Hugo Speech

Jim’s brain is currently experiencing technical difficulties as a result of five awesome days of Worldcon, which culminated in winning a freaking Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer!

Normal mental service should resume shortly. In the meantime, please enjoy this transcript of Jim’s speech. (We’ve removed all of the nervous pauses and stumbles for ease of reading.)

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Growing up, I was never what you’d call one of the “popular kids.” Shocking, I know. It turns out that sewing a Star Trek patch onto your jean jacket is not the best way to get in with the cool crowd.

It wasn’t until I was almost thirty years old that I finally discovered fandom, first through conventions, and then online.

It felt like home. Like any home, ours isn’t perfect, but this was a community where I could geek out about the things I loved, and people would jump in to say, “Me too!” I feel so fortunate to be a part of that community, to participate and learn and explore and hopefully, from time to time, to contribute.

There are so many brilliant and wonderful fan writers out there. I don’t know if there are enough rocket trophies in the world to recognize everyone who’s written passionate, insightful, clever, funny, and flat-out awesome articles and essays about our community. But I’d love to see us honor as many of those diverse voices as we can, and for that reason, I’ll be recusing myself from the Fan Writer category from here on out to make space for those other deserving writers.

Thank you. Thank you to fandom for welcoming me, and special thanks to my family back in Michigan, who tolerate Daddy spending way too much time on the computer.