Nebula Awards 2010s: A decade of winners

The 2010s were a transformative period for the Nebula Awards, that venerable celebration of science fiction and fantasy achievement. If the previous decade had established the award’s credibility, this one proved it could evolve with the genre itself. The Nebula winners of these ten years tell a story of speculative fiction breaking free from old constraints—more diverse voices claiming center stage, more women dominating the novel category, and a willingness to honor work that blended genres, played with form, and challenged readers in unexpected ways. Connie Willis’s Blackout/All Clear opened the decade with a time-travel epic, while Ann Leckie’s groundbreaking Ancillary Justice in 2013 reminded the field that radical narrative experiments could also win major recognition.

What makes this decade particularly striking is how the Nebula Awards became a reliable indicator of where speculative fiction was heading. N.K. Jemisin’s The Stone Sky (2017) capped off a historic hat trick—three consecutive Hugo and Nebula wins for her Broken Earth trilogy—a moment that felt genuinely watershed for the awards and the community they represent. Beyond the novels, shorter fiction flourished too, with Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie,” Rachel Swirsky’s genre-bending stories, and the recurring brilliance of Aliette de Bodard proving that excellence came in every length. The decade also showcased speculative fiction’s deep engagement with questions of identity, colonialism, justice, and what it means to be human—themes that connected the cerebral worldbuilding of Kim Stanley Robinson to the intimate, lyrical work of Nnedi Okorafor.

Below, you’ll find the complete breakdown of Nebula Award winners from 2010 through 2019, organized by year and category.

2010

Best Novel

• Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

Best Novelette

• That Leviathan Whom Thou Hast Made by Eric James Stone

Best Novella

• The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window by Rachel Swirsky

Best Short Story

• How Interesting: A Tiny Man by Harlan Ellison

Best Young Adult

• I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

2011

Best Novel

• Among Others by Jo Walton

Best Novelette

• What We Found by Geoff Ryman

Best Novella

• The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson

Best Short Story

• The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

Best Young Adult

• The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman

2012

Best Novel

• 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Best Novelette

• Close Encounters by Andy Duncan

Best Novella

• After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

Best Short Story

• Immersion by Aliette de Bodard

Best Young Adult

• Fair Coin by E.C. Myers

2013

Best Novel

• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Best Novelette

• The Waiting Stars by Aliette de Bodard

Best Novella

• The Weight of the Sunrise by Vylar Kaftan

Best Short Story

• If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky

Best Young Adult

• Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson

2014

Best Novel

• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Best Novelette

• A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Best Novella

• Yesterday’s Kin by Nancy Kress

Best Short Story

• Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon

Best Young Adult

• Love Is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson

2015

Best Novel

• Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Best Novelette

• Our Lady of the Open Road by Sarah Pinsker

Best Novella

• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Best Short Story

• Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong

Best Young Adult

• Updraft by Fran Wilde

2016

Best Novel

• All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Best Novelette

• The Long Fall Up by William Ledbetter

Best Novella

• Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Best Short Story

• Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar

Best Young Adult

• Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine

2017

Best Novel

• The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

Best Novelette

• A Human Stain by Kelly Robson

Best Novella

• All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Best Short Story

• Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse

Best Young Adult

• The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller

2018

Best Novel

• The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

Best Novelette

• The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

Best Novella

• The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

Best Short Story

• The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by P. Djèlí Clark

Best Young Adult

• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

2019

Best Novel

• A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker

Best Novelette

• Carpe Glitter by Cat Rambo

Best Novella

• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Best Short Story

• Give the Family My Love by A. T. Greenblatt

Best Young Adult

• Riverland by Fran Wilde