The Hugo Awards are presented every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award. The award has been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". In addition to the regular awards that have been given in most years that the awards have been active, several discontinued Hugo Awards have been presented throughout the years, only to be removed after a few years.

When the Hugo awards were begun in 1953, each Worldcon organizing committee decided what awards they would give. Several awards were presented over the next few years which were not repeated in later conventions, unlike the primary categories which are still presented—such as Best Novel. These awards were the Best Cover Artist, Best Interior Illustrator, Excellence in Fact Articles, Best New SF Author or Artist, and #1 Fan Personality Hugos at the initial 1953 awards ceremony, the Best Feature Writer, Best Book Reviewer, and Most Promising New Author awards in 1956, the Outstanding Actifan award in 1958, and the Best New Author of 1958 award in 1959.

In 1961, however, formal rules were set down for which categories would be awarded, which could only be changed by the World Science Fiction Society membership through the annual Business Meeting. Despite this, the 1964 convention awarded a Hugo Award for the Best SF Book Publisher, which was not on that list. Immediately afterward the guidelines were changed to allow individual conventions to create additional categories, which was codified as up to two categories for that year. These additional awards were officially designated as Hugo Awards, but were not required to be repeated by future conventions. This was later adjusted to only allow one additional category. The Best SF Book Publisher award was repeated in 1965, and the Best All-Time Series award was given in 1966. No other additional categories were added by 1974, when the guidelines were changed again to allow up to ten categories which would be chosen by each convention, though they were expected to be similar to those presented in the year before. Despite this change no new awards were added or previous awards removed before the guidelines were changed back to listing specific categories.

The next discontinued Hugo award was the Other Forms award, given in 1988. It was followed in 1990 by the Best Original Art Work award, which was listed again as a special award in 1991, though not actually awarded, and instated afterward as an official Hugo Award. It was then removed from this status in 1996, and has not been awarded since. The Best Web Site special Hugo award was given in 2002 and 2005, and was followed by the Best Series special award, given in 2017 in advance of it being ratified as a standard category for the following year, the Best Art Book award, given in 2019, and the Best Video Game award, given in 2021 along with a proposal to make it a standard category, which then began in 2024.

Hugo Award nominees and winners are chosen by supporting or attending members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, and the presentation evening constitutes its central event. The selection process is defined in the World Science Fiction Society Constitution as instant-runoff voting with five nominees, except in the case of a tie. These five works on the ballot are those most-nominated by members that year, with no limit on the number of works that can be nominated. The 1953 and 1958 awards did not include any recognition of runner-up nominees, but since 1959 all five candidates have been recorded. Initial nominations are made by members in January through March, while voting on the ballot of five nominations is performed roughly in April through July, subject to change depending on when that year's Worldcon is held. Worldcons are generally held near Labor Day, and in a different city around the world each year. Members are permitted to vote "no award", if they feel that none of the nominees is deserving of the award that year, and in the case that "no award" takes the majority the Hugo is not given in that category. The only time this has happened in the discontinued awards was in the 1959 Best New Author category.

  *   Winners and joint winners   +   No winner selected

Best Cover Artist

Year	Artist	Ref.
1953	Hannes Bok and Ed Emshwiller*

Best Interior Illustrator

Year	Artist	Ref.
1953	Virgil Finlay*

Excellence in Fact Articles

Year	Author	Ref.
1953	Willy Ley*

Best New SF Author or Artist

Year	Author/Artist	Ref.
1953	Philip José Farmer*

#1 Fan Personality

Year	Fan	Ref.
1953	Forrest J Ackerman*

Sometimes referred to as the "BNF Award". According to an interim report issued by the Philcon II convention committee while voting was still going on, the next most popular candidate to Ackerman at the time was Harlan Ellison. When Ackerman was handed the trophy at Philcon II (by Isaac Asimov), he actually physically declined, saying it should go to Ken Slater, to whom the trophy was later forwarded by the con committee.

Best Feature Writer

Year	Writer	Ref.
1956	Willy Ley*
	L. Sprague de Camp
	Robert A. Madle
	Rog Phillips
	Robert S. Richardson

Best Book Reviewer

Year	Reviewer	Ref.
1956	Damon Knight*
	Henry Bott
	P. Schuyler Miller
	Anthony Boucher
	Groff Conklin
	Villers Gerson
	Floyd Gale
	Hans Stefan Santesson

Most Promising New Author

Year	Author	Ref.
1956	Robert Silverberg*
	Harlan Ellison
	Frank Herbert
	Henry Still

Outstanding Actifan

Year	Fan	Ref.
1958	Walt Willis*

Best New Author

Year	Author	Ref.
1959	(no award)+
	Brian Aldiss
	Pauline Ashwell
	Rosel George Brown
	Louis Charbonneau
	Kit Reed

