Leaked emails from the organisers of the prestigious Hugo awards for science fiction and fantasy suggest several authors were excluded from shortlists last year after they were flagged for comments or works that could be viewed as sensitive in China.
The news sparked consternation in the science fiction community, with many fans and authors expressing concern that the awards had been tainted by censorship.
In an email on 5 June 2023, Dave McCarty, the head of the 2023 Hugo awards jury, wrote: “We need to highlight anything of a sensitive political nature in the work.
The emails were leaked by another member of the 2023 Hugo administration team, Diane Lacey, to Chris M Barkley and Jason Sanford, science fiction writers who are also journalists.
In the emails, Lacey had flagged one of Zhao’s books as being “a reimagining of the rise of the Chinese empress Wu Zetian”, adding: “I don’t know if that would be a negative in China.”
They are administered by the World Science Fiction Society, a loose collective of fans who vote for their favourite works or authors across more than a dozen categories before the annual conference, Worldcon, which is held in a different city each year.
The original article contains 676 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Leaked emails from the organisers of the prestigious Hugo awards for science fiction and fantasy suggest several authors were excluded from shortlists last year after they were flagged for comments or works that could be viewed as sensitive in China.
The news sparked consternation in the science fiction community, with many fans and authors expressing concern that the awards had been tainted by censorship.
In an email on 5 June 2023, Dave McCarty, the head of the 2023 Hugo awards jury, wrote: “We need to highlight anything of a sensitive political nature in the work.
The emails were leaked by another member of the 2023 Hugo administration team, Diane Lacey, to Chris M Barkley and Jason Sanford, science fiction writers who are also journalists.
In the emails, Lacey had flagged one of Zhao’s books as being “a reimagining of the rise of the Chinese empress Wu Zetian”, adding: “I don’t know if that would be a negative in China.”
They are administered by the World Science Fiction Society, a loose collective of fans who vote for their favourite works or authors across more than a dozen categories before the annual conference, Worldcon, which is held in a different city each year.
The original article contains 676 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!