Theodore Sturgeon Award


The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award is an annual literary award presented by the Theodore Sturgeon Literary Trust and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas to the author of the best short science fiction story published in English in the preceding calendar year. It is the short fiction counterpart of the John W. [Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel], which was awarded until 2020 by the Center at the same conference. The award is named in honor of Theodore Sturgeon, one of the leading authors of the Golden [Age of Science Fiction] from 1939 to 1950. The award was established in 1987 by his heirs—including his widow, Jayne Sturgeon—and James Gunn, at the time the Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction.
From 1987 through 1994 the award was given out by a panel of science fiction experts led by Orson Scott Card. Beginning in 1995, the committee was replaced by a group of jurors, who vote on the nominations submitted for consideration. The initial jurors were James Gunn, Frederik Pohl, and Judith Merril. Merril was replaced on the jury by former winner Kij Johnson in 1997. One of Sturgeon's children—Noel Sturgeon in most years—was added to the panel in 1999. George Zebrowski served as a jury member from 2005 to 2014. Elizabeth Bear was added in 2013. Andy Duncan was a juror from 2013 to 2018. Sarah Pinsker was added in 2019, Taryne Taylor in 2020, and Kelly Link in 2024. As of 2024, the jury includes Elizabeth Bear, Kelly Link, Sarah Pinsker, Noel Sturgeon, and Taryne Taylor. Awards administrators have included Christopher McKitterick, Kij Johnson, and Jason Baltazar.
Nominations are submitted by reviewers, fans, publishers, and editors, and are collated into a list of finalists to be voted on by the jury. The maximum eligible length that a work may be is not formally defined by the center. The award is given each year at the University of Kansas; it was previously presented at the Campbell Conference along with the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, but since 2022 is presented as part of the annual Sturgeon Symposium. Winners are invited to attend and read at the ceremony. Since 2004 winners have received a personalized trophy, and since the inception of the award a permanent trophy has recorded all of the winners.
During the 39 years the award has been active, 234 authors have had works nominated, 40 of whom have won, including one tie. No author has won more than once. John Kessel has won once out of eight nominations, Michael Swanwick one of seven, Ursula K. Le Guin, Nancy Kress, Ian McDonald, and Ted Chiang one of six, and Paolo Bacigalupi and Lucius Shepard have won once out of four times. Robert Reed has the most nominations without winning at eight, followed by James Patrick Kelly and Ian R. MacLeod at seven, Ken Liu at six, and Greg Egan, Yoon Ha Lee, and Bruce Sterling at five.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the work was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". Entries with a yellow background and an asterisk next to the writer's name have won the award; the other entries are the other nominees on the shortlist.
* Winners
YearAuthorWorkPublisher or publicationRef.
1987*"Surviving"
1987"Elephant"Asimov's Science Fiction
1987"Grave Angels"
1987Omni
1987"Pretty Boy Crossover"Asimov's Science Fiction
1988*"Rachel in Love"Asimov's Science Fiction
1988"Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight"Fantasy & Science Fiction|Fantasy & Science Fiction]
1988Omni
1988"Dinosaurs"Asimov's Science Fiction
1988Analog Science Fact & Fiction
1988"Heroics"Asimov's Science Fiction
1989*"Schrödinger's Kitten"Omni
1989"Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance?"Asimov's Science Fiction
1989"Stairs"Asimov's Science Fiction
1989Asimov's Science Fiction
1989"Mrs. Shummel Exits a Winner"Asimov's Science Fiction
1990*Full Spectrum 2
