John, Alison, and Liz fix the Hugo Awards once and for all.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode:

• Letters of comment
  • Alison: Mike Scott (Facebook)
    • “How is Inventing the Renaissance an SFF-Related Work?” by Ada Palmer
  • Liz: Tammy Coxen (Bluesky 1, Bluesky 2)
  • John: Heather Rose Jones (Facebook)
• The Brand-New, Definitely-WSFS-Approved Hugo Award® Rosters!
  • Alison
    • Novel: Redefined to be 60,000+ words, awards to author and editor
    • Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): Redefined to standalone works
    • Vibes: Best thing that seems like it should be genre but isn’t
    • New Writer: Redefined as a debut in the last three years, has never won a Hugo Award (!)
    • Fan: No previous winners, no professionals (with some caveats)
    • Original Artwork: Flat art and sculpture
  • John
    • Game or Interactive Work
    • Dramatic Presentation (Television): Nominating series, no standalone episodes
    • Novella: Refined to be up to 60,000 words, awards to author and editor
    • Related Work: Redefined to render conventions and things that exclusively happen at conventions ineligible
    • Fancast: It’s perfect just the way it is
    • Fan Artist: Defined “properly”
  • Liz
    • Dramatic Presentation (Moving Picture): Redefined to exclude TV series somehow
    • Publisher
      • Neon Hemlock
      • Haikasoru
    • Series: Redefined to let series of above a number of volumes on, even under the 240,000 word count (the Nghi Vo amendment)
      • [I SAID IT AND I MEANT IT—John]
    • Short Story/Novelette: Redefined to be shorter than 15,000 words, award to author only
    • Community Benefit: Works by the community which exist to benefit the community
      • Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom
      • AO3
      • Con or Bust
    • Video Essay: Non-fiction works in video format
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Summer of Fungi” by España Sheriff
    • Alt text: An watercolour of three pink mushrooms growing on the trunk of a tree. The words “Octothorpe 167” appear at the top, and “summer of fungi” appear at the bottom. The listener is left to discern which mushroom represents which co-host.
  • Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)