Theodore Sturgeon Award
The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award is an annual award presented by the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas to the author of the best short science fiction story published in English in the preceding calendar year. It is the short fiction counterpart of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, awarded by the same organization. The award is named in honor of Theodore Sturgeon, one of the leading authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction from 1939 to 1950. The award was established in 1987 by his heirs—including his widow, Jayne Sturgeon—and James Gunn, at the time the Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction.
From 1987 through 1994 the award was given out by a panel of science fiction experts led by Orson Scott Card. Beginning in 1995, the committee was replaced by a group of jurors, who vote on the nominations submitted for consideration. The initial jurors were James Gunn, Frederik Pohl, and Judith Merril. Merril was replaced on the jury by former winner Kij Johnson in 1997, one of Sturgeon's children—Noel Sturgeon in most years—was added to the panel in 1999, and George Zebrowski was added to the panel in 2005. Nominations are submitted by reviewers, fans, publishers, and editors, and are collated by the current Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, Christopher McKitterick, into a list of finalists to be voted on by the jury. The maximum eligible length that a work may be is not formally defined by the center. The winner is selected by May of each year, and is presented at the Campbell Conference awards banquet in June at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, as part of the centerpiece of the conference along with the Campbell Award. Winners are always invited to attend the ceremony. Since 2004 winners have received a personalized trophy, while since the inception of the award a permanent trophy has recorded all of the winners.
During the 33 years the award has been active, 195 authors have had works nominated, 34 of whom have won, including one tie. No author has won more than once. John Kessel and Michael Swanwick have each won once out of seven nominations, Ursula K. Le Guin, Nancy Kress, and Ian McDonald one of six, Ted Chiang one of five, and Paolo Bacigalupi and Lucius Shepard have won once out of four times. Robert Reed has the most nominations without winning at eight, followed by James Patrick Kelly and Ian R. MacLeod at seven, and Greg Egan, Ken Liu, and Bruce Sterling at five.
Winners and nominees
In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the work was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". 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
| Year | Author | Work | Publisher or publication | Ref. |
| * | "Surviving" | |||
| "Elephant" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Grave Angels" | ||||
| Omni | ||||
| "Pretty Boy Crossover" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| * | "Rachel in Love" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| Omni | ||||
| "Dinosaurs" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Analog Science Fact & Fiction | ||||
| "Heroics" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| * | "Schrödinger's Kitten" | Omni | ||
| "Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance?" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Stairs" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Mrs. Shummel Exits a Winner" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| * | Full Spectrum 2 | |||
| "Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Dori Bangs" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Dancing with the Chairs" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Faith" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| * | "Bears Discover Fire" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| United Mythologies Press | ||||
| "My Advice to the Civilized" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| * | "Buffalo" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||
| "Ma Qui" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| * | "This Year's Class Picture" | Still Dead | ||
| "Death and the Lady" | After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien | |||
| "Danny Goes to Mars" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Even the Queen" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Slipping" | Borderlands 2 | |||
| * | "Fox Magic" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| "At the Shadow of a Dream" | Aboriginal SF | |||
| Full Spectrum 4 | ||||
| * | "Forgiveness Day" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| "Nekropolis" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Cri de Coeur" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Beloit Poetry Journal | ||||
| Tomorrow Speculative Fiction | ||||
| "Cocoon" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Omni | ||||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| "Melodies of the Heart" | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | |||
| "Paris In June" | Omni | |||
| "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Symphony for Skyfall" | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | |||
| "Symphony for Skyfall" | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | |||
| "Understanding Entropy" | Science Fiction Age | |||
| * | "Jigoku no Mokushiroku " | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| Analog Science Fiction and Fact | ||||
| "Diamonds Aren't Forever" | David Copperfield's Tales of the Impossible | |||
| "Fault Lines" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Home for Christmas" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "I, Iscariot" | Crank! | |||
| "Mortimer Gray's History of Death" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "We Were Out of Our Minds With Joy" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Analog Science Fiction and Fact | ||||
| * | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Age of Aquarius" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Starlight 1 | ||||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| Buzzcity Press | ||||
| Crank! | ||||
| "Erase/Record/Play" | Starlight 1 | |||
| "Gone" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Marigold Outlet" | Twists of the Tale: An Anthology of Cat Horror | |||
| "Radio Waves" | Omni | |||
| "Thirteen Phantasms" | Omni Online | |||
