Executive Overview
The release of official voting statistics from LAcon V, the 83rd World Science Fiction Convention, offers an unprecedented look into the voting behavior, administrative mechanics, and shifting preferences of global speculative fiction fandom. Featuring significant increases in participation across both nomination and final ballot phases, the 2026 awards demonstrated strong voter engagement alongside subtle dynamics inherent to ranked-choice preference tallies.
A total of 2,492 valid final ballots (including just two paper ballots) were cast for LAcon V, representing a nearly 27% increase over the 1,962 ballots cast at Seattle Worldcon in 2025. Nominating participation similarly surged, rising to 1,488 valid ballots (six paper) compared to 1,338 the previous year.
Among the standout headlines, Alix E. Harrow secured her second Hugo Award for Best Novel with The Everlasting, leading comfortably across all six rounds of voting. In contrast, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book produced one of the most dramatic upsets in recent Hugo history: C.B. Lee’s Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe—which initially entered the final ballot with the fewest nominating votes—catapulted to victory over global bestseller Suzanne Collins’s Sunrise on the Reaping through second- and third-preference vote transfers.
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Beyond headline victories, the statistics reveal significant administrative decisions, including series disqualifications driven by strict word-count thresholds, complex cross-category eliminations within dramatic presentation, and the formal ratification of new permanent categories.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Voting Mechanics and Eligibility
To understand the margins and movement within the LAcon V Hugo results, one must examine the two distinct mathematical frameworks governing the nomination and final voting stages: the E Pluribus Hugo (EPH) system and the Australian Preference Voting System (Instant Runoff Voting).
[ NOMINATION PHASE ] [ FINAL BALLOT PHASE ]
Voter Selects Candidates Ranked-Choice Ballot (1 to 6)
│ │
▼ ▼
E Pluribus Hugo (EPH) Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)
──── Point Division System ──── ──── Round-by-Round Transfer ────
- Assigns 1 pt divided by N - Count 1st-place votes
- Dropped if lowest points - Eliminate lowest candidate
- Finalists narrowed to 6 - Redistribute preferences
- Repeat until majority reachedThe Nomination Phase: E Pluribus Hugo (EPH)
Introduced in 2017 to mitigate the impact of slate or bloc voting, EPH alters how nominating choices are weighted. Under EPH:
- Every voter’s ballot carries a total weight of one point, which is divided equally among all nominees listed on that specific ballot (e.g., if a voter nominates five works in a category, each receives 0.2 points).
- The point totals across all ballots are aggregated for each nominee.
- The two nominees with the fewest points are compared, and the nominee with the lower raw vote count (nominations) is eliminated.
- This point-calculation and elimination loop repeats until six finalists remain.
Because EPH dynamically recalibrates point values upon every elimination, determining exact runner-up margins was historically complex. However, official Hugo administration statistics now directly provide the margin by which the sixth-place finalist secured a spot over the first candidate eliminated during the final EPH processing step.
The Final Tally: Australian Ranked-Choice Preference System
The final winner is determined via Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). Voters rank finalists from most to least preferred.
- Round One: Only first-place votes (including "No Award") are counted. If a work captures an absolute majority (>50%), it wins.
- Subsequent Rounds: If no candidate holds a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes in that round is eliminated. That candidate’s ballots are redistributed to the remaining contenders based on the next valid preference listed on each individual ballot.
- Determining Subsequent Places: Once a first-place winner is declared, second place is calculated by removing the winner from all original ballots, promoting lower choices up one rank, and repeating the runoff process from scratch. Third, fourth, fifth, and sixth places are derived identically.
Administrative & Rules Enforcement
The LAcon V administration enforced several strict eligibility criteria that altered the candidate pool across major categories:
- Word-Count Thresholds for Series: To qualify for Best Series, a work must possess at least 240,000 total words, with at least 240,000 new words published since its last appearance on a final ballot. Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series was ruled ineligible due to having fewer than 240,000 new words since 2019, while Nghi Vo’s The Singing Hills Cycle fell short of the 240,000 total word baseline.
- Cross-Category Media Rules: Under Hugo regulations governing Dramatic Presentation, an entire television season and individual episodes of the same show cannot compete across both Long Form and Short Form simultaneously if voters nominate both. Because more voters nominated Andor (Season 2) in Long Form, three highly nominated individual episodes were removed from the Short Form ballot. Conversely, Murderbot garnered stronger support for individual episodes, resulting in the full season being excluded from Long Form to allow standalone episodes to compete in Short Form.
