This year’s Hugo Awards nominations have been disrupted by niche interest “puppy” groups for the second year running. The prestigious awards are handed out at the World Science Fiction Convention, commonly called Worldcon. This is the second year that block voting (referred to as slate voting) has inserted atypical nominees.

A little background is needed to know what is going on here. The Hugo Awards have been running since 1953 and are tied in to the annual Worldcon events (which have been around since 1939). In order to vote you need current attending or supporting membership at these events. As it is a huge book event that travels around the world (including much of North America), regular attendees (known as members) tend to be affluent, broadly read and widely travelled. Until a couple of years ago, the annual nominees list reflected this.

The Sad Puppies movement was formed to narrow the focus of the awards and bring more commercial works into the fold. It did this by exploiting a vulnerability the Hugos have to block voting. The organisers of the Sad Puppies, authors themselves, used this to get much of their own work on to the nomination list. Inspired by their success, media manipulator Theodore Beale (who calls himself Vox Day) started a similar movement, called Rabid Puppies.

Beale is an online commentator and writer of the sort who repackages bland, mainstream and American-centred right wing views as something controversial and rebellious. Using his ties to other disruptive online groups (including members of Gamer Gate), Beale was able to get much of his own work on to the Hugo nominees list.

Other surprising entries caused by this disruption includes Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The Cutie Map.

Worldcon and the Hugo Awards are managed by its members and rule changes have a two-year lead. The rules have been adjusted to reduce this sort of disruption in the future, which means 2017’s Hugo list should make for a more interesting read.

The 2016 Hugo Awards will be presented on the evening of Saturday, August 20th at a ceremony at MidAmeriCon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention. More information on the Hugo Awards can be found here. Below is a list of the nominees, straight from MidAmeriCon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention.

BEST NOVEL (3695 ballots)

·Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit)

·The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher (Roc)

·The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

·Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)

·Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

BEST NOVELLA (2416 ballots)

·Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)

·The Builders by Daniel Polansky (Tor.com)

·Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum)

·Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson (Dragonsteel Entertainment)

·Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds (Tachyon)

BEST NOVELETTE (1975 ballots)

·And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead by Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed, Feb 2015)

·Flashpoint: Titan by CHEAH Kai Wai (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)

·Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, trans. Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan‐Feb 2015)

·Obits by Stephen King (The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Scribner)

·What Price Humanity? by David VanDyke (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)

BEST SHORT STORY (2451 ballots)

·Asymmetrical Warfare by S. R. Algernon (Nature, Mar 2015)

·The Commuter by Thomas A. Mays (Stealth)

·If You Were an Award, My Love by Juan Tabo and S. Harris (voxday.blogspot.com, Jun 2015)

·Seven Kill Tiger by Charles Shao (There Will Be War Volume X, Castalia House)

·Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle (Amazon Digital Services)

BEST RELATED WORK (2080 ballots)

·Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951 to 1986 by Marc Aramini (Castalia House)

·The First Draft of My Appendix N Book by Jeffro Johnson (castaliahouse.com)

·Safe Space as Rape Room by Daniel Eness (castaliahouse.com)

·SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police by Vox Day (Castalia House)

·The Story of Moira Greyland by Moira Greyland (askthebigot.com)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY (1838 ballots)

·The Divine written by Boaz Lavie, art by Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka (First Second)

·Erin Dies Alone written by Grey Carter, art by Cory Rydell (dyingalone.net)

·Full Frontal Nerdity by Aaron Williams (ffn.nodwick.com)

·Invisible Republic Vol 1 written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, art by Gabriel Hardman (Image Comics)

·The Sandman: Overture written by Neil Gaiman, art by J.H. Williams III (Vertigo)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (LONG FORM) (2904 ballots)

·Avengers: Age of Ultron written and directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

·Ex Machina written and directed by Alex Garland (Film4; DNA Films; Universal Pictures)

·Mad Max: Fury Road written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris, directed by George Miller (Village Roadshow Pictures; Kennedy Miller Mitchell; RatPac‐Dune Entertainment; Warner Bros. Pictures)

·The Martian screenplay by Drew Goddard, directed by Ridley Scott (Scott Free Productions; Kinberg Genre; TSG Entertainment; 20th Century Fox)

·Star Wars: The Force Awakens written by Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams, and Michael Arndt, directed by J.J. Abrams (Lucasfilm Ltd.; Bad Robot Productions; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (SHORT FORM) (2219 ballots)

·Doctor Who: “Heaven Sent” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay (BBC Television)

·Grimm: “Headache” written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, directed by Jim Kouf (Universal Television; GK Productions; Hazy Mills Productions; Open 4 Business Productions; NBCUniversal Television Distribution)

·Jessica Jones: “AKA Smile” written by Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, and Jamie King, directed by Michael Rymer (Marvel Television; ABC Studios; Tall Girls Productions; Netflix)

·My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: “The Cutie Map” Parts 1 and 2written by Scott Sonneborn, M.A. Larson, and Meghan McCarthy, directed by Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller (DHX Media/Vancouver; Hasbro Studios)

·Supernatural: “Just My Imagination” written by Jenny Klein, directed by Richard Speight Jr. (Kripke Enterprises; Wonderland Sound and Vision; Warner Bros. Television)

BEST EDITOR – SHORT FORM (1891 ballots)

·John Joseph Adams

·Neil Clarke

·Ellen Datlow

·Jerry Pournelle

·Sheila Williams

BEST EDITOR – LONG FORM (1764 ballots)

·Vox Day

·Sheila E. Gilbert

·Liz Gorinsky

·Jim Minz

·Toni Weisskopf

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST (1481 ballots)

·Lars Braad Andersen

·Larry Elmore

·Abigail Larson

·Michal Karcz

·Larry Rostant

BEST SEMIPROZINE (1457 ballots)

·Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews, Nicole Lavigne, and Kate Marshall

·Daily Science Fiction edited by Michele‐Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden

·Sci Phi Journal edited by Jason Rennie

·Strange Horizons edited by Catherine Krahe, Julia Rios, A. J. Odasso, Vanessa Rose Phin, Maureen Kincaid Speller, and the Strange Horizons staff

·Uncanny Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, and Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky

BEST FANZINE (1455 ballots)

·Black Gate edited by John O’Neill

·Castalia House Blog edited by Jeffro Johnson

·File 770 edited by Mike Glyer

·Superversive SF edited by Jason Rennie

·Tangent Online edited by Dave Truesdale

BEST FANCAST (1267 ballots)

·8-4 Play, Mark MacDonald, John Ricciardi, Hiroko Minamoto, and Justin Epperson

·Cane and Rinse, Cane and Rinse

·HelloGreedo, HelloGreedo

·The Rageaholic, RazörFist

·Tales to Terrify, Stephen Kilpatrick

BEST FAN WRITER (1568 ballots)

·Douglas Ernst

·Mike Glyer

·Morgan Holmes

·Jeffro Johnson

·Shamus Young

BEST FAN ARTIST (1073 ballots)

·Matthew Callahan

·disse86

·Kukuruyo

·Christian Quinot

·Steve Stiles

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (1922 ballots)

·Pierce Brown *

·Sebastien de Castell *

·Brian Niemeier

·Andy Weir *

·Alyssa Wong *

* Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.