2025 Hugo Campaign

Welcome to what is likely to be the greatest campaign the world has ever seen in hopes of losing an award. I’m going to use this page as a bit of a scrapbook chronicling my year-long quest to find myself at the 2025 Hugo Losers Party at Seattle Worldcon.

Thank you for being here! And if you’re a Hugo voter, DOUBLE THANK YOU!

What I’m asking: for Worldcon members to pretty please include the Ruby Killingsworth Series (written by Amanda Cherry; published by DefCon One Publishing) in your nominations for the 2025 Best Series Hugo when the time comes. And that’s it! Rarely over my time as a Hugo voter have I had all my nominating slots full in the Best Series category, and if that’s the case for you in 2025, adding my series to your list should be super easy.

What I’m offering: If my series makes it onto the short list, I pledge to give the administrators all three books to include in the voters packet, meaning every Worldcon member will get to read the entire series for free. In the meantime, find me at a convention and I’ll offer you a badge ribbon and a hearty thanks.

But Manda, do you really want to LOSE a Hugo Award???

I mean… yes?
By saying my goal this year is to “lose the Best Series Hugo” what I’m really doing is saying in the most amusing language possible that my ambition stops with the nomination. Especially not knowing which authors and which series are also eligible this year, I would never ask anyone to use their one vote for me. I don’t presume my series will be The Best to qualify this year, and even if I did think that, it would be my opinion and nothing more. The way books and stories resonate with readers is so personal that measures of objective quality are tough to make, and I would never presume to say my books are better than their contemporaries. I would hope the Hugo voters cast their ballots for the series that was their very favorite from the nominees.
But what I am willing to declare is that I know what’s in these books, I know how much of my heart lies within them, and I feel strongly that they are deserving of consideration. Because the Hugo nomination process allows us to each nominate several candidates per category, I am willing to ask friends, fans, and kind strangers to add my series to the list of nominees they propose in the 2025 Best Series category.

Pretty please.