Terri’s 2019 Hugo Eligibility Post: Best Fan Writer

by Terri

Image shows Chibi Terri holding a sign that says “Has Opinions (and shares them).” She looks immensely pleased with herself.

Image shows Chibi Terri holding a sign that says “Has Opinions (and shares them).” She looks immensely pleased with herself.

Wow. Was 2019 ever a year. I spent it (and a decent chunk of 2018) living abroad for the first time since 2004. I shepherded my business into its third year of life. I attended the Hugo Awards for the first time in a professional capacity, rather than a volunteer one. I turned parasocial colleagues into people I count as friends. I fell headfirst into becoming a not so Secret Master of Fandom. I launched and edited a whole zine in protest to a single decision.

And as the year came to a close, I realized something. While I want to reform the Hugo Awards criteria for artists from the ground up (in part to acknowledge that creative partnerships can exist when only one half does the Actual Art), I am Hugo Eligible in my own right. Because 2019 is the year that my Twitter feed started reaching a wider voice. And a lot of what I post there is writing of a SF/F nature.

So please consider my behind eligible for the Best Fan Writer Hugo Award this year. You can find my most popular threads by either looking me up as @crewgrrl on Twitter or by heading over to this blog (to which this post is cross-posted). 

In addition, the zine I co-launched and edited is eligible for Best Related Work. The Very Official Dead Dog Art Zine doesn’t have enough issues to be Best Fanzine eligible, but as a commentary on the Hugo Awards, it certainly is new content that relates to the SF/F world. Ariela Housman and Terri Ash should both be credited as the editorial team.

The Very Official Dead Dog Art Zine’s 2019 Hugo Eligibility Post: Best Related Work

The cover of our zine

The cover of our zine

2019 has been an eventful year, y’all.

One of the things that happened was that in response to Lady Astronaut Nouveau being excluded from the Hugo Voter’s Packet, we created an Art Zine that definitively provides a zero-gatekeeping venue for artists to display their work. The Very Official Dead Dog Art Zine is NOT eligible for a Best Fanzine Hugo. You need a minimum of 4 extant issues to qualify for that.

What it is eligible for is Best Related Work. We hope that you will consider it for nomination on your Hugo ballot this year. Both Terri Ash & Ariela Housman should be credited as the editorial team.

Announcing the Launch of The Very Official Dead Dog Art Zine

by Terri

You may have seen this tweet go out while we were at WorldCon.

Well, we’re putting our money where our mouths are. It’s important to us that there be as much access to Hugo Award eligibility as possible. That means both fixing the constitution (the root problem) and also providing an outlet for people while the amendment is ratified.

The only submission criteria for the Very Official Dead Dog Art Zine is that you follow our submission template. That’s it. The entire point of this zine is that everyone’s art is worthy of inclusion. There is no jury, no one will tell you that your art isn’t good enough. You made it. That’s enough for us.

You can submit your work here, but we do ask that you check out our submission template beforehand. We look forward to seeing your work!