Nebula Awards Books In Order

Publication Order of Nebula Awards Books

The Nebula Award Showcase is an annual science fiction and fantasy anthology. The anthology collects stories that have either been nominated or won a Nebula Award. Each edition is released with the previous year’s winners being recognized. The Nebula Award is given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The series began in 1996 and has continued yearly ever since.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight as a way to support, promote, defend, and advocate for its members. The organization did that right from the start as they fought to get J.R.R. Tolkien fair recompense in America for pirate sales of his The Lord of the Rings books. The organization also made a stand in 2009 when they opposed the Google Book Settlement.

The series is known by multiple titles, but has most recently been released as the Nebula Awards Showcase. The series starts as Nebula Award Stories before changing to Nebula Winners, back to Nebula Award Stories, and then Nebula Awards before finally settling on the Nebula Awards Showcase name that has been the case since volume 34. The series have had numerous editors of the years with big names like Silvia Moreno-Garcia, James Morrow, Gordon R. Dickson, Julie E. Czerneda, Ben Bova, and Jane Yolen. In addition to the annual anthology, the SFWA also has the annual SFWA Nebula Conference, the SFWA Reception in New York, and the SFWA Reading Series.

Each volume of this series is different, but they typically include an introduction and then a selection of stories. The book contains the stories that won the Nebula Awards for Best Novella, Best Novelette and Best Short Story for the year covered as well as a selection of stories that were nominated that year. In addition to that, the series will often include excerpts from the books that won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and Andre Norton Award. The editions will feature tributes to prominent authors who have passed, authors who have been voted Grand Master, and poems that won the Rhysling Award and Dwarf Stars Award.

It has been said that winning or being nominated for a Nebula Award can help an author’s career. It is something that publishers pay close attention to and readers will also pay close attention to when they are looking for new authors to read.

The distinction between short story, novelette, and novella are confusing to some. The Nebula Awards takes the stories and breaks them down by the amount of words in the story. So a story with 7500 words or less is considered a short story, a story with 7500 to 17,500 words is a novelette, and a story with between 17,500 and 40,000 is a novellas. Anything over 40,000 words is a novel.

The series started in 1965 with the release of Nebula Award Stories 1965. The book includes the Best Novellette winner The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth by Roger Zelazny and the Best Short Story winner “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman by the great Harlan Ellison. One standout story among the nominees is Becalmed in Hell by Larry Niven.

Nebula Award Stories 11 is the 1976 award edition that is edited by Ursula K. Le Guin. Standout stories in this book are End Game by Joe Haldeman, Shatterday by Harlan Ellison, and Time Deer by Craig Strete. The book also features the Best Novella winner Home is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny and Catchy That Zeppelin!” by Fritz Leiber that won the Best Short Story award.

The great Kim Stanley Robinson edited Nebula Awards Showcase 2002. The book really highlights the change in genre at the tie as the stories mostly have a dark humor and philosophical bent. Daddy’s World by Walter Jon Williams won the Best Novelette award that year and macs by Terry Bisson was the Best Short Story award winner. The set also features Goddesses by Linda Nagata, that year’s Best Novella winner.

Mexican-Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia edited the Nebula Awards Showcase 2019. Her introduction was praised as “introduction is one of the most powerful non-fiction pieces I’ve read in a Nebula anthology in a long time” by John ONeill of blackgate.com. This is a jam-packed anthology with 13 stories as well as biographies of the authors and the introduction by Moreno-Garcia. Utopia, LOL? by Jamie Wahls, Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time by K.M. Szpara, and A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad are some of the better non-winners in this set. Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse was the 2018 winner of the Best Short Story. All Systems Red by Martha Wells was the Best Novella winner.