Living Canon

Nebula Awards 1976: Complete list of winners

The 1976 Nebula Awards celebrated a particularly strong year for speculative fiction, recognizing works that pushed the boundaries of what science fiction could explore. Frederik Pohl’s Man Plus took home Best Novel, a story that interrogated the very nature of humanity through the lens of cybernetic transformation—fitting thematically for a year when the nation was grappling with technological progress and social change. The awards showed breadth across their categories, from the intimate philosophical territory that Isaac Asimov staked out in “The Bicentennial Man” to James Tiptree Jr.’s haunting novella “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?”, which remains one of the most celebrated feminist science fiction stories ever written.

What made this particular year notable was how the Nebula Awards—the science fiction and fantasy community’s peer-voted honor—managed to recognize both established masters and bold new voices tackling urgent themes. Charles L. Grant’s “A Crowd of Shadows” completed a roster of winners that felt simultaneously respectful of genre traditions and genuinely forward-thinking. These four works, spanning the full range of speculative storytelling, remain touchstones for anyone interested in how science fiction wrestled with identity, consciousness, and human purpose during the mid-1970s.

Below you’ll find the complete rundown of the 1976 Nebula Award winners across all categories.

Best Novel

Best Novelette

Best Novella

Best Short Story

  • A Crowd of Shadows by Charles L. Grant