The Hugo Awards are science fiction’s most prestigious prize. Books (and other media) nominated for a Hugo are always a stellar read, and you can read (and watch!) many of 2021's Hugo Award nominees for free through the Free Library!

In some categories, many of the nominees are available to read for free online through their publisher. We've collected all the information you need on where and how to read (or watch, or listen) to this year's Hugo Award nominees, and even explore the works of the lesser-known people who contribute to the world of publishing and have been nominated this year.

The winners will be announced at DisCon III, December 15 – 19, 2021.
 

Hugo Nominees for Best Short Story

All of these short stories are available to read for free online. Click the titles to be taken to the story. Click the name of the author to be taken to the author's page in our catalog. If we do not have a catalog page for the author, then the link will go to the author's personal website, if available.

• Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson, published in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 32
   
• A Guide for Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, originally published in Made to Order: Robots and Revolution; reprinted online by tor.com
   
• Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer, published on tor.com
   
• The Mermaid Astronaut (Also available as an audio recording) by Yoon Ha Lee, published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 298
   
• Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher, published in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 36
   
• Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell, published on Diabolical Plots

Hugo Nominees for Best Novelette

Most of these Novelettes are available to read for free online. Click the titles to be taken to the story. Click the name of the author to be taken to the author's page in our catalog. If we do not have a catalog page for the author, then the link will go to the author's personal website, if available.

• Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A. T. Greenblatt, published in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 34
   
• Helicopter Story by Isabel Fall (Debut), published in Clarkesworld, Issue 160
  This story, originally published under a different title, was retracted by the author soon after publication. Despite being nominated for a Hugo, she has not decided to make the story officially available to read through any medium.
   
• The Inaccessibility of Heaven by Aliette de Bodard, published in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 35
   
• Monster by Naomi Kritzer, published in Clarkesworld, Issue 160
   
• The Pill by Meg Elison, published in her story collection, Big Girl
   
• Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker, published by tor.com

Hugo Nominees for Best Related Work

• Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley (FSG)
   
• CoNZealand Fringe: Claire Rousseau, C, Cassie Hart, Adri Joy, Marguerite Kenner, Cheryl Morgan, Alasdair Stuart
  CoNZealand Fringe was a Sci-Fi convention held in New Zealand. Transcripts of all the panels are available on their website.
   
• FIYAHCON: L.D. Lewis–Director, Brent Lambert–Senior Programming Coordinator, Lori Kusano–FIYAHCON Fringe Co-Director, Vida Cruz–FIYAHCON Fringe Co-Director, and the Incredible FIYAHCON team
  FIYAHCON is a virtual convention celebrating Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) in the world of speculative fiction.
   
• “George R.R. Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun, Or: The 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony (Rageblog Edition)” by Natalie Luhrs (Pretty Terrible, August 2020)
  This Hugo Award nominee is a blog post criticizing the 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony, in particular the comments author George R.R Martin made at the 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony.
   
• A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler by Lynell George (Angel City Press)
  We don't have this book in our collection at this time. But we do have many books by Octavia Butler herself and the wonderful anthology Octavia's Brood which covers similar themes.
   
• The Last Bronycon: A Fandom Autopsy by Jenny Nicholson
  This full-length documentary on the "Brony" subculture (adult men who are fans of the franchise My Little Pony), is available to view for free on Youtube. Parents should be advised that while this documentary does center on the My Little Pony franchise, this documentary is geared towards an adult audience, contains discussion of sexual themes, and might not be considered appropriate for children.

Hugo Nominees for Best Editor

Short-Form
Click on each name to be taken to their author page in our catalog, which will show everything we have that has been edited by them.

• Neil Clarke, who edits several science fiction literary magazines including Clarkesworld, Forever Magazine, and the SFWA Bulletin.
   
• Ellen Datlow, who edits The Best Horror of the Year compilation series.
   
• C.C. Finlay, editor of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 2015 through 2021.
   
• Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya for their free sci-fi audio podcast, Escape Pod, which has different short stories every episode.
   
• Jonathan Strahan, for editing the sci-fi audio podcast The Coode Street Podcast.
   
• Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction Magainze.

Long Form
Long-Form Editors usually work behind-the-scenes, so we don't have pages for them in our catalog usually. Each name links to the personal website or social media of the nominees.

• Nivia Evans, Editor at Orbit Books
   
• Sheila E. Gilbert, Editor of the DAW 30th Anniversary and co-owner of DAW Books
   
• Sarah Guan, Editor at Erewhon Books
   
• Brit Hvide, Editor at Orbit Books
   
• Diana M. Pho, Editor for the Realm Podcast Network
   
• Navah Wolfe, Editor at Subterranean Press
   

Hugo Nominees for Best Professional Artist

Most of these artists make book covers that you may recognize. Names will take you to their online portfolios, and we'll try to shout out works of theirs you may recognize.

• Tommy Arnold, Cover artist for Harrow the Ninth
   
• Rovina Cai, Cover artist for the Book of Dragons
   
• Galen Dara, Cover artist for Uncanny Magazine
   
• Maurizio Manzieri, Cover artist for various magazines and novellas
   
• John Picacio, Cover artist for Constance Verity Saves the World
   
• Alyssa Winans, She creates many of the Google Doodles! (But her other work is far more impressive)
   

Hugo Nominees for Best Semiprozine

Semiprozine is short for "Semi-professional-edited magazine." This mostly means that these are independent professional literary magazines, and not published by any of the big five major publishers. Many up-and-coming authors get their start publishing short works in semiprozines. Semiprozines typically make digital versions of their issues available for free online, reserving only the latest issue for subscribers. Click on the name of each nominee to be taken to their website. These days, many semiprozines take the form of podcasts or have audio versions of their stories.

• Beneath Ceaseless Skies
   
• Escape Pod
   
• FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction
   
• PodCastle
   
• Uncanny Magazine
   
• Strange Horizons
   

Best Video Game

Blaseball
Nominated in the special one-time Best Video Game category, Blaseball is a free online simulated sports league in which players bet on AI-simulated games (using imaginary coins) to earn votes to change the rules of the game itself in surreal and drastic ways. The fandom and the creators interact to develop and tell the stories of the Internet Blaseball League and its players collaboratively.

The following Hugo Award Nominated authors and titles can be found in these catalog lists and checked out with your Free Library card. In these catalog lists, you'll find the standard print book format; but you can click the green speech bubble by each book to see if it's available as an ebook or audiobook through freelibrary.overdrive.com (or the Libby app on your smart device!)
 

2021 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book Nominees

The Lodestar Award is not a Hugo Award, but was established by the World Science Fiction Society and administered in the same manner and in parallel with the Hugo Awards.
 

2021 Hugo Awards | Best Novel Nominees
 

2021 Hugo Awards | Best Novella Nominees
 

2021 Hugo Awards | Best Series Nominees

This list includes the first book from each series.
 

2021 Hugo Awards | Best Graphic Story or Comic Nominees
 

2021 Hugo Awards | Best TV Episode Nominees

Nominees for "Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form" (TV Episode). The nominees tend to be from the latest season, but some of them aren't out on DVD yet, so we've included season 1 of the show to get you started.

2021 Astounding Award for Best New Writer Nominees

The Astounding Award is not a Hugo Award, but is administered in a similar manner and in parallel with the Hugo Awards. It features the best new writers in the world of speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. This list compiles at least one book by each nominee.
 

2021 Hugo Award Ballot Announcement

Watch Sheree Renée Thomas, Malka Older, and Ulysses Campbell share fun clips and information of all of the 2021 Hugo Nominees.