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Hugo Short Stories 2026
Sep. 5th, 2026 06:46 pmI read most of the Novelette and Short Story nominees in one go during an airport adventure and flight home that felt like the repayment of years of good flying karma. So I may be judging these with less tact than I should.
"Six People to Revise You" by J.R. Dawson: Okay, I get it. What if you could do a surgery to fix the parts of your personality you don't like? What an arresting idea! Would you do it? Why would you do it, or not do it? What pressures would you feel to change yourself?
This is not that story, it's using counting as a structure element, and there are color-coded physical paper forms as part of the process. In a story published in 2025. Perhaps I am showing my preferences and age, but aren't we in the era of emailing PDFs and filling out forms on website portals? Okay, back to the story: the conceit is an interesting way to talk about the different facets of a character, but I feel like that's not being used to full effect. It's got to be knit up and go somewhere. Along the same lines, ending on on a "you are fine the way you are" takeaway needs a little more nuance for me.
"In My Country" by Thomas Ha: censorship bad. Is there a second layer to the story that I am missing? Is there something I'm missing in the fates of the protagonist's children? Solid but not brilliant. Might need a reread to find the second layer.
"Wire Mother" by Isabel J. Kim: Teenager in a future where people have decided AIs are sentient enough to be a life companion, but the teenager believes AIs are programs, not people. Feels very of the moment in these days of AI psychosis. ("ChatGPT loves me" no, ChatGPT is programmed to affirm you, even if you're completely detached from reality, unless you manually set up a lot more guard rails than it sounds like you did.) I think this is a story that makes a good jumping-off point for AI discussions.
"10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days" by Samantha Mills: with two things I hate in the title, we're off to an iffy start. I am deeply suspicious of therapy talk outside therapy, and I am deeply suspicious of using numbered lists in place of alternative plot scaffolding.It often feels like a shortcut to managing the story organization or tension, and this (or the distracting tension headache as we waited for the gate crew to do their thing) did nothing to change my thoughts. I live in 2026, I don't need a surprise Hellmouth and its impact on a queer family, especially in second person present tense. Writers need to be on Tamsyn Muir levels of prose control before I will enjoy second person present tense, instead of asking, "now explain why this couldn't have been first person or third person PoV. No, not to me, now, make it evident in the story." I think it's for the last line, but I have to get there though the nails-on-chalk reading experience, which is not the best mindset to be in when reading.
"Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything" by Effie Seiberg: disabled protagonist is discriminated against by the local chapter of the superheroes union. Straight-up revenge of the character who just wants an ADA compliant ramp.
"Missing Helen" by Tia Tashiro: every time someone names a character Helen, I think, "of Troy?" This has nothing to do with Nolan Odyssey Summer, it's the relationship of a clone and the woman who sold her cloning rights for college money. I was all for it until the very end, when the story ends on a "will she / won't see" note. I like a little decisiveness in my conclusions, especially when the story is about a decisive character!
Ranking: Wire Mother, Helen, County, Laser Eyes, Six, Ten, No Award.
"Six People to Revise You" by J.R. Dawson: Okay, I get it. What if you could do a surgery to fix the parts of your personality you don't like? What an arresting idea! Would you do it? Why would you do it, or not do it? What pressures would you feel to change yourself?
This is not that story, it's using counting as a structure element, and there are color-coded physical paper forms as part of the process. In a story published in 2025. Perhaps I am showing my preferences and age, but aren't we in the era of emailing PDFs and filling out forms on website portals? Okay, back to the story: the conceit is an interesting way to talk about the different facets of a character, but I feel like that's not being used to full effect. It's got to be knit up and go somewhere. Along the same lines, ending on on a "you are fine the way you are" takeaway needs a little more nuance for me.
"In My Country" by Thomas Ha: censorship bad. Is there a second layer to the story that I am missing? Is there something I'm missing in the fates of the protagonist's children? Solid but not brilliant. Might need a reread to find the second layer.
"Wire Mother" by Isabel J. Kim: Teenager in a future where people have decided AIs are sentient enough to be a life companion, but the teenager believes AIs are programs, not people. Feels very of the moment in these days of AI psychosis. ("ChatGPT loves me" no, ChatGPT is programmed to affirm you, even if you're completely detached from reality, unless you manually set up a lot more guard rails than it sounds like you did.) I think this is a story that makes a good jumping-off point for AI discussions.
"10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days" by Samantha Mills: with two things I hate in the title, we're off to an iffy start. I am deeply suspicious of therapy talk outside therapy, and I am deeply suspicious of using numbered lists in place of alternative plot scaffolding.It often feels like a shortcut to managing the story organization or tension, and this (or the distracting tension headache as we waited for the gate crew to do their thing) did nothing to change my thoughts. I live in 2026, I don't need a surprise Hellmouth and its impact on a queer family, especially in second person present tense. Writers need to be on Tamsyn Muir levels of prose control before I will enjoy second person present tense, instead of asking, "now explain why this couldn't have been first person or third person PoV. No, not to me, now, make it evident in the story." I think it's for the last line, but I have to get there though the nails-on-chalk reading experience, which is not the best mindset to be in when reading.
"Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything" by Effie Seiberg: disabled protagonist is discriminated against by the local chapter of the superheroes union. Straight-up revenge of the character who just wants an ADA compliant ramp.
"Missing Helen" by Tia Tashiro: every time someone names a character Helen, I think, "of Troy?" This has nothing to do with Nolan Odyssey Summer, it's the relationship of a clone and the woman who sold her cloning rights for college money. I was all for it until the very end, when the story ends on a "will she / won't see" note. I like a little decisiveness in my conclusions, especially when the story is about a decisive character!
Ranking: Wire Mother, Helen, County, Laser Eyes, Six, Ten, No Award.
