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Jason Sanford@jasonsanford.bsky.social |
For the last few weeks I've been working with Chris Barkley @cmzhang42.bsky.social of @file770.bsky.social on a report about censorship in the 2023 Hugo Awards.
Leaked emails and files indicate authors and works deemed “not eligible” for the awards were removed due to political considerations. 1/3
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Michael Merriam
@mmerriam.bsky.social
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I am just stunned and saddened by this.
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Dabin Reece
@dabinreece.bsky.social
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The only way to make this right is for 2024 admins to revote on the 2023 awards and issue additional awards to anyone who missed out due to this censorship.
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Naomi Kritzer
@naomikritzer.bsky.social
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Thank you for your work on this.
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Eric Hildeman
@hildyeric.bsky.social
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Man, oh man. This confirms my working hypothesis regarding what happened. I don’t know the exact legal loophole was used in declaring certain works ineligible, but I suspect it had to do with Code of Conduct.
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Jon
@jonkatora.bsky.social
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Great reporting! Kind of unsettling to hear. But it does have a silver lining of being really great inspiration for a future, potentially Hugo-winning story warning of the dangers of censorship.
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Jon S.
@coffeestaub.bsky.social
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Wtf?! That's literally the only reason why I look up books that won the Hugo
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Brendan O’Kane
@bokane.org
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Thanks for putting this together! Nitpick: the author's name is Xiran Jay Zhao, not "Zhou," as it appears here, and there also seems to be some confusion between S.L. Huang and R.F. Kuang in a few places.
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Ken Schneyer
@kenschneyer.bsky.social
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Stupendous work, Jason. I’m in shock.
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Ru Temple 🌈
@rutemple.bsky.social
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Have you fixed the freaking typos in Xiran Jay Zhao and RF Kuang's NAMES in it, yet? Because otherwise you only continue the insulting racism fandom shows and why should anyone take you seriously? Doing better tarts with basic dignity: tell us their names. Correctly.
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Mary
@kilerkki.bsky.social
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Your report several times misspells the names of Xiran Jay Zhao (not Zhou) and R.F. Kuang (not R.L. Huang). This is vitally important journalism, but it’s just as important to render people’s names correctly.
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Not Rick Grimes (Maybe)
@biscuitngrav.bsky.social
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I think my favorite part is the admins' open admission of, and reliance on, the phrase "other rules we must follow." You did not have to follow them; you *chose* to continue holding the event in China, even though you knew these "local laws and regulations" would exert influence in decision-making.
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Madame Hardy
@madamehardy.bsky.social
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Thank you so much for the time and work you put into this. I'm horrified but grateful.
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Stan Fresh
@stan-fresh.bsky.social
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Still reading, but... As a German, the phrase vorauseilender Gehorsam/anticipatory obedience comes to mind with all this.
2 replies 1 reposts 26 likes
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Margo
@margrouse.bsky.social
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Thanks to you and Chris for digging into this more and providing a simply written explanation. I appreciate that you pointed out it is the local Chinese fans who will suffer most from this.
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AverageMann
@averagemann.bsky.social
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Women after seeing the award: 🤭 Men: omg its a V2 german rocket!1!1!1!1
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Tequila Sunset 🥥🌴
@pepperonidave.bsky.social
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American foreigners are stealing jobs from honest hard working Chinese censors!
0 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Nicholas Diak
@nicholasdiak.bsky.social
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What an in-depth, detailed read. Thank you and Chris for putting it together.
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Tiah Marie Beautement
@mstiahmarie.bsky.social
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Sounds like a ton of work went into investigating the matter. Thank you. As to the revelations: Gah.
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Willie Jack's Favorite Uncle
@dandantransient.bsky.social
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@princejvstin.com that's a yikes, I'm sorry your trip to Tibet was even a discussion item here.
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Sigrid Ellis
@sigridellis.bsky.social
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Thank you.
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Kingfisher & Wombat
@tkingfisher.com
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This is a helluva job, and you should be proud.
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Eugenia Triantafyllou
@foxesandroses.bsky.social
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Wow, thank you for all this work you're doing. Seriously.
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Liz
@ilisabat.bsky.social
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Thank you both, so much, for your work in bringing the truth to light.
