Alix E. Harrow's The Everlasting wins the Hugo Award
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow won the Hugo for best novel at LAcon V, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention.
LAcon V, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention, presented the 2026 Hugo Awards on 30 August 2026. Best novel went to The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow, published by Tor in both the US and the UK.
Amal El-Mohtar won best novella for The River Has Roots, adding to the Nebula she received for the same book in June. Both the novelette and short story awards went to stories from Clarkesworld: "Never Eaten Vegetables" by H.H. Pak and "In My Country" by Thomas Ha. John Scalzi's Old Man's War won best series, and C.B. Lee's Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe took the Lodestar Award for a young adult book.
The Everlasting had already won the Locus Award for best fantasy novel in May, so the Hugo confirms a strong year for the book with two quite different electorates: Locus readers and Worldcon members.
Two points stand out for writers. A long-running series such as Old Man's War can still be honoured two decades after its first volume, which says something about the patience that series fiction requires. And, as in 2025, one magazine supplied more than one short-fiction winner, which makes its submission queue one of the more consequential in the field.