Press Release

Historic Science Fiction Award Given to MFA Director

Nebula Award for Best Middle Grade + Young Adult Writer

Western Colorado University’s GPCW Genre Concentration Director, Fran Wilde, won the Nebula Award for Best Middle Grade and Young Adult writer earlier this year. The online ceremony, initially planned for Los Angeles, was hosted by luminaries including LeVar Burton, George R.R. Martin, and Carol Mosely Braun.

Fran Wilde

Fran Wilde’s Riverland (Abrams, 2019), received the 2019 Andre Norton Nebula Award, and in so doing, Wilde became the first author to twice win the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction. Wilde previously won the award in 2016 for her debut novel, Updraft (Tor, 2015). Previous winners of the award include J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Dr. Nalo Hopkinson, and Holly Black. Wilde’s novel, which is aimed at middle-grade readers, uses a magical world to tell a serious story about domestic violence.

Wilde also received finalist honors for the 2019 Best Short Story Nebula, for “A Catalog of Storms,” which appeared in Uncanny Magazine in January 2019.  Riverland and “A Catalog of Storms,” were also finalists this year for the Lodestar Award, Best Short Story Hugo, and the Locus Award for Best Short Story.

About the Nebula Awards

The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. Along with the Hugos, they are considered the most prestigious awards in genre literature. Awarded since 1966, the Nebulas are administered by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a nonprofit association of professional writers.

The 55th Annual Nebula Awards® Ceremony is available to watch on YouTube and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America website

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