Hugo Awards 2025 short fiction finalists discussion

For our August science fiction discussion we'll be reading the short stories and novelettes that have been nominated as finalists for the Hugo Awards this year, and we'll meet to discuss them Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 6 pm.

Location: Lilly Library, Community Room in Florence.

CLICK HERE for a list of what we'll be reading for the book group for the rest of 2025!

NOTE: Before reading the short story "Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole" I'd strongly recommended reading the 1973 Ursula K Le Guin short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," which is available digitally on Hoopla in the anthology Brave New Worlds, as well as in print in The Wind's Twelve Quarters or The Unreal and the Real.

SHORT STORIES

• “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K Jones (Lightspeed Magazine, Jan 2024 (Issue 164)). Audio also available
• “Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 56). Audio also available
• “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is” by Nghi Vo (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 57)
• “Three Faces of a Beheading” by Arkady Martine (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58)
• “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M Yoachim by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed Magazine, May 2024 (Issue 168)). Audio also available
• “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J Kim (Clarkesworld, February 2024). Audio also available

NOVELETTES

• “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, May 2024). Audio also available
• “By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars” by Premee Mohamed (Strange Horizons, Fund Drive 2024). Audio also available
• “The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea” by Naomi Kritzer (Asimov’s, September/October 2024)
• “Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58). Audio also available
• “Signs of Life” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 59). Audio also available

The last finalist, which is not available for free, is:

• “Lake of Souls” by Ann Leckie in Lake of Souls

OPTIONAL: This year, the Hugo Awards have a special, one-time category for speculative poetry. The following poems are all short (1-2 pages long) and I'll be reading them. I'll reserve a little time at the end if anyone wants to discuss these briefly.

POEMS

• “Your Visiting Dragon” by Devan Barlow (Strange Horizons, Fund Drive 2024)
• “Ever Noir” by Mari Ness (Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 16, July 2024)
• “there are no taxis for the dead” by Angela Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58)
• “A War of Words” by Marie Brennan (Strange Horizons, September 2024)
• “We Drink Lava” by Ai Jiang (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 56)

(Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead is also a finalist but is much longer and isn't available for free.)

*There is a limit of 12 attendees for this event, to make sure everyone has a chance to participate in the discussion. Please RSVP before it fills up! And if you have RSVPd but something has come up, please update your RSVP so someone else will have a chance.

If you have suggestions for future discussion group selections you can post them here on our message board (https://www.meetup.com/4scifi/messages/boards/thread/38262602), or just message me (https://www.meetup.com/4scifi/members/54187482/) directly.

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