The Hugo Awards for editors, long form and short form, are both somewhat difficult to nominate for. Here’s why:

• Best Editor (Long Form): This is the first of the person categories, so the Award is given for the work that person has done in the year of eligibility. To be eligible the person must have edited at least 4 novel-length (i.e. 40,000 words or more) books devoted to science fiction and/or fantasy in the year of eligibility that are not anthologies or collections.
• Best Editor (Short Form): To be eligible the person must have edited at least four anthologies, collections or magazine issues devoted to science fiction and/or fantasy, at least one of which must have been published in the year of eligibility.

Basically, the eligibility rules are written in a way that disadvantages small press editors of novels, who may not work on many projects in a year, and excludes first-time or new editors of anthologies and magazines altogether. This is further complicated by the fact that many readers just aren’t aware of who edits the work they read, and for novels in particular, this information is often not readily available. In practice both of these categories have functioned almost as lifetime achievement awards, and they tend to be dominated by the same handful of nominees and winners year after year.

I feel like most of the editors that I like right now are newish to the scene, so they may all be longshots, but it would be nice to see some new and different faces on the finalist list this year. There are a couple of people whose eligibility I’m not sure of, or who I’m fairly certain are not eligible, but I’m going to list them anyway because I like them and think more people should know who they are.

Best Editor, Long Form

• Marco Palmieri – Tor. We have Marco Palmieri to thank for a couple of last year’s best debut novels, The Traitor Baru Cormorant and Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard.
• Anne Lesley Groell – Bantam Spectra and Random House. She brought us Uprooted.
• Anne Perry – Hodderscape. Responsible for bringing The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet to a broader audience after it was originally kickstarted and self-pubbed by the author.
• Betsy Wollheim – DAW. In 2015, gave us The Book of Phoenix.
• Joe Monti – SAGA Press. Edited The Grace of Kings.

Best Editor, Short Form

• Silvia Moreno-Garcia – She Walks in Shadows
• Ann & Jeff VanderMeer – Sisters of the Revolution
• Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas – Uncanny
• Neil Clarke – Clarkesworld
• Liz Gorinsky – Tor.com
• John Joseph Adams – Lightspeed

Probably not eligible because of the rules, but wish I could nominate and might put on my ballot anyway instead of a couple of the usual suspects that show up almost every year:

• Nisi Shawl & Bill Campbell – Stories for Chip
• Walidah Imarisha & Adrienne Maree Brown – Octavia’s Brood