Mays Declines Hugo Nomination

Thomas A. Mays has declined the Hugo Award nomination for his short story The Commuter (Stealth).

The announcement was made at The Improbable Author, where Mays explained that he “accepted the nomination in the forlorn hope I would find my story among a mixed and diverse selection of other stories, stories which came out of fandom as a whole,” but that “as the list is straight slate in the short story category, I cannot take advantage of a flaw in the current nomination process. This is not a repudiation of anyone’s politics, nor is it an endorsement of anyone else’s ideology. This is not a statement on the quality of the nominated works that either appear or don’t appear on anyone’s slate.  This is a rejection of a gamed system, as well as a stand for returning the Hugos to what they’re supposed to be rather than what some have tried to make them.”

We have reached out to the Hugo Awards administrators to find out how they’ll handle the withdrawal, and will update this post with more information as it becomes available.