1990"Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man"Asimov's Science Fiction
1990"Dori Bangs"Asimov's Science Fiction
1990"Dancing with the Chairs"Asimov's Science Fiction
1990"Faith"Asimov's Science Fiction
1991*"Bears Discover Fire"Asimov's Science Fiction
1991United Mythologies Press
1991"My Advice to the Civilized"Asimov's Science Fiction
1992*"Buffalo"Fantasy & Science Fiction
1992"Ma Qui"Fantasy & Science Fiction
1992Asimov's Science Fiction
1993*"This Year's Class Picture"Still Dead
1993"Death and the Lady"After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien
1993"Danny Goes to Mars"Asimov's Science Fiction
1993"Even the Queen"Asimov's Science Fiction
1993"Slipping"Borderlands 2
1994*"Fox Magic"Asimov's Science Fiction
1994"At the Shadow of a Dream"Aboriginal SF
1994Full Spectrum 4
1995*"Forgiveness Day"Asimov's Science Fiction
1995"Nekropolis"Asimov's Science Fiction
1995"Cri de Coeur"Asimov's Science Fiction
1995Beloit Poetry Journal
1995Tomorrow Speculative Fiction
1995"Cocoon"Asimov's Science Fiction
1995Omni
1995Fantasy & Science Fiction
1995"Melodies of the Heart"Analog Science Fiction and Fact
1995"Paris In June"Omni
1995"Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge"Fantasy & Science Fiction
1995"Symphony for Skyfall"Analog Science Fiction and Fact
1995"Symphony for Skyfall"Analog Science Fiction and Fact
1995"Understanding Entropy"Science Fiction Age
1996*"Jigoku no Mokushiroku (The Symbolic Revelation of the Apocalypse)"Asimov's Science Fiction
1996Asimov's Science Fiction
1996Fantasy & Science Fiction
1996Analog Science Fiction and Fact
1996"Diamonds Aren't Forever"David Copperfield's Tales of the Impossible
1996"Fault Lines"Asimov's Science Fiction
1996"Home for Christmas"Fantasy & Science Fiction
1996"I, Iscariot"Crank!
1996"Mortimer Gray's History of Death"Asimov's Science Fiction
1996"We Were Out of Our Minds With Joy"Asimov's Science Fiction
1996Analog Science Fiction and Fact
1997*Asimov's Science Fiction
1997"Age of Aquarius"Asimov's Science Fiction
1997Starlight 1
1997Asimov's Science Fiction
1997Buzzcity Press
1997Crank!
1997"Erase/Record/Play"Starlight 1
1997"Gone"Fantasy & Science Fiction
1997"Marigold Outlet"Twists of the Tale: An Anthology of Cat Horror
1997"Radio Waves"Omni
1997"Thirteen Phantasms"Omni Online
1998*"House of Dreams"Asimov's Science Fiction
1998Asimov's Science Fiction
1998"Coming to Grips with the Great Plague"Omni Online
1998Asimov's Science Fiction
1998"Echoes"Fantasy & Science Fiction
1998"Get a Grip"Fantasy & Science Fiction
1998"Itsy Bitsy Spider"Asimov's Science Fiction
1998"Lethe"Asimov's Science Fiction
1998"Loose Ends"Analog Science Fiction and Fact
1998"One Good Juror"Asimov's Science Fiction
1998"One Good Juror"Asimov's Science Fiction
1998Asimov's Science Fiction
1998"Universal Grammar"Fantasy & Science Fiction
1999*"Story of Your Life"Starlight 2
1999"Wading River Dogs and More"Asimov's Science Fiction
1999Asimov's Science Fiction
1999"Advantage, Bellarmine"Analog Science Fiction and Fact
1999"Animae Celestes"Asimov's Science Fiction
1999"Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation by K.N. Sirsi and Sandra Botkin"Starlight 2
1999"Crane Fly"Amazing Stories
1999"Craphound"Science Fiction Age
1999"Dance at the Edge"Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction
1999"Echea"Asimov's Science Fiction
1999"How Meersh the Bedeviler Lost His Toes"Asimov's Science Fiction
1999"Love of the True God"Talebones
1999"Lovestory"Asimov's Science Fiction
1999"Maneki Neko"Fantasy & Science Fiction
1999Asimov's Science Fiction
1999Fantasy & Science Fiction
1999"Radiant Doors"Asimov's Science Fiction
1999"Radio Praha"Asimov's Science Fiction
1999"Wild Minds"Asimov's Science Fiction
2000*Asimov's Science Fiction
2000Asimov's Science Fiction
2000Asimov's Science Fiction
2000Asimov's Science Fiction
2000"Daddy's World"Not of Woman Born
2000"Everywhere"Interzone
2000"Five Days in April"Chiaroscuro
2000Analog Science Fiction and Fact
