Finalists for the 2021 SFWA Nebula Awards Announced

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have announced the finalists for this year’s Nebula Awards for works first published in 2020, along with contenders for the Ray Bradbury and Andre Norton Awards.

Each year, the organization’s members vote on which stories they consider to be the best novel, novella, novelette, short story and Young Adult story in the genre, as well as the best game writing and best outstanding dramatic presentation.

The Nebula Awards will be announced on June 5 2021.

Novel

• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
• The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
• Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
• The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
• Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
• Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom Publishing)

Novella

• “Tower of Mud and Straw,” Yaroslav Barsukov (Metaphorosis)
• Finna, Nino Cipri (Tordotcom Publishing)
• Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom Publishing)
• “Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon,” Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo)
• The Four Profound Weaves, R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)
• Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom Publishing)

Novelette

• “Stepsister,” Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20)
• “The Pill,” Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
• “Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super,” A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20)
• “Two Truths and a Lie,” Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
• “Where You Linger,” Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• “Shadow Prisons,” Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as “The Shadow Prison Experiment,” “Shadow Prisons of the Mind,” and “The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma,” Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)

Short Story

• “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse,” Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• “Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math,” Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20)
• “A Guide for Working Breeds,” Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
• “The Eight-Thousanders,” Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20)
• “My Country Is a Ghost,” Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• “Open House on Haunted Hill,” John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)

The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction

• Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
• Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
• A Game of Fox & Squirrels, Jenn Reese (Holt)
• Star Daughter, Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)

Game Writing

• Blaseball, Stephen Bell, Joel Clark, Sam Rosenthal (The Game Band)
• Hades, Greg Kasavin (Supergiant)
• Kentucky Route Zero, Jake Elliott (Cardboard Computer)
• The Luminous Underground, Phoebe Barton (Choice of Games)
• Scents & Semiosis, Sam Kabo Ashwell, Cat Manning, Caleb Wilson, Yoon Ha Lee (Self)
• Spiritfarer, Nicolas Guérin, Maxime Monast, Alex Tommi-Morin (Thunder Lotus Games)

The Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Drama Presentation

• Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Christina Hodson (Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Entertainment)
• The Expanse: “Gaugamela,” Dan Nowak (Amazon)
• The Good Place: “Whenever You’re Ready,” Michael Schur (NBC)
• Lovecraft Country Season 1, Misha Green, Shannon Houston, Kevin Lau, Wes Taylor, Ihuoma Ofordire, Jonathan I. Kidd, Sonya Winton-Odamtten (HBO Max)
• The Mandalorian: “The Tragedy,” Jon Favreau (Disney+)
• The Old Guard, Greg Rucka (Netflix)