Hugo Awards winners showcase science fiction’s diversity

If your perception of science fiction is an all-boys clubhouse with a “No Girls Allowed” sign out front, it’s time to update your operating system.

When the Hugo Awards — the Oscars of science fiction and fantasy — were presented Sunday night, the diversity of the fans and creators called up to receive the rocket-shaped awards was on full display. Most were women, including several women of color and members of LGBT communities.

“I may be the first black and indigenous woman to win the John Campbell Award but I won’t be the last,” said Rebecca Roanhorse, who received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and took home the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience.” The awards were given out during WorldCon 76, the huge sci-fi gathering at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

The awards show, emceed by artist John Picacio, included presentations by “Game of Thrones” creator George R.R. Martin, author and historian Ada Palmer and surprise guest Felicia Day, a writer and performer best known for “The Guild,” her web series about her life as a gamer. “This is such a beautiful ceremony,” Day said. “It really puts fandom and creation on the same stage.”

Sunday night, female artists, writers, editors and fans accepted the awards that were named for Hugo Gernsback, who founded the pioneering science fiction magazine “Amazing Stories.” (See a full list of winners at www.mercurynews.com/sal-pizarro) Even “Wonder Woman” — the blockbuster hit starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins — won for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, though no one from the movie was there to accept.

N.K. Jemisin won the award for Best Novel for “The Stone Sky,” marking the third consecutive year she has won the Hugo’s most widely watched category. Jemisin, an African American woman, said she looks to science fiction as “the aspirational drive of the zeitgeist.”

She won, she said, for the same reason authors including Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and J.K. Rowling did: “Because I worked my ass off. I poured my pain onto paper when I could not afford therapy,” she said. To those critical of the way the Hugos have opened doors for women and minorities, she said, “When they win, it’s a meritocracy. When I win, it’s identity politics.”

Actually, it looks like the future.

MORE FUN ON THE WAY: WorldCon 76 may have wrapped up Monday, but pop culture fans still have the ToyXpo to look forward to this weekend at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The show, which opens Friday at 1 p.m. and runs through Sunday, includes contests for cosplay and custom-made toys as well as an entire ballroom of toy and collective vendors.

Celebrity guests scheduled to appear for autograph and photo sessions include Gil Gerard of “Buck Rogers” fame, Noah Schnapp and Cara Buono from Netflix’s runaway hit, “Stranger Things,” and character actor Alan Oppenheimer, who provided the voice of Skeletor for the animated “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.” South Bay filmmaker Lon Lopez will be at the show to premiere his latest stop-motion animation film, “The Furious Gospel of Johnny Tan” on Saturday as part of the Action Figure Action Movie panel.

And to save the best for last, Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox are scheduled to team-up for a “CHiPs” reunion on Saturday. If you can’t pass that up, head to www.bayareatoyexpo.com for ticket and schedule details.

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