| * | "House of Dreams" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Coming to Grips with the Great Plague" | Omni Online | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Echoes" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Get a Grip" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Itsy Bitsy Spider" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Lethe" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Loose Ends" | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | |||
| "One Good Juror" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "One Good Juror" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Universal Grammar" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| * | "Story of Your Life" | Starlight 2 | ||
| "Wading River Dogs and More" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Advantage, Bellarmine" | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | |||
| "Animae Celestes" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation by K.N. Sirsi and Sandra Botkin" | Starlight 2 | |||
| "Crane Fly" | Amazing Stories | |||
| "Craphound" | Science Fiction Age | |||
| "Dance at the Edge" | Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction | |||
| "Echea" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "How Meersh the Bedeviler Lost His Toes" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Love of the True God" | Talebones | |||
| "Lovestory" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Maneki Neko" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| "Radiant Doors" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Radio Praha" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Wild Minds" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| * | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Daddy's World" | Not of Woman Born | |||
| "Everywhere" | Interzone | |||
| "Five Days in April" | Chiaroscuro | |||
| Analog Science Fiction and Fact | ||||
| "Green Tea" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Jennifer, Just Before Midnight" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Macs" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Once Upon a Matter Crushed" | Science Fiction Age | |||
| "Reality Check" | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | |||
| "Suicide Coast" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Winemaster" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| * | PS Publishing | |||
| "Sheena 5" | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | |||
| "Radiant Green Star" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Antibodies" | Interzone | |||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| "Heart of Glass" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Science Fiction Age | ||||
| "Milo and Sylvie" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "On the Orion Line" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Reef" | Skylife: Space Habitats in Story and Science | |||
| "Savior" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Seventy-Two Letters" | Vanishing Acts | |||
| * | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Lobsters" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Undone" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Eternity and Afterward" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Have Not Have" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Hell Is the Absence of God" | Starlight 3 | |||
| "Interview: On Any Given Day" | Starlight 3 | |||
| "Isabel of the Fall" | Interzone | |||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| "New Light on the Drake Equation" | Sci Fiction | |||
| * | "Over Yonder" | Sci Fiction | ||
| "Bronte's Egg" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Singleton" | Interzone | |||
| "Breathmoss" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Coelacanths" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Halo" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "In Paradise" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Liking What You See: A Documentary" | Stories of Your Life and Others | |||
| "Madonna of the Maquiladora" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Stories for Men" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| PS Publishing | ||||
| * | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Bernardo's House" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "It's All True" | Sci Fiction | |||
| "Dead Worlds" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Dry Bones" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Sci Fiction | ||||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| "Looking Through Lace" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Off on a Starship" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Only Partly Here" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| * | "Sergeant Chip" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||
| Sci Fiction | ||||
| "Mere" | Golden Gryphon Press | |||
| Conqueror Fantastic | ||||
| "Arabian Wine" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Sci Fiction | ||||
| "Dancer in the Dark" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Invisible Kingdoms" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| Dark Matter: Reading the Bones | ||||
| Denver Quarterly | ||||
| "Savant Songs" | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | |||
| "Scout's Honor" | Sci Fiction | |||
| "Singing My Sister Down" | Black Juice | |||
| "Start the Clock" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Stone Animals" | Conjunctions 43: Beyond Arcadia | |||
| Analog Science Fiction and Fact | ||||
| "Venus Flowers at Night" | Microcosms | |||
| * | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Magic for Beginners" | Magic for Beginners | |||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| Analog Science Fiction and Fact | ||||
| "Inside Job" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Keyboard Practice, Consisting of an Aria with Diverse Variations for the Harpsichord with Two Manuals" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Little Faces" | Sci Fiction | |||
| "Panacea" | Sci Fiction | |||
| "Second Person, Present Tense" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| * | FutureShocks | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Lord Weary's Empire" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Another Word for Map Is Faith" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| Strange Horizons | ||||
| "Inclination" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| PS Publishing | ||||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Yellow Card Man" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "You Have Never Been Here" | ||||
