How is the Otherwise Award winner chosen?

The Otherwise Award Year Process
The Otherwise Award Year Process

Each year the Otherwise Award motherboard appoints a panel of five jurors to read and discuss among themselves the merits of gender-bending fiction published in the previous year.

At the end of a year of reading and deliberation, the jurors choose the winner(s). The jury’s only charge is to look for science fiction and fantasy that “explores and expands gender.” Each set of jurors refines and re-examines their own definitions of that phrase.

Who recommends works to be considered?

Anyone and everyone is invited to give us recommendations for novels and short fiction works via our Web site. We hope you will submit works that you think are appropriate. You can recommend works at here. While we try to focus on works published within the past year, the jury will look at older works which a previous jury overlooked.

When is the winner announced?

Unlike most literary awards, we don’t wait till the award ceremony to make the big announcement. Winners and honor list works (and long list works when there are any) are made public a month or more before the ceremony. This way, we don’t create an artificial set of “losers”; instead, we publish a list of works which the jurors consider worthy of readers’ attention.

What do you get when you win the Otherwise Award?

The winner or winners are invited to the Otherwise Award ceremony to accept their award and prize money. Each year’s winners receive $1000, a piece of original art, chocolate, a plaque, a t-shirt, a SpaceBabe pin, and their trip to the ceremony. What’s more, they get the dubious privilege of having the more-than-amateur Tips Chorus sing an original silly song in their honor. Each piece of original art is made by a different artist, selected by the Motherboard after the jury chooses the winner(s). Winners who can attend the award ceremony get the opportunity to wear this beautiful tiara, handmade by Elise Matthesen and donated to the award.

The Tiptree Tiara
The Tiptree Tiara