Detailed Chronology & Category Breakdown
Fiction Categories
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ BEST NOVEL - FINALIST PLACINGS │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1st Place: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Led all 6 rounds) │
│ 2nd Place: The Incandescent by Emily Tesh │
│ 3rd Place: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett │
│ 4th Place: The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson │
│ 5th Place: Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor │
│ 6th Place: Shroud │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Best Novel
Alix E. Harrow secured her second Hugo Award (and seventh overall nomination) with The Everlasting, dominating the category from the initial tally through all six IRV rounds. Emily Tesh’s The Incandescent, which entered the final ballot with the highest total number of nominations, maintained a steady second-place performance to earn second overall.
The battle for third place proved dynamic: Antonia Hodgson’s The Raven Scholar held an early lead through the first two transfer rounds, but Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Drop of Corruption mounted a late surge in rounds three and four to capture third. Hodgson ultimately claimed fourth place without challenge, followed by Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author in fifth and Shroud in sixth. The closest runner-up to miss the final ballot was R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis, which fell just three nominations short under EPH rules.
Best Novella
Amal El-Mohtar demonstrated absolute dominance in Best Novella with The River Has Roots. Coming into the finals with the highest nomination count, El-Mohtar led every single round of the runoff, marking her third Hugo win from three career nominations. The remaining places proceeded without positional shifts:
- 2nd Place: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
- 3rd Place: Cinder House by Freya Marske
- 4th Place: The Summer House by Naomi Novik
- 5th Place: What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher
- 6th Place: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
Nghi Vo’s A Mouthful of Dust was the top runner-up, needing 11 additional nominations to breach the ballot.
Best Novelette
H.H. Pak earned their first Hugo nomination and win with "Never Eaten Vegetables," leading all six rounds. Second place involved a tight contest: Scott Lynch’s "Kaiju Agonistes" led the opening two rounds, but Catherynne M. Valente’s "When He Calls Your Name" picked up significant preference redistributions following the elimination of Sarah Pinsker’s "The Millay Illusion," claiming second place in the fifth round.
Lynch then comfortably took third place. Fourth place produced a rare dead tie between Martha Wells’s "Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" (which had entering nomination honors) and Cameron Reed’s "The Girl My Mother Is Leaving Me For." John Scalzi’s "3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years" was the closest runner-up, missing the ballot by a fraction of a single nomination point.
Best Short Story
Thomas Ha clinched his first Hugo Award on his second nomination with "In My Country," maintaining an unbroken lead across six rounds. Isabel J. Kim’s "Wire Mother" initially led the second-place voting for two rounds before Samantha Mills’s "10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days" took the lead in rounds three and four; Kim ultimately surged back in round five to claim second. Tia Tashiro’s "Missing Helen" captured third place. J.R. Dawson’s "Six People to Revise You," despite having the most entering nominations, finished fifth. Angela Liu’s "Barbershops of the Floating City" missed the ballot by a single nomination.
Formats, Visual Arts & Dramatic Presentation
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DRAMATIC PRESENTATION CONTESTS │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ LONG FORM WINNER: Sinners (Led all 6 rounds without challenge) │
│ SHORT FORM WINNER: Murderbot: "All Systems Red" (5-round dominance) │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Best Series
John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series captured the Hugo in six rounds, earning Scalzi his fourth career Hugo from 14 nominations. Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series initially led the early preference rounds for second place, but when Elizabeth Bear’s White Space was eliminated, preference transfers propelled Katherine Addison’s The Chronicles of Osreth (the category’s nomination leader) into second place. October Daye took third, followed by White Space in fourth and Max Gladstone’s The Craft Wars in fifth.
Best Graphic Story
adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s foundational novel, won the category decisively. This marked Fordham’s first nomination and win, and the late Le Guin’s 9th Hugo win across 27 career nominations. Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford’s The Space Cat rallied after mid-round deficits to claim second place over Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman’s Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon.
Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form & Short Form
In Long Form, Ryan Coogler’s genre-infused horror Sinners dominated from entry to final tally, holding the most nominations and winning unranked through six rounds. Andor (Season 2) claimed second place unchallenged, while KPop Demon Hunters captured third in three rounds. Frankenstein defeated Superman for fourth place.
In Short Form, Murderbot: "All Systems Red" achieved a landslide victory, taking first place in just five rounds. A sister episode, Murderbot: "The Perimeter," claimed second place in four rounds. Notably, a third episode ("Free Commerce") was voluntarily withdrawn by showrunners due to the rule capping final ballot entries per franchise.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ BEST GAME OR INTERACTIVE WORK │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1st Place: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (1st-place vote lead throughout) │
│ 2nd Place: Hades II (Surged ahead in Round 4 with a 20-vote lead) │
│ 3rd Place: Blue Prince │
│ 4th Place: Hollow Knight: Silksong │
│ 5th Place: Dispatch │
│ 6th Place: Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Editorial, Professional & Fan Categories
- Best Editor Short Form: Neil Clarke secured his 5th win in this category (8th Hugo overall out of 18 nominations), comfortably leading across six rounds. Sheila Williams finished second, while Jennifer Brozek and Michael Damien Thomas tied for third.
