2023 Locus Awards Online Report

The Locus Awards were twofold this year: held online from June 21-24, 2023 and in person on June 24 in Preservation Park in downtown Oakland CA. Maggie Tokuda-Hall emceed the ceremony, with Connie Willis as special guest. There were 175 guests, with 90 at­tending virtually and 85 in person. Full members received access to virtual and in-person events, six months of digital Locus Magazine, book bags and swag, and more. Live-only and virtual-only memberships were available, as well as a sliding-scale virtual membership.

The online events included eight reading sessions held Wednesday to Friday evenings, with Eileen Gunn and Se­quoia Nagamatsu, John Chu and Kristina Ten, Tananarive Due and Suzanne Palmer, C.S.E. Cooney and Hannah Yang, Daniel Abraham and Maureen McHugh, Ai Jiang and Samantha Mills, R.S.A. Garcia and John Wiswell, and Ian Muneshwar and Connie Willis. Willis also taught the Locus Writing Masterclass on Sunday, June 25 in Preser­vation Park.

Saturday started with three well-attended panels, all held in person and livestreamed on Zoom: “The Idea Factory: Strategies for Invention” with Emily Flummox, Sumiko Saulson, Ysabeau S. Wilce, and Audrey T. Wil­liams; “Keeping the Thread: Weaving Complex Worlds into Engaging Stories” with Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Naseem Jamnia, Shweta Taneja, and Fran Wilde; and “You Got Your Comedy in My SF/F! How to Write with Humor” with Charlie Jane Anders, Gail Carriger, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, and Connie Willis.

After the panels there was a pre-award reception with Cuban tapas and a bar, where attendees mixed, mingled, and noshed. In-person attendees received free books courtesy of publishers and authors including Gail Carriger, DAW, MIT Press, Saga, Tachyon, and Tor & Tordotcom. Representatives from the East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meetup and the AfroSurreal Writers Workshop ran informational tables, and Dave Clark ran a Cargo Cult Books table with books for sale.

Editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi opened the awards by introducing MC Maggie Tokuda-Hall, who introduced the first award category, getting the ceremony off to a quick start. Most awards were accepted by video acceptance.

The Locus Award for Best Illustrated and Art Book went to Chivalry by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran. Doran thanked Gaiman for allowing her to adapt the story, and also thanked her co-letterer Todd Klein, editor Daniel Cha­bon, designers, and publisher. Gaiman said, “I felt it was incredibly well deserved, because in the case of this award I truly feel that it has nothing to do with me,” and added, “This award is for Colleen, but thank you. Thank you all.”

Charles Vess won the award for Best Artist, and de­scribed winning the award as “validation” of his career as an artist, “especially since it comes from artists and writers that I call my friends and that I call my community.”

The Best Non-Fiction Award went to Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography by Rob Wilkins. Wilkins said, “Terry Prachett won many awards during his illustrious career, but a Locus Award always held a special place in his heart, and I promise you this will remain in a special place in my own, so thank you.” He also thanked his publishers and contributors, his family, and the Pratchett family, and dedicated his win to Pratchett.

Ellen Datlow won the award for Best Editor, saying, “Thank you so much for honoring me with the Best Edi­tor Locus Award this year. I appreciate all your votes. I love you all.”

Best Publisher went to Tor and Best Magazine to Tor. com. Devi Pillai accepted on behalf of Tor, saying, “We are over the moon, and we couldn’t do it without all of the readers and the support that we have from everyone in the community. We also want to thank the authors and agents, and say thank you again to everyone.”

The award for Best Collection went to Sam J. Mill­er’s Boys, Beasts & Men. In a charming and creatively edited acceptance video, Miller said, “I’m really sorry I couldn’t be there with everybody, and thank you very much for voting for this award.” He also thanked his agent, publisher, editors, husband, and others. Jacob Weisman of Tachyon accepted the publisher scroll.

Best Anthology went to Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Ogh­enechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight. The editors thanked the contributors, publishers, agent, and readers of the anthology, as well as each other. Knight said, “We love uplifting more African and African diasporic voices, and this award is just the icing on the cake.”

The 2023 Locus Special Award went to the Carl Brandon Society for Developing Diversity in Genre Communities. Yang-Yang Wang accepted with a big “Heck yeah!” and discussed the organization’s work providing scholarships to speculative fiction writers of color. Wang said, “Like the authors and artist communities we support, our work has gone a bit under-noticed and underappreciated, so this recognition is a huge deal for us. On behalf of the entire Carl Brandon Society, thank you for this honor. It’s given us something huge to celebrate!”

Special guest Connie Willis entertained the crowd with commentary on topics including “psychic vampire repellent spray,” candles that may or may not smell like Gwyneth Paltrow, backyard bat boxes, fine-print warnings, and cruise ship foibles. The “Second Banana” Awards were given to Ysabeau Wilce for her generosity and to Fran Wilde for her friendship and support.“Rabbit Test” by Samantha Mills won Best Short Story. Mills accepted in person, and spoke about writing the story: “If there’s one thing I’ve taken from it, it’s write the thing you can’t stop thinking about. Write the thing that’s so bound up in the current moment that you’re living that you might as well slap the date on the bottom and sign off. Just write it.” She thanked Lynne M. & Michael Damian Thomas and the Uncanny publishing team, among others.

Best Novelette went to “If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You” by John Chu. Chu accepted with a song, thanking Lynne M. & Michael Damian Thomas and the Uncanny publishing team, and congratulating the other finalists.

Becky Chambers’s A Prayer for the Crown-Shy won the Best Novella category. Editor Lee Harris accepted on her behalf, saying, “In these oft-troubled times, Becky’s words are a welcome distraction from the horrors around us; it’s no wonder her readers love her work so much.”

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler took Best First Novel. Nayler thanked publisher Sean McDonald and agent Seth Fishman, as well as his wife and daughter.

Best YA Book went to Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak by Charlie Jane Anders. Anders accepted in person, and said, “Any art that you can make in the face of sorrow is good art. I set out to write a fun, goofy space opera, but then I had to make it super gay, because we need extrava­gant queerness to help us get through everything right now.” She thanked editor Miriam Weinberg, agent Russell Galen, and others.

The Best Horror Novel went to T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead. Tokuda-Hall read a speech from King­fisher thanking her agent, editors, and “the whole crew at Locus,” among others.

Best fantasy novel went to Babel by R.F. Kuang. In her acceptance video, Kuang emphasized the importance of “collective action, and the power of strikes.”

John Scalzi won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for The Kaiju Preservation Society. Scalzi accepted with his usual humor and a short interpreta­tive dance, saying, “There are so many people to thank that I couldn’t possibly do it all in the time allotted” and ending with a simple, “thank you!”

The evening wrapped up with Connie Willis thanking voters and members, the publishers who donated books, and sponsors Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Inflection AI and partner at Greylock; Cal Henderson, co-founder and chief technology officer of Slack; and Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. MC Mag­gie Tokuda-Hall, who carried the night with her wit and humor, finished with a heartfelt speech about the times we live in and the continued need to stand up to those systems that favor the few. “Let us celebrate each other all along the way. Hold each other up in a world that would see us brought to our knees. Lift up each other’s voices and value each other. We are the few. We are the nerdy. We are the brave.”

The ceremony was streamed out on Zoom on a public link, but there were technical issues with the YouTube stream, and the recording. A version of the awards video is available at the Locus YouTube channel.

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