Octothorpe

167: Way More Fun Than the Actual Hugos

Octothorpe

Show Notes

John, Alison, and Liz fix the Hugo Awards once and for all. An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media. Content warnings this episode:

Letters of comment

Alison: Mike Scott (Facebook)

“How is Inventing the Renaissance an SFF-Related Work?” by Ada Palmer

Liz: Tammy Coxen (Bluesky 1, Bluesky 2) John: Heather Rose Jones (Facebook)

The Brand-New, Definitely-WSFS-Approved Hugo Award® Rosters!

Alison

Novel: Redefined to be 60,000+ words, awards to author and editor Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): Redefined to standalone works Vibes: Best thing that seems like it should be genre but isn’t New Writer: Redefined as a debut in the last three years, has never won a Hugo Award (!) Fan: No previous winners, no professionals (with some caveats) Original Artwork: Flat art and sculpture

John

Game or Interactive Work Dramatic Presentation (Television): Nominating series, no standalone episodes Novella: Refined to be up to 60,000 words, awards to author and editor Related Work: Redefined to render conventions and things that exclusively happen at conventions ineligible Fancast: It’s perfect just the way it is Fan Artist: Defined “properly”

Liz

Dramatic Presentation (Moving Picture): Redefined to exclude TV series somehow Publisher

Neon Hemlock Haikasoru

Series: Redefined to let series of above a number of volumes on, even under the 240,000 word count (the Nghi Vo amendment)

[I SAID IT AND I MEANT IT—John]

Short Story/Novelette: Redefined to be shorter than 15,000 words, award to author only Community Benefit: Works by the community which exist to benefit the community

Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom AO3 Con or Bust

Video Essay: Non-fiction works in video format

Credits

Cover art: “Summer of Fungi” by España Sheriff

Alt text: An watercolour of three pink mushrooms growing on the trunk of a tree. The words “Octothorpe 167” appear at the top, and “summer of fungi” appear at the bottom. The listener is left to discern which mushroom represents which co-host.

Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

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