Good news for small publishers: according to Internet Review of Science Fiction (IROSF), the SemiProzine category in the Hugo Awards has been saved from extinction. At issue was the odd situation in which Locus Magazine was the shoo-in winner for the award for so long that the award seemed pointless; attendees at the last WorldCon therefore suggested that the category be ended.

Various interested publishers formed SemiProzine.org and suggested reforms to better define and save the category and were successful in their bid for at least few years.

Internet Review of Science Fiction reports that the category of "Semiprozine" is now safe from extinction in the Hugo Awards, at least for a few years. This was an early August story that *someone* (moi) missed. The semiprozine category was under the axe for a while, partly because some considered its definition weak, and perhaps because Locus Magazine seemed to have patented the award.

Several magazines in that category began a save-the-semiprozine campaign. Here is the full but short article on the saving of the Hugo semiprozine category.

The 2009 Hugo Awards winners are in. Here is the official, complete list of Hugo Award winners. Here is a selection of the winners:

• Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
• Best Novella: “The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
• Best Novelette: “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)
• Best Short Story: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
• Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio
• Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)
• Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola
  
• Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
  

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: David Anthony Durham

Here, you can see the details of the voting and nominations (PDFs).

We've already reported who is on the Hugo ballot, and made mention of some we're pulling for:

• “Article of Faith” by Mike Resnick (Mike has published with Flash Fiction Online)
  
• “Evil Robot Monkey” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Her story is a flash fiction piece)

We're hoping for a first-ever tie. If you're curious what the ballot looks like, you'll find it here. If you're handy with HTML, you could mock up a form and impress your friends (for a short while):

"TBD" by William Highsmith (Self-Published--Memeotype Dec 2008)

"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s Jul 2008)

"Article of Faith" by Mike Resnick (Baen’s Universe Oct 2008)

"Evil Robot Monkey" by Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)

"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)

"From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled" by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s Feb 2008)

No Award

Neil Clarke, publisher and editor of Clarkesworld Magazine has put up this interesting website/blog about the current rule change under consideration to eliminate the Semiprozine category from the Hugo Awards. Says Mr. Clarke:

This is a website born from an ongoing attempt to abolish the Best Semiprozine Hugo. In the course of trying to eliminate the category, some disparaging remarks have been made against semiprozines. By and large, I consider their statements about the worth and health of the semiprozine field uninformed. As such, I have invited (and continue to invite) the people involved with these publications to join me in providing content for this blog.

Our goal is to be both educational and informational. We’ll be featuring specific venues, providing current news, and offering some of our opinions on the state of the field as well as the Best Semiprozine Hugo.

At this link, the website lists some of the semiprozines (with links) that would be eliminated from consideration for Hugo awards. The web site will review the publications as a whole in time. Clearly, there are some fine publications in the list. I've reproduced the list below, minus the links. Mr. Clarke said that this list was compiled from 2007 and 2008 nominees for the Hugo.

• Abyss & Apex
• Ansible
• Albedo One
• Apex Magazine
• Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
• Baen’s Universe
• Clarkesworld Magazine
• Fantasy Magazine
• Futurismic
• Greatest Uncommon Denominator
• HUB Magazine
• Interzone
• Internet Review of Science Fiction
• Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
• Locus Magazine
• Neo-Opsis
• New York Review of Science Fiction
• On Spec
• Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show
• Postscripts
• Shimmer
• Strange Horizons
• Talebones
• Tales of the Unanticipated
• Weird Tales

From Science Fiction Awards Watch (where I learned of this issue) is this description of the rule change (and other changes to the rules):

Removal of Semiprozine Category

A proposal to remove the Semiprozine Hugo was passed and forwarded to Montreal for ratification. The old qualification criteria from semiprozine are now used to define what is not eligible to be a fanzine. (We’ll post the actual wording later when we get official electronic copy). The vote was 40-28, and the issue continues to be hotly debated.