- Best Editor Long Form: Diana M. Pho earned her 3rd Hugo win on 5 nominations, overcoming early close tallies to outpace nomination leader Lee Harris, who finished second.
- Best Professional Artist: John Picacio claimed his 4th Hugo victory on 19 career nominations, sweeping the category. Kelly Chong mounted a late surge to capture second place over early leader Tran Nguyen.
- Best Semiprozine: Uncanny Magazine won its 9th Hugo Award from 11 nominations, leading every round effortlessly. Strange Horizons took second.
- Best Fanzine: nerds of a feather flock together pulled off a major comeback win. An Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog entered with the most nominations and led the first four rounds, but when Journey Planet was eliminated, its transferred votes propelled nerds of a feather into first place in the sixth round.
- Best Fancast: Hugo, Girl! executed a dramatic sixth-round surge, overcoming Worldbuilding for Masochists by nine points to secure its second win on four nominations.
- Best Fan Writer: Jason Sanford won his first Hugo Award on his seventh nomination, surging past early leader James Davis Nicoll in the fourth round. Roseanna Pendlebury took second place.
- Best Fan Artist: Yuumei won on her first nomination, leading all five rounds decisively over Geneva Bowers.
- Best Poem: Elis Montgomery’s "Hex Supply Customer Support Log" won all six rounds decisively.
YA & New Writer Awards (Non-Hugo)
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YA BOOK - IRV COMEBACK │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Initial Nomination Leader: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins │
│ Initial Voting Leader: Sunrise on the Reaping (Rounds 1-4) │
│ WINNER (Round 5 Surge): Coffeeshop in Alternate Universe (C.B. Lee) │
│ │
│ Dynamic: Lee entered with fewest nominations and 4th place in Round 1. │
│ Transfer of lower-ranked preferences from eliminated titles (such as │
│ Trang Thanh Tran's They Bloom at Night) powered Lee to 1st place. │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book
The Lodestar Award provided the quintessential example of Australian Preference Voting dynamics. Suzanne Collins’s blockbuster Sunrise on the Reaping came in with the most nominations and commanded a strong lead in first-place votes through four rounds. However, C.B. Lee’s Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe—which had qualified with the lowest nomination count and held fourth place in early rounds—accumulated a massive wave of second- and third-preference choices as other books dropped out.
When Trang Thanh Tran’s They Bloom at Night was eliminated, its preferences heavily favored Lee, surging her ahead of Collins in the fifth and final round. Collins then entered the runoff for second place, but was edged out by Rachel Hartman’s Among Ghosts, ultimately taking fourth place overall.
Astounding Award for Best New Writer
Antonia Hodgson won the Astounding Award following her SF/F debut with The Raven Scholar. Hodgson led every round from entry to final tally. Hodgson’s eligibility had been evaluated and confirmed prior to voting: although she had published mainstream fiction previously, The Raven Scholar marked her first qualifying work containing speculative elements. Conversely, two prospective candidates—Barbara Truelove and Silvia Park—were ruled ineligible due to genre publications prior to the 2024 eligibility window.