Best SF Book Publisher

Year	Publisher	Ref.
1964	Ace Books*
	Pyramid Books
	Ballantine Books
	Doubleday
1965	Ballantine Books*
	Ace Books
	Victor Gollancz Ltd
	Pyramid Books

Best All-Time Series

Year	Series	Author	Ref.
1966	Foundation*	Isaac Asimov
	Barsoom	Edgar Rice Burroughs
	Future History	Robert A. Heinlein
	Lensmen	E. E. Smith
	The Lord of the Rings	J. R. R. Tolkien

Other Forms

Year	Work	Creator(s)	Publisher	Ref.
1988	Watchmen*	Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons	DC Comics
	Wild Cards	George R. R. Martin	Bantam Spectra
	I, Robot: The Movie	Harlan Ellison	Asimov's Science Fiction
	The Essential Ellison: A 35-Year Retrospective	Harlan Ellison, Terry Dowling, Richard Delap, and Gil Lamont	Nemo Press
	Cvltvre Made Stvpid	Tom Weller	Houghton Mifflin

Best Original Art Work

Year	Artwork	Artist(s)	Publisher	Ref.
1990	Cover of Rimrunners*	Don Maitz	Questar
	Cover of Hyperion	Gary Ruddell	Doubleday
	Cover of Paradise	Michael Whelan	Tor Books
	Cover of The Renegades of Pern	Michael Whelan	Del Rey Books
	Cover of Quozl	James Gurney	Ace Books
	Cover of The Stress of Her Regard	James Gurney	Ace Books
1992	Cover of The Summer Queen*	Michael Whelan	Warner Books
	Cover of Stations of the Tide	Bob Eggleton	Asimov's Science Fiction
	Cover of The White Mists of Power	Thomas Canty	Roc Books
	Cover of Heavy Time	Don Maitz	Questar
	Cover of Lunar Descent	Bob Eggleton	Ace Books
1993	Dinotopia*	James Gurney	Turner Publishing Company
	Cover of Aristoi	Jim Burns	Tor Books
	Portrait of Isaac Asimov	Michael Whelan	Asimov's Science Fiction
	Cover of Bridges	Ron Walotsky	Fantasy & Science Fiction
	Cover of Illusion	Michael Whelan	Bantam Spectra
1994	Space Fantasy Commemorative Stamp Booklet*	Stephen Hickman	United States Postal Service
	Cover of The Little Things	Thomas Canty	Fantasy & Science Fiction
	Cover of Cold Iron	Keith Parkinson	Asimov's Science Fiction
1995	Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book*	Brian Froud and Terry Jones	Pavilion Books
	Cover of Foreigner	Michael Whelan	DAW Books
	Cover of Gun, with Occasional Music	Michael Koelsch	Harcourt Brace
1996	Dinotopia: The World Beneath*	James Gurney	Turner Publishing Company
	Cover of Tide of Stars	Bob Eggleton	Analog Science Fiction and Fact
	Cover of Tea and Hamsters	Gary Lippincott	Fantasy & Science Fiction
	Cover of Dankden	Bob Eggleton	Fantasy & Science Fiction
	Cover of Renascence	George H. Krauter	Analog Science Fiction and Fact

Best Web Site

Year	Website	Editor(s)	Ref.
2002	Locus Online (www.locusmag.com)*	Mark R. Kelly
	Sci Fiction (www.scifi.com)	Craig Engler
	SF Site (www.sfsite.com)	Rodger Turner
	Strange Horizons (www.strangehorizons.com)	Mary Anne Mohanraj
	Tangent Online (www.tangentonline.com)	Dave Truesdale and Tobias S. Buckell
2005	Sci Fiction (www.scifi.com/scifiction)*	Ellen Datlow
	Locus Online (www.locusmag.com)	Mark R. Kelly
	Emerald City (www.emcit.com)	Cheryl Morgan
	Strange Horizons (www.strangehorizons.com)	Susan Marie Groppi
	eFanzines (www.efanzines.com)	Bill Burns

Best Art Book

Year	Book	Artist(s)	Publisher	Ref.
2019	The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition*	Charles Vess (illustrator), Ursula K. Le Guin (author)	Saga Press / Victor Gollancz Ltd
	Daydreamer's Journey: The Art of Julie Dillon	Julie Dillon	self-published
	Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History	Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer	Ten Speed Press
	Spectrum 25: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art	John Fleskes (editor)	Flesk Publications
	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – The Art of the Movie	Ramin Zahed	Titan Books
	Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth	Catherine McIlwaine (editor)	Bodleian Library

• The Hugo Awards official website Archived 2021-01-26 at the Wayback Machine