Hugo Finalist Analysis — Part Two, Editing

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

So, the second part of my Hugo analysis is going to talk about the editing categories.

Best Editor, Short Form

The surprise this year is the absence of Ellen Datlow. Datlow has won this award eight times (and also won a different editing award. Along with many, many other awards. She is one of the best editors working today.

And this year she’s not a finalist. Did she recuse herself? Did people get tired of her winning and not vote for her? Did she just have a bad year? Either way…Datlow is a great editor, but I want somebody else to win for once.

So, here are this year’s nominees:

1. Neil Clarke, editor of Clarkesworld. I’m biased. I want Neil to win because he’s a great person who treats writers very well. And not because I want him to actually buy a story from me.
2. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. This is one of the few people to get writing and editing awards in the same year. He released Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora and did a year’s best for African Speculative Fiction. Watch. This. Space.
3. Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya. More editors who have been losing to Datlow and now have a chance. They do audio work, which has its own challenges.