2000"Green Tea"Asimov's Science Fiction
2000"Jennifer, Just Before Midnight"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2000"Macs"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2000"Once Upon a Matter Crushed"Science Fiction Age
2000"Reality Check"Analog Science Fiction and Fact
2000"Suicide Coast"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2000"Winemaster"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2001*PS Publishing
2001"Sheena 5"Analog Science Fiction and Fact
2001"Radiant Green Star"Asimov's Science Fiction
2001"Antibodies"Interzone
2001Fantasy & Science Fiction
2001"Heart of Glass"Asimov's Science Fiction
2001Science Fiction Age
2001"Milo and Sylvie"Asimov's Science Fiction
2001"On the Orion Line"Asimov's Science Fiction
2001"Reef"Skylife: Space Habitats in Story and Science
2001"Savior"Asimov's Science Fiction
2001"Seventy-Two Letters"Vanishing Acts
2002*Asimov's Science Fiction
2002"Lobsters"Asimov's Science Fiction
2002"Undone"Asimov's Science Fiction
2002Fantasy & Science Fiction
2002Asimov's Science Fiction
2002"Eternity and Afterward"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2002"Have Not Have"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2002"Hell Is the Absence of God"Starlight 3
2002"Interview: On Any Given Day"Starlight 3
2002"Isabel of the Fall"Interzone
2002Fantasy & Science Fiction
2002"New Light on the Drake Equation"Sci Fiction
2003*"Over Yonder"Sci Fiction
2003"Bronte's Egg"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2003"Singleton"Interzone
2003"Breathmoss"Asimov's Science Fiction
2003"Coelacanths"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2003"Halo"Asimov's Science Fiction
2003"In Paradise"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2003"Liking What You See: A Documentary"Stories of Your Life and Others
2003"Madonna of the Maquiladora"Asimov's Science Fiction
2003
2003"Stories for Men"Asimov's Science Fiction
2003Asimov's Science Fiction
2003PS Publishing
2004*Asimov's Science Fiction
2004"Bernardo's House"Asimov's Science Fiction
2004"It's All True"Sci Fiction
2004"Dead Worlds"Asimov's Science Fiction
2004"Dry Bones"Asimov's Science Fiction
2004Sci Fiction
2004Fantasy & Science Fiction
2004"Looking Through Lace"Asimov's Science Fiction
2004"Off on a Starship"Asimov's Science Fiction
2004"Only Partly Here"Asimov's Science Fiction
2004Fantasy & Science Fiction
2004Fantasy & Science Fiction
2005*"Sergeant Chip"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2005Sci Fiction
2005"Mere"Golden Gryphon Press
2005Conqueror Fantastic
2005"Arabian Wine"Asimov's Science Fiction
2005Sci Fiction
2005"Dancer [in the Dark (short story)|Dancer in the Dark]"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2005Asimov's Science Fiction
2005Asimov's Science Fiction
2005"Invisible Kingdoms"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2005
2005Dark Matter: Reading the Bones
2005Denver Quarterly
2005"Savant Songs"Analog Science Fiction and Fact
2005"Scout's Honor"Sci Fiction
2005"Singing My Sister Down"Black Juice
2005"Start the Clock"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2005"Stone Animals"Conjunctions 43: Beyond Arcadia
2005Analog Science Fiction and Fact
2005"Venus Flowers at Night"Microcosms
2006*Fantasy & Science Fiction
2006Asimov's Science Fiction
2006"Magic for Beginners"Magic for Beginners
2006Fantasy & Science Fiction
2006Analog Science Fiction and Fact
2006"Inside Job"Asimov's Science Fiction
2006"Keyboard Practice, Consisting of an Aria with Diverse Variations for the Harpsichord with Two Manuals"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2006"Little Faces"Sci Fiction
2006"Panacea"Sci Fiction
2006"Second Person, Present Tense"Asimov's Science Fiction
2007*FutureShocks
2007Asimov's Science Fiction
2007"Lord Weary's Empire"Asimov's Science Fiction
2007"Another Word for Map Is Faith"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2007"Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth"Asimov's Science Fiction