| * | "Finisterra" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||
| * | "Tideline" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| "Memorare" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Always" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Baby Doll" | ||||
| Inferno | ||||
| Foundation | ||||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| * | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Memory Dog" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Galactic Empires | ||||
| "From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Fast Forward 2 | ||||
| "His Master's Voice" | Interzone | |||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| "Special Economics" | ||||
| "True Names" | Fast Forward 2 | |||
| * | Tachyon Publications | |||
| "As Women Fight" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Things Undone" | Jim Baen's Universe | |||
| "This Wind Blowing, and this Tide" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Blood Dauber" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Blood Dauber" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Clockatrice" | Fantasy Magazine | |||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| "Eros, Philia, Agape" | Tor.com | |||
| "Her Voice in a Bottle" | Subterranean Press | |||
| "Spar" | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| "True Fame" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| * | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Stories | ||||
| Clarkesworld Magazine | ||||
| "Dead Man's Run" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" | Lightspeed | |||
| "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Mammoths of the Great Plains" | Mammoths of the Great Plains | |||
| Strange Horizons | ||||
| "Troika" | Godlike Machines | |||
| "Under the Moons of Venus" | Subterranean Magazine | |||
| * | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Six Months, Three Days" | Tor.com | |||
| Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "Ghostweight" | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| Lightspeed | ||||
| Panverse 3 | ||||
| "Silently and Very Fast" | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| * | Strange Horizons | |||
| "Things Greater Than Love" | Strange Horizons | |||
| "Immersion" | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| "Scattered Along the River of Heaven" | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| Subterranean Magazine | ||||
| Lightspeed | ||||
| "Mono No Aware" | The Future is Japanese | |||
| "Nahiku West" | Analog Science Fiction and Fact | |||
| PS Publishing | ||||
| Edge of Infinity | ||||
| " Whole Against the Sky" | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| Tachyon Publications | ||||
| * | "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind" | Strange Horizons | ||
| "Bloom" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| "They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Over There" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| Asimov's Science Fiction | ||||
| Electric Velocipede | ||||
| "Mystic Falls" | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| "Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" | Clockwork Phoenix 4 | |||
| Clarkesworld Magazine | ||||
| 2015 | * | Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future | ||
| 2015 | "Lady With Fox" | Carbide Tipped Pens | ||
| 2015 | "Childfinder" | Unexpected Stories | ||
| 2015 | "In Her Eyes" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||
| 2015 | "Herd Immunity" | |||
| 2015 | "When It Ends, He Catches Her" | Daily Science Fiction | ||
| 2015 | Tachyon Publications | |||
| 2015 | Tachyon Publications | |||
| 2015 | Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future | |||
| 2015 | Upgraded | |||
| 2015 | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| 2015 | "We Are the Cloud" | Lightspeed | ||
| 2015 | Reach for Infinity | |||
| 2015 | "Shatterdown" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| 2015 | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| 2016 | * | Strange Horizons | ||
| 2016 | "And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead" | Lightspeed | ||
| 2016 | "Avery Cates: The Walled City" | self-published | ||
| 2016 | "Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan" | Old Venus | ||
| 2016 | "Damage" | Tor.com | ||
| 2016 | "Emergence" | Meeting Infinity | ||
| 2016 | "Folding Beijing" | Uncanny Magazine | ||
| 2016 | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| 2016 | "Gypsy" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||
| 2016 | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| 2016 | "Our Lady of the Open Road" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| 2016 | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| 2017 | * | Drowned Worlds | ||
| 2017 | Tor.com | |||
| 2017 | "Seasons of Glass and Iron" | |||
| 2017 | "Touring With The Alien" | Clarkesworld | ||
| 2017 | Tor.com Publishing | |||
| 2017 | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| 2017 | "Things With Beards" | Clarkesworld | ||
| 2017 | "Project Empathy" | Asimov's Science Fiction | ||
| 2017 | Tor.com Publishing | |||
| 2018 | * | "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" | Global Dystopias | |
| 2018 | "Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance" | Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far Away Galaxies | ||
| 2018 | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| 2018 | "Sidewalks" | Omni | ||
| 2018 | Tor.com | |||
| 2018 | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| 2018 | "And Then There Were " | Uncanny Magazine | ||
| 2018 | "Fandom for Robots" | Uncanny Magazine | ||
| 2018 | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| 2018 | "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" | Apex Magazine | ||
| 2018 | "We Who Live in the Heart" | Clarkesworld Magazine | ||
| 2019 | * | "When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis" | Slate.com | |
| 2019 | "Freezing Rain, A Chance of Falling" | |||
| 2019 | Tor.com Publishing | |||
| 2019 | Fireside Fiction | |||
| 2019 | "Umbernight" | Clarkesworld Magazine | ||
| 2019 | "Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" | Tor.com | ||
| 2019 | "When We Were Starless" | Clarkesworld Magazine | ||
| 2019 | Beneath Ceaseless Skies | |||
| 2019 | Tor.com Publishing | |||
| 2019 | "On the Day You Spend Forever with Your Dog" | Apex Magazine | ||
| 2019 | "Yard Dog" | Fiyah |