Literary award · United States · since 1955
Hugo Award for Best Short Story
Literary award for science fiction or fantasy stories in English. Established 1955 in United States.
About Hugo Award for Best Short Story
The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of fewer than 7,500 words; awards are also given out for pieces of longer lengths in the novelette, novella, and novel categories. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". The Hugo Award for Best Short Story has been awarded annually since 1955, except in 1957. The award was titled "Best Short Fiction" rather than "Best Short Story" in 1960–1966.
From the Wikipedia article “Hugo Award for Best Short Story”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recent winners
| Year | Winner | Winning work |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Thomas Ha | In My Country |
| 2025 | Nghi Vo | Stitched to Skin Like Family Is |
| 2024 | Naomi Kritzer | Better Living Through Algorithms |
| 2023 | Samantha Mills | Rabbit Test |
| 2022 | Sarah Pinsker | Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather |
| 2021 | Ursula Vernon | Metal Like Blood in the Dark |
| 2020 | S. L. Huang | None |
| 2019 | Alix E. Harrow | A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies |
From Wikidata; the list may be incomplete for some years.
Eligibility and entering
Check the official rules of the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.
If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.
Sources & data
- Structured data from Wikidata Q1056251 (CC0).
- Summary text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).