The Hugo Award is a yearly prize given to the best science fiction or fantasy books and achievements from the previous year. It is presented at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and decided by its members. The award is managed by the World Science Fiction Society. It is named after Hugo Gernsback, who started the early science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. The first Hugo Awards were given in 1953 at the 11th Worldcon, and they have been given every year since 1955. In 2010, Wired magazine called the Hugo "the top award in the science fiction genre," and The Guardian described it as one of the most important science fiction awards along with the Nebula Award.
The awards originally had seven categories, but they now include seventeen categories for written and dramatic works. Winners receive a trophy shaped like a rocket on a base. The design of the trophy changes each year, but the rocket shape has remained the same since 1984.
The 2025 Hugo Awards were presented at the 83rd Worldcon, "Seattle Worldcon 2025," in the United States on August 16, 2025. The 2026 Hugo Awards will be presented at the 84th Worldcon, "LAcon V," in Anaheim, California, in the United States on August 30, 2026.
Award
The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) presents the Hugo Awards every year to recognize the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements from the previous year. The Hugo Awards are widely seen as the most important award in science fiction. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, who started the early science fiction magazine Amazing Stories and is considered one of the "fathers" of the science fiction genre. Hugo Award finalists and winners are selected by members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, which is the main event of the convention. The awards are divided into more than a dozen categories, including both written and dramatic works.
The idea of giving awards at Worldcons was proposed by Harold Lynch for the 1953 convention. This idea was inspired by the Academy Awards, and the name "Hugo" was suggested by Robert A. Madle. The award trophy was designed by Jack McKnight and Ben Jason in 1953, based on the shape of hood ornaments from 1950s cars. It featured a rocket ship with fins on a wooden base. Each trophy, except the 1958 version (a plaque), has followed a similar design. The rocket trophy was officially redesigned in 1984, and since then, only the base has changed yearly. There is no money or other reward given with the Hugo, only the trophy itself.
Members of the current or previous year’s Worldcon may submit a nomination ballot from January to March each year, with a limit of five nominations per category. Works are eligible for an award if they were published or first translated into English in the prior calendar year. There are no written rules about what qualifies as science fiction or fantasy, and voters decide eligibility, not the organizing committee. These nominations are used to create a list of six finalists per category using a voting system called E Pluribus Hugo ("from many, a Hugo"). Finalists are limited to two works per author in each category. Members of the current year’s Worldcon then rank the finalists in each category during a vote held roughly between April and July, depending on the Worldcon’s schedule. Votes are counted using instant-runoff voting to determine the winner in each category. Voters may also choose "no award" in any category, meaning they believe none of the finalists are worthy of a Hugo.
Before 2017, the final ballot listed five works per category, and the process for selecting finalists did not use E Pluribus Hugo. Worldcons are usually held near the start of September and take place in a different city worldwide each year.
Retrospective Hugo Awards, or Retro-Hugos, were added to the Hugos in 1996. These awards honored years 50, 75, or 100 years before a Worldcon was held but in which no Hugos were given. In 2017, the eligible years were expanded to include years after 1939 where no Worldcon occurred. Retro-Hugos were optional, and some Worldcons chose not to award them even when eligible. Of the fifteen eligible years, awards were given for eight. In 2025, the WSFS constitution was changed to remove Retro-Hugos.
History
The first Hugo Awards were given at the 11th Worldcon in Philadelphia in 1953. These awards were given in seven categories and were meant to be a one-time event. However, the organizers hoped that future Worldcons would also present them. At that time, each Worldcon was run independently by its own committee and had no connection to other conventions. This meant there was no rule requiring future conventions to repeat the awards, and no set rules existed for how to do so.
The 1954 Worldcon did not give the awards, but they were brought back in 1955 and became a tradition. The official name of the award was the Annual Science Fiction Achievement Award, though the nickname "Hugo Award" became widely used. This nickname was officially accepted in 1958, and it became the official name in 1992.
For the first few years, there were no published rules for the Hugo Awards. Works were considered eligible if they were published in the "preceding year," which was not clearly defined but usually meant the time between conventions, not calendar years. In 1959, some rules were added, such as separate ballots for nominations and voting, eligibility based on the previous calendar year, and allowing voters to choose "No Award" if no work was considered deserving. "No Award" won in two categories that year: Dramatic Presentation and Best New Author. A new rule also banned works that had been nominated in 1958 from being nominated again because the two time periods overlapped.
In 1961, the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) was formed to oversee Worldcon committees. The WSFS constitution then included rules requiring each Worldcon to present the Hugo Awards. Voting was limited to convention members, while nominations could be made by members of the current or previous year's convention. Categories were defined as Best Novel, Short Fiction, Dramatic Presentation, Professional Magazine, Professional Artist, and Best Fanzine. In 1963, "No Award" won again in the Dramatic Presentation category.
In 1964, rules were changed to allow individual conventions to create up to two additional categories, though these were not required to be repeated. Later, this was reduced to one additional category. Some special Hugo Awards were given, but few were repeated.
