I don't believe that I've ever submitted a full slate of Hugo nominations in the fiction categories before. I'm not totally certain that I will again. My own personal reading pace is very much geared towards novels; in past years, award nominations have determined my short fiction reading rather than vice versa. But this year is, of course, different, and I suspect I'm not the only person that resolved to nominate more this time.

I haven't kept strict count, but I reckon I've read about 250 pieces of short fiction in this process, and I know I've only scratched the surface. I found it quite exhausting to keep track, even though I knew that I was deliberately reading with a view to nominating. For next year, I may try a different approach; and in any case I won't blog about it.

I'm still deciding about the Best Novel category, and will read a couple more before the deadline, but I've pretty much made my mind up on all the others - not planning to read anything more in other categories apart from the two BSFA nominees (one in Short Fiction, one in Non-Fiction) that I have not yet read; if they change my nomination, I shall say so. (Also still looking for a fifth nominee in Best Graphic Story.)

Obviously I think all the below are wonderful and will be pleased if others share my tastes. I don't think that they will. In particular I can almost now predict that Naomi Kritzer's "Cat Pictures Please" will win the Best Short Story award; it is exactly the kind of story that Hugo voters tend to like. It didn't especially grab me, but I may end up voting for it anyway depending on what else makes the final ballot.

There are two items on my Best Related Work list that were not on my BSFA ballot. First, it had not occurred to me until the last couple of days that Phil Sandifer's magisterial TARDIS Eruditorum blog finished in early 2015 and is therefore eligible for nomination as a whole. I think it's an extraordinary achievement of criticism and commentary which richly deserves recognition.

Second, my one concession to recognising the Puppy affair is to nominate Matthew David Surridge's 16,000-word explanation of why he declined nomination on the Sad Puppies slate. Despite being a relative outsider to Worldcon, he basically nailed the weaknesses of the Puppy case at a level of forensic detail and balanced polemic that no later commentator was able to match (including George R.R. Martin, Eric Flint, Camestros Felaptron, Jim Hines and all the others).

I'm not revealing my votes in the various Fan and Professional categories. I will say that I share the widely held dissatisfaction with the dearth of information available to the lay reader wanting to be properly informed about the Best Editor (Long Form) category, and I also found it very difficult to know whether particular artists are fans or professionals.

And yeah, my Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) nominations are a little one-sided. So what?

(Most of my) Hugo nominations for 2016

Novellas
Aliette de Bodard, "Citadel of Weeping Pearls" (Asimov's, Oct/Nov 2015)
Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric's Demon (Spectrum)
Paul Cornell, Witches of Lychford
Eugene Fischer, "The New Mother" (Asimov's, Apr/May 2015)
Lisa Shapter, A Day In Deep Freeze (Aqueduct Press)

Novelette
Eneasz Brodski, "Red Legacy" (Asimov's, Feb 2015)
Paul Evanby, "Utrechtenaar" (1, 2 - Strange Horizons, Jun 2015
Naomi Kritzer, "So Much Cooking" (Clarkesworld, Nov 2015)
Sarah Pinsker, "Our Lady of the Open Road" (Asimov's, Jun 2015)
Alan Smale, “English Wildlife” (Asimov's, Oct/Nov 2015)

Short Stories
Karl Bunker, "Caisson" (Asimov's, Aug 2015)
Nino Cipri, "The Shape of My Name" (Tor.com, Mar 2015)
Amal El-Mohtar, "Madeleine" (Lightspeed Magazine, Jun 2015)
Hao Jingfang, tr Carmen Yiling Yan, "Summer at Grandma's House" (Clarkesworld, Oct 2015)
Kelly Robson, "The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill" (Clarkesworld, Feb 2015)

Best Related Work
Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien, eds. Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie A. Donovan
Letters to Tiptree, eds Alissa Krasnostein and Alexandra Pierce
Companion Piece: Women Celebrate the Humans, Aliens and Tin Dogs of Doctor Who, eds. L.M. Myles and Liz Barr
TARDIS Eruditorum, by Philip Sandifer - the entire blog, which finished in February 2015
A Detailed Explanation, by Matthew David Surridge

Best Graphic Story
Sex Criminals, Vol. 2: Two Worlds, One Cop, Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
The Sculptor, Scott McCloud
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, Sydney Padua
Saga vol 5, Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
Marvel's Jessica Jones (Season 1)
The Martian
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)
Doctor Who: Face The Raven
Doctor Who: The Girl Who Died
Doctor Who: Heaven Sent
Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song
Doctor Who: The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion


Retro-Hugo nominations for 1941

Best Novel
Twice in Time, Manly Wade Wellman
The Last Man, aka No Other Man, Alfred Noyes
Captain Future and the Space Emperor, Edmond Hamilton
Kallocain, Karin Boye
The Ill-Made Knight, T.H. White

Best Novella
The Mound, H.P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop
If This Goes On, Robert A. Heinlein
Fattypuffs and Thinifers, Andre Maurois
The Invention of Morel, Adolfo Bioy Casares
But Without Horns, Norvell Page

Best Novelette
It, Theodore Sturgeon
New York Fights the Termanites, Bertrand L. Shurtleff
Into the Darkness, Ross Rocklynne
Farewell to the Master, Harry Bates
The Sea Thing, A.E. van Vogt

Best Short Story
John Duffy's Brother , Flann O'Brien
The Stellar Legion, Leigh Brackett
The Piper, Ray Bradbury (as Ron Reynolds)
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, Jorge Luís Borges
Quietus, Ross Rocklynne

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
Pinocchio
The Thief of Bagdad
Fantasia

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)
Weltraumschiff 1 startet

Best Professional Editor (Short Form)
Raymond A. Palmer
Mort Weisinger
Frederik Pohl

Best Professional Artist
Virgil Finlay
Margaret Brundage
Hubert Rogers

Deadline is 31 March; we'll see what comes out in the wash.