The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of American (SFWA) has announced the winners of the 61st annual Nebula Awards, one of SFF’s most prestigious honors, “given to the writers of the most outstanding speculative fiction works released in 2025.” This year marks the first-ever Nebula given for poetry, a welcome sign of the increasing breadth of talent in the speculative space.
Here are this year’s winners:
Best Novel
- When We Were Real, by Daryl Gregory (Saga)
- Winner: 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)”
- Winner: “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)”
- Winner: ““Uncertain Sons”, by Thomas Ha (Uncertain Sons)”
- ““We Begin Where Infinity Ends”, by Somto Ihezue (Clarkesworld 2/25)”
- “The Name Ziya, by Wen-Yi Lee (Tor)”
- ““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)”
- ““The Tawlish Island Songbook of the Dead”, by E.M. Linden (PodCastle 2/18/25)”
- ““In My Country”, by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 4/25)”
- ““Because I Held His Name Like a Key”, by Aimee Ogden (Strange Horizons 6/16/25)”
- Winner: ““Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything”, by Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots 5/25)”
Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation
- 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)*
- KPop Demon Hunters, by Danya Jimenez, Maggie Kang, & Hannah McMechan (Netflix)*
- Winner: Murderbot: Season One, by Chris Weitz (Apple TV+)
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 Press)
- Wishing Well, Wishing Well, by Jubilee Cho (Atthis Arts)
- Winner: Into the Wild Magic, by Michelle Knudsen (Candlewick)
- Goblin Girl, by K.A. Mielke (self-published)
- Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
Best Game Writing
- Spire, Surge, and Sea, by Stewart C. Baker (Choice of Games)
- Winner: 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 Pellen (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)
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)
- Winner: 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
- “Though You Always Are”, by Linda D. Addison & Jamal Hodge (Everything Endless)
- They Said Robots Are”, by Casey Aimer (Penumbric 6/25)
- Winner: “The World To Come”, by Jennifer Hudak (Strange Horizons 12/22/25)
- “The Mourning Robot”, by Angela Liu (Uncanny 9-10/25)
- “To Be the Change”, by Nico Martinez Nocito (Strange Horizons 3/10/25)
- “Care for Lightning”, by Mari Ness (Uncanny 1-2/25)
[From a press release]
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