The Dragon Awards are a set of literary and media awards voted on by fandom and presented annually since 2016 by Dragon Con for excellence in various categories of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in various media — novels, movies, television, and games.
History
The Dragon Awards were first presented in 2016,[1][2] created on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Dragon Con to "recognize excellence in all things Science Fiction and Fantasy."[3][4] By 2018, 11,000 voters cast a ballot,[5] given out annually at Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia.
A unique feature of the Awards is that it runs a diverse set of subgenera on the ballot.[6]
The finalist short list for the first Dragon Awards was announced on August 11, 2016,[7] and the winners were announced on September 4 that year.[8]
In 2017, nominated authors Allison Littlewood, John Scalzi, and N. K. Jemisin asked Dragon Con to remove their names from the ballot; John Scalzi subsequently reconsidered and remained in the contest. However, the coordinators of the Dragon Awards initially refused to remove other authors' names from the running, which generated criticism across blogs and science fiction related publications, ultimately leading the organizers to comply with nominee wishes when they desire to abstain.[9][10][11]
Nomination and voting processes
The nominations and votes are collected electronically. Participation is available to everyone, requiring only an e-mail address, but no membership or other fees, to vote.[12] The Dragon Awards website states that they "[reserve] the right to invalidate suspect or questionable ballots without notice,"[13] and that "All decisions regarding the voting process and selection of winners shall be made by DRAGON CON in its sole discretion, shall be final, and shall not be subject to challenge or appeal."[14] Language describing the review of nominations does not state that nominations are counted numerically but are "gathered and reviewed to create a final ballot."[15] Neither counts of nominations nor votes have ever been made public.
The award process consists of two steps:
a nomination step where each voter nominates one work of choice in each category. The nominations are "gathered and reviewed to create a final ballot."[15]
a voting step where the finalists selected from the nominated works are voted on by each voter.
Reception
The Dragon Awards have been criticized because of the appearance that the awards were created in conjunction with campaigns by the Rabid and Sad Puppies to attack the Hugo Award.[12] Another concern raised is regarding the opaqueness of the nomination and voting process.[11]
The categories "Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC/Console Game" and "Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game" were combined into a single category in 2023.
The categories "Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC/Console Game" and "Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game" were combined into a single category in 2023.
The categories "Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game" and "Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game" were combined into a single category in 2023.
^Andrew Liptak (4 August 2017). "The 2017 Dragon Awards are a far-ranging sci-fi and fantasy reading list". The Verge. Retrieved 12 March 2019. A key feature of the Dragon Awards is that, instead of one broad novel category (for any book over 50,000 words), they break down nominees by subgenre, for a much wider-ranging and more specific field of recognition.
^"2016 Dragon Awards Winners". Locus. 6 September 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2019. Winners of the inaugural Dragon Awards were announced at Dragon Con, held September 2–5, 2016 in Atlanta GA.
^ ab"The Process". The Dragon Awards. Dragon Con. Archived from the original on March 26, 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019. Your nominations are gathered and reviewed to create a final ballot.
^"2018 DRAGON AWARDS ANNOUNCED". Krypton Radio. 3 September 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2019. Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
^ abDONNA DICKENS (7 September 2018). "The Best in Sci-Fi Books This Week (9/7/18)". Geek.com. celebrate the winners of the 2018 Dragon Awards. Among the science-fiction wins were Andy Weir's Artemis for Best Science Fiction Novel and Brandon Sanderson's White Sand Volume 1 for Best Graphic Novel.