News Nebula Awards Here Are the Finalists for the 2025 Nebula Awards Congrats to all! By Molly Templeton | Published on March 16, 2026 Photo: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association The finalists for the 61st Annual Nebula Awards—which recognize work published in 2025—were announced last night. The Nebula Awards are voted on by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). This year’s categories include the first-ever Nebulas for Best Poem and Best Comic. As the SFWA website explains, “Like the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation and Game Writing Award, these new awards celebrate the writers at the heart of productions that also involve editors, artists, publishers, producers, and a wealth of other team members who make the magic happen.” The winners of this year’s awards will be announced on June 6th during the Nebula Conference, which takes place in Chicago. Congratulations to all the finalists! Best Novel When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory (Saga) The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan UK) Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK) Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (Morrow; Gollancz) The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor; Orbit UK) Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou (Tin House; Wildfire) Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell (DAW; Arcadia) Best Novella Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle by Renan Bernardo (Dark Matter INK) The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom; Arcadia) The Death of Mountains by Jordan Kurella (Lethe) Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom) But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo (Tordotcom) “Descent” by Wole Talabi (Clarkesworld 5/25) Best Novelette “Our Echoes Drifting Through the Marsh” by Marie Croke (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/9/25) “Uncertain Sons” by Thomas Ha (Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Undertow) “We Begin Where Infinity Ends” by Somto Ihezue (Clarkesworld 2/25) “The Name Ziya” by Wen-Yi Lee (Reactor) “Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld 1/25) “The Life and Times of Alavira the Great as Written by Titos Pavlou and Reviewed by Two Lifelong Friends” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 3-4/25) Best Short Story “Through the Machine” by P.A. Cornell (Lightspeed 5/25) “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson (Uncanny 1-2/25) “In My Country” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 4/25) “The Tawlish Island Songbook of the Dead” by E.M. Linden (PodCastle 2/18/25) “Because I Held His Name Like a Key” by Aimee Ogden (Strange Horizons 6/16/25) “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots 5/25) Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction The Tower by David Anaxagoras (Recorded Books) Gemini Rising by Jonathan Brazee (Semper Fi) Wishing Well, Wishing Well by Jubilee Cho (Atthis Arts) Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic) Into the Wild Magic by Michelle Knudsen (Candlewick) Goblin Girl by K.A. Mielke (self-published) Best Game Writing Spire, Surge, and Sea by Stewart C. Baker (Choice of Games) Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Guillaume Broche, & Jennifer Svedberg-Yen (Kepler Interactive; developer: Sandfall Interactive, Sandfall S.A.S.) Hollow Knight: Silksong by Ari Gibson & William Pelen (Team Cherry)* Dispatch by Ashley Jeffalone, Suzee Matson, Chris Rebbert, Chad Rhiness, & Pierre Shorette (AdHoc Studios) Hades II by Greg Kasavin (Supergiant Games) Blue Prince by Tonda Ros (Raw Fury; developer: Dogubomb) The Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation KPop Demon Hunters by Danya Jimenez, Maggie Kang, & Hannah McMechan (Netflix)* Sinners by Ryan Coogler (Warner Bros. Pictures)* Severance: “Chikhai Bardo” by Dan Erickson & Mark Friedman (Apple TV+)* Pluribus: Season One by Vince Gilligan (Apple TV+)* Superman by James Gunn (Warner Bros Pictures)* Murderbot: Season One by Chris Weitz (Apple TV+)* Best Comic Second Shift by Kit Anderson (Avery Hill) Carmilla Volume 3: The Eternal by Amy Chu (Berger) Helen of Wyndhorn by Tom King (Dark Horse) Fishflies by Jeff Lemire (Image) Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters: The Killing Stone by Jessica Maison (Wicked Tree) Strange Bedfellows by Ariel Slamet Ries (HarperAlley) The Flip Side by Jason Walz (Rocky Pond) The Stoneshore Register by G. Willow Wilson (Berger) Best Poem “To Be the Change” by Nico Martinez Nocito (Strange Horizons 3/10/25) “Though You Always Are” by Linda D. Addison & Jamal Hodge (Everything Endless) “They Said Robots Are” by Casey Aimer (Penumbric 6/25) “The World To Come” by Jennifer Hudak (Strange Horizons 12/22/25) “The Mourning Robot” by Angela Liu (Uncanny 9-10/25) “Care for Lightning” by Mari Ness (Uncanny 1-2/25) *Provisional nomination; awaiting acceptance and response on LLM-use.[end-mark] The post Here Are the Finalists for the 2025 Nebula Awards appeared first on Reactor.