podcast friday

[sabotabby]

 I guess I've been remiss in not plugging Wizards & Spaceships' November episode, "The Great 2023 Hugo Awards Controversy ft. Diane Lacey." I realize that 2023 was approximately a decade ago but trust me, there are still new details to be learned here. And the SFFH community can hang on to a Hugos drama well after a year—witness the fact that Sad Puppies started almost a decade ago and we are still dealing with that.

Anyway, if you've been under a rock or you just don't care about genre awards drama, the 2023 Hugos in Chengdu were marred by the exclusion of authors, disproportionately Chinese, ostensibly because they would have faced government repression in China. The CPC has done many bad things; however, this really had nothing to do with them and at least some of these authors and titles are quite popular there, actually. Diane Lacey, as a member of the Hugos Committee, blew the whistle on the behind-the-scenes drama, and in this episode, the hosts interview her for her take on what went wrong.

The audio is a little janky because it was live, but it's still worth listening to, I promise.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I started in SFFH fandom so I should really listen to this. With a big drink in hand.

[sabotabby]

Hah definitely.

[greylock]

If you've been under a rock or you just don't care about genre awards drama

This is me. And I know about it. Sadly.

But, hype your product!

[sabotabby]

I tried to ignore it for like a really long time.

[greylock]

I'm actually shocked it wasn't this year.

Admittedly, I don't pay a lot of attention to awards (Hugos, especially). But I guess you'll get these blips every few years.
The poor old Hugos have had a rough decade.

[xturtle]

Oh, man. We just briefly entertained a worldcon bid at our board retreat (one of our new members has worked on bids before, wanted to give us the chance to say "oh, hell no, our concom would riot" from a knowledgeable standpoint). There is not a level of self loathing I could reach that would make me take that on, let alone organize it after a successful bid. I need a nap just thinking about it, so my thanks and admiration to Diane for doing it in the first place, and then trying to shine a light on what went wrong.

Also, LMAO at the SMOF shade. Yes. Yes to all of it,

[sabotabby]

Diane is a super lovely and nice person and dear god can she throw shade. And also I think tried her best to do what was right.

I met the folks bidding for Montreal and I dearly hope it happens. I thought I might be able to make Seattle this summer, but it's just not going to work out, and Montreal would be actually conceivable to attend.