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Myna Chang 📚
@mynachang.bsky.social
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Wow. Thank you for doing this work.
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Yilin (she/they) - The Lantern & the Night Moths is OUT NOW
@yilinwriter.bsky.social
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thank you for bringing all of this to light. i cringed so much reading the leaked emails. omg.
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@samuelwade.bsky.social
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THANK YOU! Fantastic to get some concrete detail on this, at last.
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Excalibur Discount Legal Services
@kevychristian.bsky.social
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That’s super depressing. I’ve been an avid fan and attempted author of science fiction since I was kid. I would literally be more honored to get a Hugo than an Oscar. Or would have.
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SeppTB
@sepptb.bsky.social
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Thank you for the work on this and shedding light.
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Flakey Foont
@flakyfoont.bsky.social
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I guess Ray Bradbury and Frank Herbert would be disqualified
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Bjørnar Egede-Nissen 🇨🇦🇳🇴~🇺🇦🇵🇸🍉
@bjornar1.bsky.social
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Seriously. Worldcon was held in China? Talk about burying the lede. China heavily censors its population and sanctions transgressors. There's a reason why so many outspoken Chinese writers are now abroad. But the world's sci-fi writers figured they'd be treated differently? That's criminally naïve.
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Difficult Opinions
@difficultopinions.bsky.social
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Well there's your problem, holding a literary conference in China. What did they expect? Who thought the CCP would agree to even the possibility of an award for Neil Gaiman? Neil does great work, and he should be rewarded, just like any of the other potential nominees who were censored.
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P.A. Cornell (She/Her)
@cornellwriter.bsky.social
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Great report. Upsetting, but great.
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C. L. Polk
@clpolk.com
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I am fucking stunned. Like Fandom needed a Watergate.
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Morticia91
@morticia91.bsky.social
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So... Let me get this straight... Kat Jones, one of the 'researchers' who flagged books for ineligibility, DIDN'T BOTHER READING THE DAMN BOOKS? Oh, and nobody else did either? Yep. Facism begins with promoting illiteracy.
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Dana W
@danatheinsane.bsky.social
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The Hugos are a bad political joke from both ends of the spectrum, They have been about as meaningless as the Oscars for at LEAST 20 years.
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Jason Sanford
@jasonsanford.bsky.social
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In particular, administrators of the awards from the United States and Canada researched political concerns related to Hugo-eligible authors and works and discussed removing certain ones from the ballot for those reasons. 2/3
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Accountabilabuddy
@accountabilabuddy.bsky.social
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This is just one reason you shouldn't host awards conventions in countries with flagrantly illegitimate governments.
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Al Petterson
@eyelessgame.bsky.social
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this is my surprised face
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Bruce Cullen
@bacullenyyc.bsky.social
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This is bad. Really bad. People get why this is horribly bad…. Right?
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O’fan
@omensfan.bsky.social
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Marshall Ryan Maresca
@mrmaresca.com
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Jason, this is incredible work. In her letter, Lacy mentions "Although since then, a better explanation has been given for the “cliff” phenomenon in the data." What is the better explanation she's referring to? How has the bad data been explained?
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David Croyle
@croyle.bsky.social
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The scary thing for me is how some Hugo administrators - Americans, people living in a basically free society - accepted the Chinese censorship as a given and were like "Well, we're fully on board with that, since it's your country! We think your evil censorship is just swell. Thanks for paying."
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Zwitterion
@zwitterion.bsky.social
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Amidst everything else, they cut stuff because it allegedly was on a slate, and they *still* had a weird cliff-thing? Is it possible the numbers from the list that still had the slate were transposed onto the names purged from the slate and *that* explains the weird cliff thing?
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Chris Barkley
@cmzhang42.bsky.social
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And if I could chime in here for a moment: Jason is A FANTASTIC WRITER who really brought a lot of talent and focus to this project. I could not have done this on my own and I fully acknowledge that his smarts and savvy really stuck the landing here. So THANK YOU Jason for a job well done! 🙂🎯💯😎
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Law Monger
@lawmonger.bsky.social
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When I first read this I thought you wrote you worked with Charles Barkley, who always has interesting insights. Maybe you should give him a call and see if he’s available.