In 1967, categories for Novelette, Fan Writer, and Fan Artist were added. A category for Best Novella was added in 1968. These changes included definitions for word counts in categories, which had previously been decided by voters. The fan awards were later merged into the regular Hugo Awards.
By 1971, it became a rule that five finalists would be selected in each category, and ties were not allowed. In 1973, the Best Professional Magazine category was removed, and Best Professional Editor was added to recognize the importance of anthologies. Later, rules were changed to allow up to ten categories chosen by each convention, though they were expected to be similar to previous years. This change was reversed in 1977, returning to specific categories. "No Award" won the Dramatic Presentation category again in 1971 and 1977, and did not win any category until 2015.
In 1980, the Best Non-Fiction Book category (later renamed Best Related Work) was added. In 1984, Best Semiprozine was added. In 1983, members of the Church of Scientology tried to nominate Battlefield Earth for Best Novel, but it did not make the final ballot. In 1987, a similar effort for Black Genesis failed. In 1989, The Guardsman was withdrawn after a voter fraud attempt.
In 1990, Best Original Art Work was given as a special Hugo Award and later became official. It was removed in 1996. Retro Hugos, which honor past works, were first given in 1996.
A special Hugo Award for Best Web Site was given in 2002 and 2005 but never became permanent. In 2003, the Dramatic Presentation category was split into Long Form and Short Form. This was later done for Best Professional Editor in 2007. In 2009, Best Graphic Story was added, and in 2012, Best Fancast was added. Best Series became a permanent category in 2018. A special Hugo Award for Best Art Book was given in 2019 but not repeated. In 2021, a special Hugo Award for video games was created and later became a permanent category starting in 2024.
In 2015, two groups, "Sad Puppies" and "Rabid Puppies," promoted lists of nominees that dominated the ballot. These groups claimed they were reacting to nominees they felt were too academic or favored non-white and female authors. Some nominees declined their awards, and multiple-Hugo-winner Connie Willis refused to present. The campaigns were described as a "right wing" backlash and linked to the Gamergate controversy. Multiple-Hugo-winner Samuel R. Delany said the campaigns were a response to changes in the publishing industry, such as more diverse authors gaining influence.
Categories
Worldcon committees might also present special awards during the Hugo ceremony, but these awards are not decided by voting. Unlike other Hugo categories that Worldcons may add, these special awards are not official Hugo Awards and do not use the same trophy, even though they used to. Two other awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, are given during the Hugo Award ceremony and are voted on using the same process, but they are not official Hugo Awards.
Recognition
The Hugo Award is respected by many people. The Los Angeles Times called it "one of the highest honors in science fiction and fantasy writing," and Wired said it is "the top award in the science fiction genre." Justine Larbalestier wrote in The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction (2002) that the Hugo Award is "the most well-known and respected science fiction award." Jo Walton, in An Informal History of the Hugos, said the award is "undoubtedly the top science fiction award." The Guardian described the Hugo Award as "a great place to see examples of speculative fiction" and called it "one of the oldest, most democratic, and international science fiction awards." James Gunn, in The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1988), said the Hugo Award is the most representative of reader preferences because many people vote for it. Camille Bacon-Smith, in Science Fiction Culture (2000), noted that fewer than 1,000 people voted on the final ballot in some years. However, she said this number still reflects the larger science fiction readership because many winning books remain popular for many years or become famous outside the genre, such as The Demolished Man and The Left Hand of Darkness. In 2014, more than 1,900 nominations were submitted, and over 3,500 people voted. In 1964, only 274 votes were cast. In 2019, there were 1,800 nominations and 3,097 votes, which was fewer than in 2014–2017 but more than any year before that.
Brian Aldiss, in Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction, said the Hugo Award shows what readers like best, not necessarily what is most artistically excellent. He compared it to the Nebula Award, which is chosen by a panel of judges and focuses more on literary quality. However, he noted that the winners of both awards often overlap. The Nebula Award is also considered one of the top science fiction awards. Laura Miller of Salon.com called it "science fiction's most respected award."
The official Hugo Award logo is often placed on the covers of winning books to promote them. Gahan Wilson, in First World Fantasy Awards (1977), said putting the Hugo Award on a book cover helps increase sales. Orson Scott Card, in How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy (1990), said the award has a bigger effect on sales outside the United States than in the United States. Spider Robinson, in 1992, said publishers are more interested in authors who win a Hugo Award than those who win other awards, like the Nebula Award. Richard Curtis, a literary agent, said in Mastering the Business of Writing (1996) that even being nominated for a Hugo Award can encourage science fiction fans to buy a book. Jo Walton, in 2011, said the Hugo Award is the only science fiction award that actually increases a book’s sales.
There are several collections of Hugo Award-winning short stories. The series The Hugo Winners, edited by Isaac Asimov, started in 1962 and included short story winners up to the 1982 Hugos. The New Hugo Winners, originally edited by Asimov and later by Connie Willis and Gregory Benford, has four volumes with stories from the 1983 to 1994 Hugos. The most recent collection is The Hugo Award Showcase (2010), edited by Mary Robinette Kowal. It includes most of the short stories, novelettes, and novellas nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award.