avelera asked: I didn’t know until today that the Hugos have a fan writer category and that you’ve been nominated several times! As a lifelong fanfic writer, I was curious what it represents, how one is nominated, etc. because it always felt like fanfic was being looked down on in such circles. Do you have a moment to discuss your experience? I completely understand if not.
Sure! So, first off, the Fan Writer category isn’t unique to the Hugos: I’ve won a Ditmar Award for Best Fan Writer and been nominated for it another two times, and those aren’t the only awards with such a category; and the Hugos also have a Fan Artist award. But while I both write and love fanfic, that’s not what Best Fan Writer is about. Rather, it traditionally refers to critical fan writing, like reviews, blogs and essays, that appear in low or non-paying publications, whether in print or online. That’s the type of thing for which I’ve been nominated, and it’s lovely to see that work recognised.
As best I can tell, the rules define fan writing as works “related to” science fiction and fantasy, as opposed to works of science fiction and fantasy, so while you could make an argument that real world AUs of SFF narratives would count as being “related to,” I’m not sure the same would hold for anything set in world, and that’s before you factor in the copyright issues.The use of the word ‘fan’ in the category title is traditionally meant to distinguish the award as going to non-professional writers, or professional writers working for little or no pay - in the case of artworks, this is more apparent in the contrast with a category like Best Professional Artist vs Best Fan Artist, with the difference hinged on where their works appear and how much money, if any, they make from them. Similarly, I would argue, the professional writing equivalent of the Fan Writer award would be Best Related Work.
All that being said, while there are certainly many people in the SFF establishment who disdain fanfic as a concept, I’m also aware of a great number who love and encourage it. Off the top of my head, I know that Neil Gaiman, Seanan McGuire, Mark Oshiro and Lev Grossman are all pro-fanfic, so while there isn’t presently an award category devoted to it as a writing medium, it’s still a thing we know about and love.
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januarium said: I love that list as a list of people in the SFF establishment a lot. And yeah, that conflict between what fic person would think fan writing is and what these types of awards tend to mean can be weird (I was on a panel at Worldcon 75 where this clash happened majorly, but managed to make it work).
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