2007Asimov's Science Fiction
2007Strange Horizons
2007"Inclination"Asimov's Science Fiction
2007PS Publishing
2007Asimov's Science Fiction
2007"Yellow Card Man"Asimov's Science Fiction
2007"You Have Never Been Here"Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology
2008*"Finisterra"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2008*"Tideline"Asimov's Science Fiction
2008Fantasy & Science Fiction
2008"Memorare"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2008"Always"Asimov's Science Fiction
2008"Baby Doll"
2008
2008
2008Inferno
2008Foundation
2008Fantasy & Science Fiction
2008Fantasy & Science Fiction
2009*Asimov's Science Fiction
2009"Memory Dog"Asimov's Science Fiction
2009Galactic Empires
2009"From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled"Asimov's Science Fiction
2009Fast Forward 2
2009"His Master's Voice"Interzone
2009Fantasy & Science Fiction
2009"Special Economics"
2009"True Names"Fast Forward 2
2010*Tachyon Publications
2010"As Women Fight"Asimov's Science Fiction
2010"Things Undone"Jim Baen's Universe
2010"This Wind Blowing, and this Tide"Asimov's Science Fiction
2010"Blood Dauber"Asimov's Science Fiction
2010"Blood Dauber"Asimov's Science Fiction
2010"Clockatrice"Fantasy Magazine
2010Subterranean Press
2010"Eros, Philia, Agape"Tor.com
2010"Her Voice in a Bottle"Subterranean Press
2010
2010"Spar"Clarkesworld Magazine
2010"True Fame"Asimov's Science Fiction
2011*Asimov's Science Fiction
2011Stories
2011Clarkesworld Magazine
2011"Dead Man's Run"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2011"Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain"Lightspeed
2011"Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2011Asimov's Science Fiction
2011"Mammoths of the Great Plains"Mammoths of the Great Plains
2011Strange Horizons
2011"Troika"Godlike Machines
2011"Under the Moons of Venus"Subterranean Magazine
2012*Asimov's Science Fiction
2012"Six Months, Three Days"Tor.com
2012Fantasy & Science Fiction
2012Asimov's Science Fiction
2012"Ghostweight"Clarkesworld Magazine
2012Lightspeed
2012Panverse 3
2012"Silently and Very Fast"Clarkesworld Magazine
2013*Strange Horizons
2013"Things Greater Than Love"Strange Horizons
2013"Immersion"Clarkesworld Magazine
2013"Scattered Along the River of Heaven"Clarkesworld Magazine
2013Subterranean Magazine
2013Lightspeed
2013"Mono No Aware"The Future is Japanese
2013"Nahiku West"Analog Science Fiction and Fact
2013PS Publishing
2013Edge of Infinity
2013" Whole Against the Sky"Clarkesworld Magazine
2013Tachyon Publications
2014*"In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind"Strange Horizons
2014"Bloom"Asimov's Science Fiction
2014Asimov's Science Fiction
2014"They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass"Asimov's Science Fiction
2014"Over There"Asimov's Science Fiction
2014Asimov's Science Fiction
2014Electric Velocipede
2014"Mystic Falls"Clarkesworld Magazine
2014"Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer"Clockwork Phoenix 4
2014Clarkesworld Magazine
2015*Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future
2015"Lady With Fox"Carbide Tipped Pens
2015"Childfinder"Unexpected Stories
2015"In Her Eyes"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2015"Herd Immunity"
2015"When It Ends, He Catches Her"Daily Science Fiction
2015Tachyon Publications
2015Tachyon Publications
2015Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future
2015Upgraded
2015Fantasy & Science Fiction
2015"We Are the Cloud"Lightspeed
2015Reach for Infinity
2015"Shatterdown"Asimov's Science Fiction
2015Asimov's Science Fiction
2016*Strange Horizons
2016"And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead"Lightspeed
2016"Avery Cates: The Walled City"self-published
2016"Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan"Old Venus
2016"Damage"Tor.com
2016"Emergence"Meeting Infinity
2016"Folding Beijing"Uncanny Magazine
2016Asimov's Science Fiction
