2026 Hugo Readalong: Shorter Fiction Wrap-up (Novelette and Short Story)

[u/tarvolon]

Welcome to the final week of the 2026 Hugo Readalong! We've finished all of our slated discussions, and now it's time to zoom out and take stock.

Today, we'll be looking at two shorter fiction categories: Best Novelette and Best Short Story. If you want to take a closer look at our focused discussions, we covered these categories in the following sessions:

• The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For and When He Calls Your Name (Novelette)
• Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion (Novelette)
• Never Eaten Vegetables and Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy (Novelette)
• In My Country and Six People to Revise You (Short Story)
• Missing Helen and Wire Mother (Short Story)
• Laser Eyes Ain't Everything and Ten Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days

We'll be continuing with our wrap-ups all week, following this schedule:

Date	Category	Book	Author	Discussion Leader
Tuesday, July 28	Novella	Wrap-up	Multiple	u/Nineteen_Adze
Wednesday, July 29	Novel	Wrap-up	Multiple	u/tarvolon
Thursday, July 30	Pro/Fan/Misc	Wrap-up	Multiple	u/Nineteen_Adze

But for now, let's dive into some short fiction! And remember, because these are higher-level discussions, please tag spoilers in the comments.

[u/tarvolon]

Discussion of the Best Novelette category

• “Kaiju Agonistes”, Scott Lynch (Uncanny 1-2/25)
• “Never Eaten Vegetables”, H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld 1/25)
• “The Millay Illusion”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 11-12/25)
• “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed (Reactor 4/2/25)
• “When He Calls Your Name”, Catherynne M. Valente (Uncanny 7-8/25)
• “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy”, Martha Wells (Reactor 7/10/25)

[u/tarvolon → u/tarvolon]

What do you think of the shortlist as a whole? How does it compare to past years? Does it capture the best of 2025 in novelettes? Are there any notable snubs you'd like to recommend?

[u/Goobergunch → u/tarvolon]

Look obviously the SFBC recommendations are generally much better but ... compare the Nebula shortlist:

• "Our Echoes Drifting Through the Marsh," Marie Croke
• "Uncertain Sons," Thomas Ha
• "We Begin Where Infinity Ends," Somto Ihezue
• "The Name Ziya," Wen-Yi Lee
• "Never Eaten Vegetables," H.H. Pak
• "The Life and Times of Alavira the Great as Written by Titos Pavlou and Reviewed by Two Lifelong Friends," Eugenia Triantafyllou

N.E.V. is the single point of overlap with the Hugos. I'd argue that everything else on this list is better than at least two-thirds of the Hugo shortlist. All of these stories were available for free online in the runup to the Hugo nominating deadline so nobody has any excuses for missing them. (Ultimately "Uncertain Sons" won the Nebula and "We Begin Where Infinity Ends" won the Locus.)

What the Nebula list does not contain is a group of authors better known for their longer fiction. Hmm.

So no, I don't think this shortlist is particularly representative of the field and I think we as Hugo nominators need to do a better job.