- The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
- Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
- The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
- Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
- Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom Publishing)
Novella
- “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)
Novelette
- “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)
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)
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
- 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)
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)
I don’t see the Invisible Life of Addie LaRue on here. My disappointment knows no bounds.
This year’s competition is very tight!!!
Diddo on Addie La Rue. Possibly the best novel of this decade and will likely be considered top 5 book by a woman author as well.
Lovecraft Country got nominated for an entire season, while other shows for single episodes? It’s first season was wildly uneven, with some good episodes, one or two very good, but also some clunkers, and one or two showing very bad judgment.
I’d probably go with The Expanse in this category.
I’ve only read Piranesi in the novel category, but would be happy if it won. I started the new Wells, but didn’t finish, even though I’m a fan of the novellas. Maybe Murderbot is better at shorter lengths.
As far as the category nominating all women, the Nebulas have been friendly to female writers for a long time (three decades?). See the reign of Ms. Bujold as an example, though the Hugo has awarded her more wins.
So so excited to see Network Effect on this list!! Congratulations, Martha Wells and Tor! My Fugitive Telemetry preorder is in. Please, more Murderbot.
Plenty of good picks here, but wow no Addie, no Bone Shards Daughter, no Once and Future Witches, no Hench, no Space Between Worlds, no Vanished Birds… and to be fair, it was a solid year for new works so it had to be a tough pick… just sad to see things I just felt were “okay” outshine some truly exciting stuff here. I’m also a bit shocked Piranesi isn’t considered a novella being only 250 pages.