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John Maddening
@johnmaddening.bsky.social
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I certainly hope a member of Glasgow 2024 nominates this for a Best Related Work Hugo.
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Great Sage Equal to Kevin
@ethicalnecromancy.net
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Just a note but it's "Communist Party of China" rather than "Chinese Communist Party" which is a rather important distinction.
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Matt Dovey
@mattdovey.com
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Incredible and important work from both of you, thank you.
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Rachael K. Jones
@rachaelkjones.bsky.social
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Sheesh Jason, this is an amazing piece of journalism. Thank you so much for your service to the community 💜
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Q. H. Stone
@qhstone.bsky.social
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It was so obvious that McCarty was lying and, behold! The emails show he was lying his ass off.
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The Okayest DM
@theokayestdm.bsky.social
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Reading this article, it is clear that Kat Jones isn't upset that the 2023 team censored the Hugos. She's upset that they got caught.
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The Okayest DM
@theokayestdm.bsky.social
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If Kat Jones doesn't resign as administrator for the Glasgow Hugos right now and resign from any role on the Glasgow staff, the Hugos for 2024 will be irrevocably tainted.
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The Okayest DM
@theokayestdm.bsky.social
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If any of the members of the Chengdu Hugo Administration team ever show their face at any fan event again, they should have their asses kicked. "We won't do this again" they say. Jesus fuck, you shouldn't have done it the FIRST time you complete shitheads.
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A Man Possessed
@amanpossessed.bsky.social
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But why is the trophy a spatula?
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Rob From Flailthroughs
@robflails.bsky.social
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Wow, there are a lot of people in the comments who are in so much of a hurry to dunk on China that they seem to have missed the part where China is not the party that chose to engage in this censorship and are not the party that chose where Worldcon was held.
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AndersH
@druv.bsky.social
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I don't see doing research as being bad per se - but without knowledge on how censorship actually works makes it very arbitrary. Otherwise, preparing yourself for a reaction from censors would be a good thing. If the "official" censorship post is true, I'm still wondering about the final decisions.
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AndersH
@druv.bsky.social
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My (great) love for the Hugos aside, these parts seem the most sad to me. This has no doubt had a profound impact on the people involved, and most of us will never know of it.
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libbyrinth.bsky.social
@libbyrinth.bsky.social
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Thank you for doing this research and writing it up.
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Mina Li (she/her)
@codenameminali.bsky.social
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Thank you for your work on this.
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@shiftkicker.bsky.social
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Did any of these people recognize that creating dossiers in order to identify authors with "problematic" beliefs and activities to the Chinese government may have placed them and their families in danger, or at the very least cause them future difficulties in travel or affect potential sales?
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Not kidding; wish I was
@nkwiw.com
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was not expecting the corbomite maneuver
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Patrick S. Tomlinson
@stealthygeek.bsky.social
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I was among those who said China should not be allowed to host a WorldCon under the current climate. Government fuckery was almost certain. But to have Americans and Canadians go right along with it? Inexcusable.
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Peter Amthor
@peteramthor.bsky.social
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They've effectively made the Hugo a meaningless award.
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Julia S.
@booktweeting.bsky.social
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your observation here is key, imo: “Ironically, while the Western Hugo administrators appear to have taken these actions in an attempt to protect both the Hugos and Worldcon, the result has been the exact opposite. This controversy has deeply hurt fandom in both the Western world and in China.”
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Julia S.
@booktweeting.bsky.social
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really appreciate the time and thought and care that was put into this!
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Jeff
@funbutter.bsky.social
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It sounds like the Hugo Awards are kind of pointless now then?
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Digital Prophet
@digitalprophet.bsky.social
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Man, it seems like every couple years there's another Hugo award thing. Do other awards have similar controversies and we just don't hear about it?
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Danai Christopoulou | Greek SFF Author
@danaiwrites.bsky.social
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Thank you for doing this important work
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joe
@24fps.bsky.social
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it's unfortunate that this will inevitably tarnish what a Hugo Award means. my favorite book has won a Hugo and i am sure it won legitimately, but this still makes that accomplishment seem less special in hindsight. this will hurt a lot of artists
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Kameron Hurley
@kameronhurley.bsky.social
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Thanks for your work on this, man. Both of you.
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