Hugo nominations are open!
Seattle Worldcon 2025 is delighted to announce that nominations are now open for the 2025 Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and Astounding Award for Best New Writer.
The nomination period will close on March 14th, 2025, 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7), for the best works and creators of 2024. Seattle Worldcon 2025 will administer the eighteen Hugo Award categories specified in the WSFS Constitution. Seattle Worldcon 2025 will also administer the ballots for the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, presented by the World Science Fiction Society, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, presented by Dell Magazines. Seattle will also be administering a Special Category this year for Best Poem.
Nominations can be submitted by all individuals holding WSFS Memberships in either the 2024 (Glasgow) or 2025 (Seattle) Worldcons as of 11:59 p.m. Seattle time on January 31, 2025.
More information about the Hugo Awards can be found on the Seattle Worldcon 2025 website.
We have also provided a PDF version of the paper nominating ballot which can be downloaded by members who prefer to submit their nominations by postal mail. All ballots, whether submitted electronically or by postal mail, must be received by the deadline of March 14th, 2025, 23:59 PDT (UTC-7).
Instructions will also be sent to all eligible WSFS Members by email, using the email address associated with their membership. We encourage members to check their junk/spam/promotions folders for this email if you do not appear to have received it. Despite our best efforts, voter notification messages may be flagged as spam by some email systems.
Worldcon members who are uncertain of their status or who experience problems with the online nominating form should contact us at hugo-help@seattlein2025.org.
The Hugo Awards are fan-run, fan-given, and fan-supported. We encourage all eligible members to nominate whatever works and creators you have personally read or seen that were your favourites from 2024. The works and creators with sufficient nominations will move onto the final ballot for the 2025 Hugo Awards, which will be announced later this year after the close of nominations. At that time we will also publish the reasons for any disqualifications of potential finalists, and any withdrawals of potential finalists from the ballot.
While members of both the 2024 and 2025 Worldcons can nominate for the 2024 Awards, only members of the 2025 Worldcon are eligible to vote on the final ballot. If you are not yet a member of Seattle 2025, see our Membership Page for information about joining the convention. Any questions about the administration of the 2024 Hugo Awards should be directed to hugo-help@seattlein2025.org.
About the Hugo Awards
The Hugo Awards are the most prestigious award in the science fiction genre, honouring science fiction literature and media as well as fan activities. The Awards were first presented in 1953 and have been awarded every year since 1955 by the members of the World Science Fiction Society (Worldcon members) at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). Eligible Worldcon members are encouraged to nominate up to five works/individuals that they believe are worthy of a Hugo Award in each category. The six most popular nominees in each category then appear on the final voting ballot, with the winners being announced at a formal ceremony to be held in Seattle on the evening of Saturday, August 16th. Full voting results will be published at that time.
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Hugo Awards Information
The Hugo Award® is the leading award for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. The Hugo Awards were first presented in 1953 and have been awarded every year since 1955 by the members of the World Science Fiction Society (Worldcon members) at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). The complete list of Hugo Award winners can be found at the official Hugo Award website. The current rules for the Hugo Awards are contained in Article 3 of the WSFS Constitution.
The Hugo Awards are awarded each year by WSFS at that year’s Worldcon. Voting for the Hugo Awards takes place in two stages.
Nominations, the first stage for the Hugo Awards, opened on February 10, 2025. In order for a WSFS member to nominate works, a person must have purchased a WSFS membership before January 31, 2025, or be a member of the Glasgow Worldcon in 2024. After nominations have closed, the final ballot will be announced.
The second stage of voting is the final ballot. This stage will be open only to Seattle Worldcon 2025 members (including those who joined after January 31, 2025). In the final ballot, members choose between the finalists in each category. More information will be available closer to the voting stage.
If you have any questions about the Hugo Awards process, please contact Hugo Help.
Retro Hugos
Seattle Worldcon 2025’s vision of “Building Yesterday’s Future—For Everyone” involves looking back at the great themes of classic science fiction and fantasy to bring the best ideas forward, in an inclusive fashion that marries yesterday’s optimism with 21st century ideals. While we are developing a program track to explore genre history in depth, Seattle Worldcon 2025 will not include Retro Hugo Awards.
The Retro Hugo Awards were conceived in the 1990s to retroactively select Hugo Award winners for the years between 1939-1954 in which no Hugos were awarded. To award Retro Hugos, a Worldcon must be held 50, 75, or 100 years after the year in which the works would have theoretically been eligible. Retro Hugos have been awarded on eight occasions, most recently in 2020, although as noted by the Internet Science Fiction Database, the practice has become controversial, with the four most recent Worldcons declining to award them. An amendment was adopted at the Glasgow Worldcon to eliminate the practice going forward and passed on to Seattle for ratification.
While Seattle Worldcon is also declining to award Retro Hugos, we find looking back at the works that have brought us here incredibly valuable. We look forward to discussion of the legacy of past science fiction and fantasy by our fantastic panelists, and hope you will join in the conversation. New engagement casts these worlds and their creators in new lights, and allows us to reflect on how science fiction and fantasy can be — and has always been — used as an agent for change.
2025 Special Hugo Award
Each Worldcon may create a special Hugo Award category which is not binding on future Worldcons. The nomination and voting process for a special Hugo Award is the same as for the permanent categories.
Seattle Worldcon 2025 will be awarding a special Hugo Award for best poem in 2025. Poems must be published in the year 2024, be within the speculative, science fiction, or fantasy genres, and have a minimum of three lines.
Hugo Subcommittee
The Seattle Worldcon 2025 Committee has completely and irrevocably delegated its authority to administer the 2025 Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards to a Hugo Subcommittee consisting of Hugo Administrator Nicholas Whyte, Deputy Hugo Administrator Esther MacCallum-Stewart, WSFS Division Head Cassidy, and WSFS Deputy Division Heads Kathryn Duval and Rosemary Parks. Per section 3.13 of the WSFS Constitution, the members of the Hugo Subcommittee will therefore be ineligible for the 2025 Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards, and remain ineligible regardless of continuing membership in the subcommittee. The Hugo administrator may add to or modify the Hugo Subcommittee at his discretion without having to return to the Seattle Worldcon 2025 Committee for approval.