2016"Gypsy"Fantasy & Science Fiction
2016Asimov's Science Fiction
2016"Our Lady of the Open Road"Asimov's Science Fiction
2016Clarkesworld Magazine
2017*Drowned Worlds
2017Tor.com
2017"Seasons of Glass and Iron"
2017"Touring With The Alien"Clarkesworld Magazine
2017Tor.com Publishing
2017Asimov's Science Fiction
2017"Things With Beards"Clarkesworld Magazine
2017"Project Empathy"Asimov's Science Fiction
2017Tor.com Publishing
2018*"Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue"Global Dystopias
2018"Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance"Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far Away Galaxies
2018Asimov's Science Fiction
2018"Sidewalks"Omni
2018Tor.com
2018Clarkesworld Magazine
2018"And Then There Were (N-One)"Uncanny Magazine
2018"Fandom for Robots"Uncanny Magazine
2018Clarkesworld Magazine
2018"Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™"Apex Magazine
2018"We Who Live in the Heart"Clarkesworld Magazine
2019*"When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis"Slate.com
2019"Freezing Rain, A Chance of Falling"
2019Tor.com Publishing
2019Fireside Magazine
2019"Umbernight"Clarkesworld Magazine
2019"Nine Last Days on Planet Earth"Tor.com
2019"When We Were Starless"Clarkesworld Magazine
2019Beneath Ceaseless Skies
2019Tor.com Publishing
2019"On the Day You Spend Forever with Your Dog"Apex Magazine
2019"Yard Dog"Fiyah
2020*"Waterlines"Asimov's Science Fiction
2020Saga Press
2020Saga Press
2020Tor.com
2020Lightspeed
2020Uncanny Magazine
2020New Suns
2020"Give the Family My Love"Clarkesworld Magazine
2020"New Atlantis"
2020"Omphalos"Exhalation: Stories
2020Clarkesworld Magazine
2020Tor.com Publishing
2021*Clarkesworld Magazine
2021"50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know"Uncanny Magazine
2021"AirBody"Clarkesworld Magazine
2021Tor.com
2021"If You Take My Meaning"Tor.com
2021"Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon"Dominion
2021Dominion
2021Beneath Ceaseless Skies
2021Big Girl
2021Clarkesworld Magazine
2021"Yellow and the Perception of Reality"Tor.com
2022*"Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story"
2022Tor.com Publishing
2022"Bots of the Lost Ark"Clarkesworld Magazine
2022
2022"If the Martians Have Magic"Uncanny Magazine
2022Asimov's Science Fiction
2022Neon Hemlock Press
2022"Philia, Eros, Storge, Agápe, Pragma"Clarkesworld Magazine
2022"Proof by Induction"Uncanny Magazine
2022"Sarcophagus"Clarkesworld Magazine
2023*"Rabbit Test"Uncanny Magazine
2023"Babang Luksa"Reckoning
2023"Bonsai Starships"Beneath Ceaseless Skies
2023
2023Sunday Morning Transport
2023"If We Make It Through This Alive"Slate
2023"In the Beginning of Me, I Was a Bird"Lightspeed
2023"Slow Communication"Fantasy
2023"Ten Steps for Effective Mold Removal"Apex Magazine
2023"Toronto Isn't Real and Other Metropolitcan Anomalies"Augur Magazine
2024*"Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200"Uncanny Magazine
2024"Patsy Cline Sings Sweet Dreams to the Universe"Strange Horizons
2024Uncanny Magazine
2024Analog Science Fiction and Fact
2024"Notes From a Pyre"The Deadlands
2024Luminescent Machinations: Queer Tales of Monumental Invention
2024Apex Magazine
2024Asimov's Science Fiction
2024"What It Means to Be a Car"Tor.com
2025*"The Carcosa Pattern"Fiyah
2025"Swarm X1048 – Ethological Field Report: Canis Lupus Familiaris, '6'"Clarkesworld Magazine
2025"Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!"Reactor
2025"Evan: A Remainder"Reactor
2025"Hello! Hello! Hello!"Clarkesworld Magazine
2025 "Judas Iscariot Didn't Kill Himself: A Story in Fragments"The Last Dangerous Visions
2025 "Judas Iscariot Didn't Kill Himself: A Story in Fragments"The Last Dangerous Visions
2025"Rachel Is At a Protest"The Deadlands
2025"To Eat Your Own Head"Asimov's Science Fiction
2025"We Will Teach You How to Read We Will Teach You How to Read"Lightspeed
2025"Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole"Clarkesworld Magazine