Astounding Award for Best New Writer


The Astounding Award for Best New Writer is given annually to the best new writer whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the two previous calendar years. It is named after Astounding Science Fiction, a foundational science fiction magazine. The award is sponsored by Dell Magazines, which publishes Analog.
Prior to August 2019, the award was named after Astoundings long-time editor John W. Campbell, one of the most influential figures in the early history of science fiction. In the aftermath of 2019 winner Jeannette Ng's acceptance speech, in which she referred to Campbell as a fascist, the science fiction fandom community discussed whether it was appropriate to continue honoring Campbell in this way; the editor of Analog subsequently announced that the award had been renamed.
The nomination and selection process is administered by the World Science Fiction Society represented by the current Worldcon committee, and the award is presented at the Hugo Award ceremony at the Worldcon, although it is not itself a Hugo Award. All nominees receive a pin, while the winner receives a plaque. Beginning in 2005, the award has also included a tiara; created at the behest of 2004 winner Jay Lake and 2005 winner Elizabeth Bear, the tiara is passed from each year's winner to the next.

Eligibility and voting

Members of the current and previous Worldcon are eligible to nominate new writers for the Astounding Award under the same procedures as the Hugo Awards. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, at which point a shortlist is made of the five most-nominated writers, with additional nominees possible in the case of ties. Voting on the ballot of five nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held.
Writers become eligible once they have a work published anywhere in the world which was sold for more than a nominal amount. While final decisions on eligibility are decided by the WSFS, the given criteria for an author to be eligible are specifically defined as someone who has had a written work in a publication which had more than 10,000 readers and which paid the writer at least 3 cents per word and a total of at least 50 US dollars.
Award nominees and winners, such as Michael A. Burstein, who was nominated in 1996 and won in 1997, have commented that the largest effect of winning or being nominated for is not on sales but instead that it gives credibility with established authors and publishers. Criticism has been raised about the award that due to the eligibility requirements it honors writers who become well-known quickly, rather than necessarily the best or most influential authors from a historical perspective.
Over the 48 years the award has been active, 202 writers have been nominated. Of these, 48 authors have won, including one tie. There have been 56 writers who were nominated twice, 18 of whom won the award in their second nomination.
Works by winners and nominees of the award were collected in the New Voices series of anthologies, edited by George R. R. Martin, which had five volumes covering the awards from 1973 through 1977 and which were published between 1977 and 1984.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than the year when the writer's eligible work was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". Although the award is not given explicitly for any particular work, and such works are not recorded by the World Science Fiction Society or Dell Magazines, a selection of works that the writer in question published in the eligibility period are listed. This list includes novels and short stories, and is not intended to be comprehensive. Entries with a blue background and an asterisk next to the writer's name have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominees on the shortlist.
* Winners and joint winners
YearWriterWorkRef.
*"Peace with Honor", A Spaceship for the King
"The Eight Thirty to Nine Slot", What Entropy Means to Me
"Stretch of Time"
"The Hero"
"Stop Me before I Tell More"
"Stranger in the House"
*"The Guy with the Eyes"
*"Stranger in the House"
"Pigeon City"
"Wendigo's Child"
Testament XXI
*"Epicycle"
"Nostalgia Tripping"
Walk to the End of the World
"Outer Concentric", "The Examination"
"Hot Spot"
"Picnic on Nearside"
*"Twilla", "San Diego Lightfoot Sue"
"Picnic on Nearside"
"The Splendid Freedom", "Helium"
Tin Soldier
The Warriors of Dawn
*Gate of Ivrel
A Jungle of Stars
The Warriors of Dawn
"Closed Circuit"
*"Ender's Game"
Lord Foul's Bane
A Jungle of Stars
"We All Have to Go"
"Man-Made Self", Involution Ocean
*Lord Foul's Bane
Inherit the Stars
"We All Have to Go"
"Longshanks", Godsfire
"The Tryouts"
"What Song the Sirens Sang"
*"The Tryouts", Enemy Mine
"Sunsteps"
The Door into Fire
Daughter of the Bright Moon
"The Works of His Hand, Made Manifest"
