#worldcon

[berlynn-wohl]

funniest thing about worldcon so far is that you can walk up to any random man with a graying ponytail and glasses and say to him, "tell me a story about some wild shit you got up to with harlan ellison" and he will tell you

[ullathynell]

If you're attending Seattle Worldcon this week, go check out my new book Faraway Dreaming, and say hi to the publisher Atthis Arts (they have table 408 in the vendor hall)!

Kickstarter rewards were packaged and shipped to over 800 backers last week, and the remaining 200 will be mailed after Atthis Arts returns from Worldcon. ♡

The books are sold at Worldcon and will also become available for purchase online at atthisarts.com starting 18 August!

[bexlebystarshine]

One of my favorite moments of WorldCon was Seanan McGuire leading the crowd in a chant of the word “butts” to screw with the autocaptioning on the discord stream…

[transformativeworks]

We are at WorldCon!

13-17 August 2025 in Seattle WA

Come find us at Table 7!

https://seattlein2025.org/

[jayblanc]

Chinese Censorship of the 2023 Hugo Award Nominations

Back before the 2023 Hugo Nominations were conducted, I noted that the Chengdu Worldcon Hugo committee had inserted a worrying clause indicating that local government officials could invalidate nominations for breaching the norms and standards of China. I suspected this would result in arbitrarily applied censorship to control the ballot. I am sad and unsurprised to discover I was correct.

The 2023 Hugo Nomination vote data has been published (https://www.thehugoawards.org/2024/01/2023-nominating-and-final-ballot-statistics-published/), and includes notation where nominations were excluded from the ballot. Those with normal reasons, such as being in the wrong category or not being published in 2022 are identified with their reasons for exclusion. This time there are a number of nominations that are merely marked at "Not eligible".

Here is the list of those nominations, that would otherwise have been placed on the final 2023 Hugo Award Ballot.

Babel - R.F. Kuang - Best Novel: Very likely excluded for referencing student revolution, and the use of language and translation as coercive tools of oppression. Color the World - Congyun "Mu Ming" Hu - Best Novellette : A story about perception of, aid of, and discrimination against disability. Congyun Hu has left China and now lives in New York. Fogong Temple Padoga - Hai Ya - Best Story : Either there is something in the original Chinese that was not translated, there's a taboo subject that elides my reading, or this otherwise innocent looking near future tale of cultural building restoration was written by the wrong person. The Art of Ghost of Tsushima: Dark Horse and Sucker Punch Games - Best Related Work : The video game Ghost of Tsushima was subject to directed social exclusion for it's depiction of the Mongol invasion of Japan. Sandman, Amazon Studios: Best Dramatic Presentation (Long and Short) - A diverse and divergent cast, includes subject matter and social issues that are currently taboo in China. Paul Weimer - Fan Writer: Publicly Critical of holding a Worldcon in China. Xiran Jay Zhao - Astounding Award: Qualifying work "Iron Widow" is reimagined story of Chinese Empress Wu during a fantasy/mechanical alien invasion.

This raises a lot of questions as to if this basically taints the process, and what can be done about it.

[naomimakesart]

I attended WorldCon Seattle this year and had the incredible opportunity to meet George R.R. Martin! I gifted him a print of my illustrated version of Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s wedding, as well as an enamel pin of Daemon and Rhaenyra. He was so humble and down to earth, and it was my life’s honor to tell him how much his work has meant to me. In return he gifted me the Iron Coin of the Faceless Man! I will cherish it always ❤️

[beatrice-otter]

When People Giggle at Your Name, or the 2025 Hugo Awards Incident

It’s August 16, 2025, Worldcon, Seattle, and the main presenter of the annual Hugo awards butchers almost every foreign name on the list. Wh

It’s August 16, 2025, Worldcon, Seattle, and the main presenter of the annual Hugo awards butchers almost every foreign name on the list. When trying to pronounce an unusual African name, the presenter giggles. ... The 2025 Worldcon had hundreds of panels and thousands of attendees. It had fantastic freebies and fanfic fans and fun filking. It had authors and poets and filmmakers and podcasters. It had five full days of genre celebrations, of coming together as one. It also failed at its most basic, fundamental purpose. ... A house is supposed to keep you safe and dry, even when – or perhaps especially when – it doubles as a work of art. If it can’t do that bare minimum, it becomes worse than useless. It turns into a liability. Likewise, an annual awards ceremony that fumbles that most basic of all tasks – pronouncing the finalists’ names – fails at its most basic purpose.

[kbspangler]

So @alepresser and I went to Manhattan for our first ever professional book signing (SIDEQUESTED), and then...A GIRL AND HER FED was announced as a Hugo finalist.

We are incredibly honored and humbled and suddenly realizing that a lot of strangers with extremely strong opinions on science fiction are going to read our (my) earliest strips, oh dear.