Aaaaaand we're back

The Fall 2010 textbook season has washed over us like a tsunami and is now mostly behind us. Yikes. It's like one full month that gets deleted from all our lives. Something we missed in all the higher-education hoopla: the Hugo Awards were given out on September 5 at Aussiecon. For those who don't know, the Hugo is one of the most prestigious (perhaps the most prestigious) award for literary science fiction or fantasy. Also the Hugo has always had a special place in my heart; the first winner was a novel that continues to be very dear to me: The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester.

And the winners are:

BEST NOVEL
[Tie for first place]
The City & the City by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

BEST NOVELLA
“Palimpsest” by Charles Stross (Wireless; Ace; Orbit)

BEST NOVELETTE
“The Island” by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2; Eos)

BEST SHORT STORY
“Bridesicle” by Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)

BEST RELATED WORK
This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”) by Jack Vance (Subterranean)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY
Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm
Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – LONG FORM
Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – SHORT FORM
Doctor Who: “The Waters of Mars”
Written by Russell T Davies and Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM
Patrick Nielsen Hayden

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM
Ellen Datlow

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
Shaun Tan

BEST SEMIPROZINE
Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace and Cheryl Morgan

BEST FAN WRITER
Frederik Pohl

BEST FANZINE
StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith

BEST FAN ARTIST
Brad W. Foster

THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER
Seanan McGuire

(via Wired)
(image generously licensed under Creative Commons from the Flickr photostream of the renowned blogger and prolific spaceman that Earth people call Cory Doctorow)