Breakdown of Key Category Results
The table below summarizes the voting dynamics, final winners, nomination leaders, and closest runner-up statistics across all major categories at LAcon V:
| Category | Winner | Nomination Leader | Winning Margin Dynamic | Closest Runner-Up (Missed Ballot) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best Novel | The Everlasting (Alix E. Harrow) | The Incandescent | Unbroken lead across all 6 rounds | Katabasis (R.F. Kuang) – 3 nominations |
| Best Novella | The River Has Roots (Amal El-Mohtar) | The River Has Roots | Dominated all 6 rounds | A Mouthful of Dust (Nghi Vo) – 11 nominations |
| Best Novelette | "Never Eaten Vegetables" (H.H. Pak) | "Rapport…" (Martha Wells) | Unbroken lead across 6 rounds | "3 Days, 9 Months…" (John Scalzi) – <0.5 pts |
| Best Short Story | "In My Country" (Thomas Ha) | "Six People to Revise You" | Led all 6 rounds | "Barbershops…" (Angela Liu) – 1 nomination |
| Best Series | Old Man’s War (John Scalzi) | Chronicles of Osreth | Held early lead through round 6 | Sworn Soldier (T. Kingfisher) – 2 nominations |
| Best Graphic Story | A Wizard of Earthsea (Fordham / Le Guin) | The Invisible Parade | Unchallenged lead across 6 rounds | Who Killed Nessie? (Cornell / Smith) – 2 noms |
| Best Related Work | Inventing the Renaissance (Ada Palmer) | Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom | Led continuously from round 1 | We Will Rise Again (Lord et al.) – 8 nominations |
| Dramatic Presentation (Long) | Sinners | Sinners | Unchallenged 6-round victory | Pluribus – 1 nomination / cross-format rule |
| Dramatic Presentation (Short) | Murderbot: "All Systems Red" | Murderbot: "All Systems Red" | Landslide victory in 5 rounds | Star Trek: SNW: "Space Adventure…" – 9 noms |
| Best Game / Interactive | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Led all 6 rounds | Split Fiction – 11 nominations |
| Editor (Short Form) | Neil Clarke | Neil Clarke | Unbroken growth across 6 rounds | John Joseph Adams – 6 nominations |
| Editor (Long Form) | Diana M. Pho | Lee Harris | Overcame early close counts in Rd 6 | Navah Wolfe – 3 nominations |
| Professional Artist | John Picacio | John Picacio | Led all 6 rounds without challenge | Maurizio Manzieri – 1 nomination |
| Semiprozine | Uncanny Magazine | Strange Horizons | Led all 6 rounds unchallenged | The Sunday Morning Transport – 4 nominations |
| Fanzine | nerds of a feather flock together | Unofficial Hugo Book Club | Surged from behind in Round 6 | The Rec Center – 11 nominations |
| Fancast | Hugo, Girl! | Octothorpe | 6th-round surge (+9 points) | The Sword and Laser – 13 nominations |
| Fan Writer | Jason Sanford | James Davis Nicoll | Surged ahead in Round 4 | Cora Buhlert – 2 nominations |
| Fan Artist | Yuumei | Yuumei | Dominated in 5 rounds | Brad Foster – 2 nominations |
| Best Poem | "Hex Supply Customer Support Log" | "Care for Lightning" | Led continuously across 6 rounds | "the jacarandas…" (Gwynne Garfinkle) – 2 noms |
| Lodestar Award (YA) | Coffeeshop in Alternate Universe | Sunrise on the Reaping | IRV Comeback victory in Round 5 | Breath of the Dragon – 1 nomination (0.18 pts) |
| Astounding Award | Antonia Hodgson | Antonia Hodgson | Unbroken lead from entry to final | Carolyn Zhao – 2 nominations |
Official Statements & Procedural Clarifications
Pseudonyms and Ballot Display
During the administration of the Fan Writer category, the Hugo team encountered formatting questions regarding nominee Jay Brantner, who publishes under the pseudonym "Tar Vol" (or "TarVolon"). Because the vast majority of nominating ballots referenced variations of his pseudonym rather than his legal name, administrators initially published the ballot entry as Jay Brantner (for 'Tar Vol On') to prevent voter confusion. Following direct consultation with the author, who requested his real name appear alongside a clear indication of his pen name, administrators finalized the official listing as Jay Brantner (AKA "Tar Vol").
Administration Rulings on Category Scope
The Hugo Administration clarified the eligibility criteria applied to the Astounding Award:
"An author’s prior publication history outside the speculative fiction genre does not disqualify them from eligibility for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. Eligibility commences upon the publication of their first professional work of science fiction, fantasy, or related speculative fiction."
This interpretation validated Antonia Hodgson’s inclusion for The Raven Scholar, while reinforcing the exclusion of authors whose prior genre publications fell outside the active two-year window.
Future Outlook & Structural Evolution
The procedural data from LAcon V highlights key structural updates that will take effect at upcoming World Science Fiction Conventions:
- Renaming of Professional Artist Category: Beginning in 2027, the Best Professional Artist category will officially be renamed Best Artist in Professional Illustration. This change aims to clarify the scope of visual arts submissions and align the award title with contemporary commercial illustration standards.
- Permanent Status for Best Poem: The Best Poem category—initially introduced as a special Hugo Award at Seattle Worldcon 2025 and continued at LAcon V—passed its initial constitutional amendment in 2025 and achieved full ratification at LAcon V in 2026. It will become a permanent Hugo Award category starting in 2027, subject to standard re-ratification requirements in 2029.
- Refinement of Series & Multi-Format Rules: With continuous word-count tracking and cross-format exclusions playing a major role in category composition (notably in Best Series and Dramatic Presentation), administrators anticipate clearer submission guidelines to help nominators evaluate word counts and franchise entries prior to balloting.
Driven by a 27% surge in final voting engagement and robust nominating figures, the LAcon V Hugo Awards demonstrated both the steady appeal of established genre voices and the dramatic potential of ranked-choice voting to elevate emerging creators.
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