Living Canon

Nebula Awards 1999: Complete list of winners

The 1999 Nebula Awards celebrated some of speculative fiction’s most visionary voices, with Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents taking home the prize for Best Novel. Butler’s unflinching exploration of near-future America showcased the kind of urgent, socially conscious science fiction that the Nebula Awards have long championed. The award recognized not just imaginative worldbuilding but storytelling with real stakes—narratives that used the speculative mode to examine our present moment.

Beyond Butler’s powerhouse win, the year’s Nebula Award winners across other categories demonstrated the field’s remarkable range. Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life claimed Best Novella with its mind-bending meditation on language and time, while Leslie What’s “The Cost of Doing Business” earned Best Short Story honors, and Mary A. Turzillo’s “Mars Is No Place for Children” won Best Novelette. Together, these selections painted a picture of late ’90s science fiction deeply invested in philosophical inquiry, intimate human drama, and the strange possibilities lurking at the edges of our understanding.

The Nebula Awards, voted on by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, have long served as a crucial counterpoint to the more fan-voted Hugo Awards, often championing experimental and literary approaches to the genre. The 1999 winners exemplified this tradition beautifully, and their influence continues to ripple through science fiction discussions today.

Best Novel

Best Novelette

  • Mars Is No Place for Children by Mary A. Turzillo

Best Novella

Best Short Story