The Hugo Awards, the most prestigious science fiction and fantasy literary awards in the book community, has recently been blanketed in scandal.
It all began when esteemed sci-fi authors like Neil Gaiman, R.F. Kuang, Xiran Jay Zhao and Paul Weimer were no longer eligible as finalists for the awards even though they had earned enough votes to be considered finalists. This week, leaked emails from the event committee suggested that several of the authors were excluded from the shortlists last year for flagged comments or works that could potentially have been seen as sensitive and offensive to China, where the awards were held for the first time last year.
