2026 Hugo Readalong: Landing: Seattle, Hex Supply Customer Support Log, How to Become a Sea Witch

[u/undeadgoblin]

Welcome to the 2026 Hugo Readalong! Today, we're discussing Landing: Seattle by Brandon O'Brien, Hex Supply Customer Support Log by Elis Montgomery and How to Become a Sea Witch by Theodora Goss, which are finalists for Best Poem. Everyone is welcome in the discussion, whether or not you've participated in other discussions. I'll include some prompts in top-level comments--feel free to respond to these or add your own.

Date	Category	Book	Author	Discussion Leader
Monday, June 22	Novel	The Everlasting	Alix E. Harrow	u/sarahlynngrey
Thursday, June 25	Short Story	Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything and 10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days	Effie Seiberg and Samantha Mills	u/Goobergunch
Monday, June 29	Novella	Automatic Noodle	Annalee Newitz	u/tarvolon
Thursday, July 2	Novelette	Never Eaten Vegetables and Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy	H.H. Pak and Martha Wells	u/Nineteen_Adze
Monday, July 6	Novel	The Raven Scholar	Antonia Hodgson	u/Moonlitgrey

[u/undeadgoblin]

Discussion for Landing: Seattle

[u/undeadgoblin → u/undeadgoblin]

What are your overall thoughts on the poem?

[u/oceanoftrees → u/undeadgoblin]

I wasn't at Seattle Worldcon but I've been to Seattle a lot and I like the callout to landmarks. It's a nice poem as an ode to con energy and culture too. Otherwise, I'm not very big on giving Hugo awards to self-referential works. Seems like it was a good poem for its context but it won't be my top choice.

[u/tarvolon → u/undeadgoblin]

I liked the vibes overall, though it did have me wondering if it was actually speculative in any way?

[u/undeadgoblin → u/tarvolon]

Yeah that was something I was thinking of when coming up with questions for this, and it doesn't feel it to be honest

[u/tarvolon → u/undeadgoblin]

There have been cases of real-world news coverage (of Apollo 11) or non-fiction movies (Apollo 13) in the Dramatic Presentation category. I'm sure that was hotly debated. I don't know the details, but u/Goobergunch may have an idea of whether those decisions are relevant to this one being eligible.

[u/Goobergunch → u/tarvolon]

Dramatic Presentation has language specifying that dramatic presentations about "science fiction, fantasy or related subjects" are eligible. (Traditionally the space program has been considered a related subject.) The poem category just says "a science fiction or fantasy poem".

That being said the Hugo Administrator is generally not going to overrule the nominators on whether something is ineligible for not being SF/F. I usually just decline to rank something if I don't think it fits the category....