Living Canon

Nebula Awards 2023: Complete list of winners

The 2023 Nebula Awards, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, celebrated a remarkable year in speculative fiction with winners who pushed genre conventions and explored deeply personal stories within expansive imaginative landscapes. Vajra Chandrasekera’s The Saint of Bright Doors, which took home Best Novel, stands out as a genre-bending work that defies easy categorization, while the shorter fiction categories showcased the Nebula Awards’ commitment to recognizing excellence across all lengths of storytelling. From Naomi Kritzer’s haunting novelette to Moniquill Blackgoose’s dragon-centered young adult fantasy, this year’s slate reflects an awards season increasingly focused on diverse voices and innovative approaches to world-building.

What makes the 2023 Nebula Award winners particularly noteworthy is how they collectively demonstrate science fiction and fantasy’s evolving relationship with character-driven narratives and cultural specificity. Rather than prioritizing spectacle or technological extrapolation alone, these works root their imaginative premises in the emotional and social dimensions of their characters’ lives. R. S. A. Garcia’s Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200, which won Best Short Story, exemplifies this trend by weaving together diaspora, memory, and resistance within a deceptively brief framework. Whether you’re tracking the Nebula Awards as a barometer of where speculative fiction is heading or simply looking for your next great read, this year’s winners offer entry points into stories that linger long after you’ve finished them.

Here are the complete 2023 Nebula Awards winners across all major categories:

Best Novel

Best Novelette

  • The Year Without Sunshine by Naomi Kritzer

Best Novella

Best Short Story

  • Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200 by R. S. A. Garcia

Best Young Adult