"Dragon Story"
*"Sunsteps"
"The Singing Diamond", Dragon's Egg
"Spareen Among the Tartars"
The Door into Fire
The Orphan
"A Dragon in the Man"
*The Revolution from Rosinante, Long Shot for Rosinante
The Orphan
Sundiver
The Breaking of Northwall, The Ends of the Circle
"The Feast of St Janis", "Ginungagap"
*The Breaking of Northwall, The Ends of the Circle
The Red Magician
"Emergence"
"Brainchild"
Dreamrider
An Image of Voices
*Tea with the Black Dragon
"Brainchild", "In the Face of My Enemy"
The Red Magician
An Image of Voices, Flexing the Warp
King's Blood Four
The Sleeping Dragon
*"The Taylorsville Reconstruction"
The Game Beyond
"Elemental"
"Lazuli"
"Music of the Spheres"
"The Islands of the Dead"
*The Game Beyond
The Summer Tree
Contact
"Recalling Cinderella"
Tailchaser's Song
"Shanidar"
*"Recalling Cinderella", "Face Value"
"Barter", Shards of Honor
Fire Sanctuary
"Projectile Weapons and Wild Alien Water"
The Cross-Time Engineer
"Mudpuppies"
*"Surviving", Pennterra
"Projectile Weapons and Wild Alien Water"
"Dress Rehearsal"
In Conquest Born
The Net
*Walkabout Woman
Through a Brazen Mirror
Liege-Killer
"Sing"
Dragon Prince
The Guardsman
The Guardsman
Journey to Fusang
*"Sing"
"Live from the Mars Hotel", Orbital Decay
Sunglasses After Dark
Twistor
The Eight
*"The Music Box", The Kobayashi Maru
Sunglasses After Dark
Twistor
Strange Invasion, In Between Dragons
"Thirteen Days of Glory"
*"Tower of Babylon", "Understand"
"No Room for the Unicorn"
"Wings"
Into the Dark Lands
Moonwise
*"No Room for the Unicorn"
"The Winterberry"
"Wings"
Into the Dark Lands
Fire in the Mist
"Apotheosis"
*Virtual Girl
Fire in the Mist
"Apotheosis"
The Well-Favored Man
"A Fireside Chat"
*Vurt
"Ash Minette"
"Sibling Rivalry"
Midshipman's Hope
"Heart of Molten Stone"
*Midshipman's Hope, Challenger's Hope
"Ash Minette"
"TeleAbsence"
The Shape-Changer's Wife
Lethe
*"TeleAbsence"
The Shape-Changer's Wife
Celestial Matters
The Fortunate Fall
Wind From a Foreign Sky
*The Sparrow
An Exchange of Hostages
"Beluthahatchie"
Celestial Matters
The Fortunate Fall
*Brown Girl in the Ring
In the Garden of Iden
"First Contact"
An Exchange of Hostages
"The Big One"
*"Craphound"
"Time Gypsy"
"I Don't Know and I Don't Care"
Code of Conduct
The Shadow of Ararat
*Code of Conduct
The King's Peace
The Shadow of Ararat
"State of Disorder"
"A Diagram of Rapture"
*The King's Peace
"Rossetti Song"
Divine Intervention
Alien Taste
"Fish Merchant"
*Alien Taste
"The Political Officer"
Divine Intervention
Warchild
"Nucleon"
*"Into the Gardens of Sweet Night"
"Nucleon"
Warchild
"Little Gods"
Spin State
*Hammered
The Year of Our War
The Etched City
"O One"
"The Third Party"
*Old Man's War
The Etched City
Mélusine
"O One", Here, There & Everywhere
Elantris
The Year of Our War
*His Majesty's Dragon
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Mélusine
Elantris, '
The Sky's the Limit
*"Portrait of Ari"
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Infoquake
The Blade Itself
Grey
'
*
"Butterfly, Falling At Dawn"
Thunderer
"Metamorphoses in Amber"
"Lester Young and the Jupiter's Moons' Blues"
*Rosemary and Rue
Thunderer
Soulless
"Soulmates"
"Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela"
*The Magicians
"Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela"
Zoo City
Monster Hunter International
I Am Not a Serial Killer
*"The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees"
"1963: The Argument Against Louis Pasteur"
Of Blood and Honey
Redemption in Indigo
"Ray of Light"
*"1963: The Argument Against Louis Pasteur"
The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo
Three Parts Dead
Of Blood and Honey, And Blue Skies From Pain
Blackbirds
*A Stranger in Olondria
The Lives of Tao
Three Parts Dead
Nexus
Chang'e Dashes from the Moon
2015*The Lives of Tao
2015Kaiju Apocalypse
2015"Totaled"
2015"Shakedown Cruise"
2015"Sucker Punch"
2016*The Martian
2016Red Rising
2016Traitor's Blade
2016Nethereal
2016"The Fisher Queen", "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers"
2017*Too Like the Lightning
2017"Haunted", "Of Blood and Bronze"
2017An Equation of Almost Infinite Complexity
2017Infomocracy
2017Everything Belongs to the Future
2017"Waters of Versailles", "Two-Year Man", "The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill"
2018*"Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™"
2018The Bear and the Nightingale
2018Heroine Complex
2018Under the Pendulum Sun
2018"A Series of Steaks", "Fandom for Robots"
2018An Unkindness of Ghosts
2019*Under the Pendulum Sun
2019The Bear and the Nightingale
2019The City of Brass
2019The Poppy War
2019"A Series of Steaks", "Fandom for Robots"
2019An Unkindness of Ghosts
2020City of Lies
2020*The Poppy War
2020The Ruin of Kings
2020"Advice for Your First Time at the Faerie Market"
2020Empire of Sand
2020Silver in the Wood