John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

About

The John W. Campbell Award is given to the best new science fiction or fantasy writer whose first work of science fiction or fantasy was published in a professional publication in the previous two years. For the 2016 award, which is presented at the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon), the qualifying work must have been published in 2014 or 2015.

There can be confusion over the term "professional publication" since the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), and the award sponsor define it differently. For the purposes of the Campbell Award, professional publications are works sold for more than a nominal amount and published anywhere in the world.

Please refer to the Eligibility F.A.Q. for an explanation of qualifying publications and answers to common questions.

The Campbell Award is administered by the Worldcon, but the rules for awarding the Campbell are determined by the award sponsor, Dell Magazine. Eligibility rules were changed in 2005.

Voting Procedure

The John W. Campbell Award uses the same nomination and voting mechanism as the Hugo, even though the Campbell Award is not a Hugo.

Like the Hugo Awards, the Campbell Award voting takes place in two stages. The first stage, nomination, is open to anyone who had a Supporting or Attending membership in the previous, current, or following year's Worldcon as of January 31. For Sasquan, this means members of Sasquan (the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention in San Antonio), MidAmeriCon II itself, and Worldcon 75 (Helsinki) can nominate any eligible author. This web page helps identify eligible authors for the Campbell Award.

We will post a link to the official nomination page when it is available at the MidAmeriCon II site.

To be able to vote for the award, you must be a member of MidAmeriCon II (the 74th World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City, MO). If you are not a member of MidAmeriCon and wish to vote, you must purchase a supporting membership or an attending membership before January 31.

Eligible Authors for 2016 Campbell Award

2016 eligible authors should contact us for inclusion in the list. If you have questions on eligibility, refer to the Eligibility F.A.Q. A moderator can help you determine your eligibility if you are stumped.

The following is the list of known eligible authors for the 2016 Award. Authors marked with an asterisk^* are believed to be eligible, but we need to contact author to verify eligibility.

2016 Award: Writers in 2nd year of eligibility

Lou Anders	James Aquilone	Darcie Little Badger	Lisa Bolekaja
Martin Cahill	Curtis C. Chen	Liz Colter	Gillian Conahan
Jason Cordova	S.B. Divya	David Edison	David Jon Fuller
Adam Gaylord	Ken Gerber	C. Stuart Hardwick	Holly Heisey
Brian Hirt	SL Huang	Robert William Iveniuk	Michael Janairo
L.S. Johnson	Cameron Johnston	Rachael K. Jones	Bishop O'Connell
Megan E. O'Keefe	Rati Mehrotra	Tahmeed Shafiq	Lady Soliloque
S. Lynn	Nick Nafpliotis	Emma Osborne	Laura Pearlman
Louis Rakovich	Ethan Reid	Robin Riopelle	William Ritter
Sara Saab	Effie Seiberg	Tahmeed Shafiq	Brent C. Smith
Natalia Theodoridou	Ilima Todd	Joseph Tomaras	Setsu Uzume
Leo Vladimirsky	Andy Weir	Jennifer Noelle Welch	Alyssa Wong
Eleanor R. Wood	JY Yang	Isabel Yap

2016 Award: Writers in 1st year of eligibility

To be added...

2016 Award: Known expiration of eligibility

Past Voting Results

2015 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
Wesley Chu	2nd year
Eric S. Raymond
Kary English	2nd year
Jason Cordova	1st year
Rolf Nelson

2014 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
Wesley Chu	1st year
Max Gladstone	2nd year
Ramez Naam	2nd year
Sofia Samatar (winner)	2nd year
Benjanun Sriduangkaew	1st year

2013 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
Mur Lafferty (winner)	2nd year
Stina Leicht	2nd year
Chuck Wendig	2nd year
Zen Cho	2nd year
Max Gladstone	1st year

2012 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
E. Lily Yu (winner)	1st year
Mur Lafferty	1st year
Stina Leicht	1st year
Karen Lord	2nd year
Brad R. Torgersen	2nd year

2011 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
Saladin Ahmed	2nd year
Lev Grossman (winner)	2nd year
Lauren Beukes	2nd year
Larry Correia	2nd year
Dan Wells	2nd year

2010 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
Saladin Ahmed	1st year
Gail Carriger	--
Felix Gilman	2nd year
Seanan McGuire (winner)	1st year
Lezli Robyn	2nd year

2009 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
David Anthony Durham (winner)	2nd year
Alliette de Bodard	2nd year
Tony Pi	2nd year
Gord Sellar	2nd year
Felix Gilman	1st year

2008 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
Joe Abercrombie	2nd year
Jon Armstrong	1st year
David Anthony Durham	1st year
David Louis Edelman	2nd year
Mary Robinette Kowal (winner)	2nd year
Scott Lynch	2nd year

2007 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
Scott Lynch	1st year
Sarah Monette	2nd year
Naomi Novik (winner)	1st year
Brandon Sanderson	2nd year
Lawrence M. Schoen	2nd year

2006 Campbell Award Finalists

Author	Year of Eligibility
John Scalzi (winner)	1st year
K.J. Bishop	2nd year
Sarah Monette	1st year
Chris Roberson	2nd year
Brandon Sanderson	1st year
Steph Swainston	2nd year

Past winners...

Comments from Nominees & Winners

Read more comments...

Wen Spencer Winner, 2003

To understand the impact of being nominated for the John Campbell Award, one needed the Internet. Prior to 2002, a search on my name only pulled up my website and a handful of places reviewing my book. A month later, however, and my name was spread across the world, along with the word "finalist" translated into every language of man. I cannot see it as coincidence that a short time later, a Russian publisher bought the rights to translate my novels into Russian. Seconds after winning, the news went out again, in the languages of the world, that I was a winner. The John Campbell will be an amazing boast to my career.