The deadline for the Hugo Award nominating ballot is this Friday (or Saturday morning for those of you across the Pacific from California who get up before we’ve gone to bed). I have put in a provisional ballot and am trying to catch up with a bit more non-Tiptree reading before the deadline.

Every year I see people say that they have no idea what to nominate in Related Work. This year I have a suggestion for you. I have an essay on trans characters in SF&F in Gender Identity and Sexuality in Fantasy and Science Fiction from Luna Press. The rest of the book is great too, so you can nominate the whole book and gave the award to the editor, Francesca T Barbini.

There are a few other less-well-known works and people that I would love to see on the ballot. Top of the list is Charlie Jane Anders’ magnificent short story, “Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue” which is in the Global Dystopias series at the Boston Review. It is not an easy tale to read, but as dystopias go it is scarily possible, especially if Mike Pence ever becomes President. Next time you see some anti-trans campaigner wringing her hands and clutching her pearls in the New Statesman, and talking about how she cares so much about trans people that she wants us to get full support to come to terms with our “true sex”, it is a medical facility like the one that Charlie Jane describes that she is fantasizing about.

Note: The Locus Recommended Reading List originally had the story categorized as a novelette but has since moved it to short story. It was not me that did the counting.

I am still very ambivalent about the Series category, but this year there is an opportunity to give a nod to a long running, if highly intermittent, series that is a particular favorite of mine. Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula was first published in 1992. It won the International Horror Guild Award, the Lord Ruthven Award and a French award called the Prix Ozone. It was also shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award and the Stoker Award, and finished second in the Locus Awards. Since that time there have been several other books in the series, and the latest was published last year. One Thousand Monsters is set in 1899 while Dracula is still ruling England. Geneviève Dieudonné and a group of other English vampires are exiled, and end up in Japan where they find a very different vampire culture. If you have enjoyed any of the books in the series, please consider giving it a nod.

Finally, in Editor: Long Form, Jonathan Oliver is moving on from his post at Solaris. During his time there, the company has published some really great books alongside the more commercial material needed to keep a medium-size press going. These include Sylvia Moreno-Garcia’s Signal to Noise, and Yoon Ha Lee’s Machineries of Empire series (Ninefox Gambit & Raven Stratagem). I’m not sure how much Jon had to do with editing those specific books, but I’m sure he must have made room for them to happen.