The World Science Fiction Convention (“WSFC”) has announced the winners of its long-running and prestigious ‘Hugo Awards’ for 2011. This years award winners were announced on August 20 in Reno, Nevada. In attendance at the annual event were such science fiction luminaries as Tim Powers, Boris Vallejo, Ellen Asher, George R.R. Martin and Robert Silverberg as well as up-and-coming science fiction authors Jay Lake & Ken Scholes who acted as toastmasters.

Now in its 56th consecutive year, the Hugo Awards celebrate the best in science fiction and fantasy books, short stories, film, television and more. Named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of pioneering science fiction magazine “Amazing stories”, the awards are overseen and presented each year by the World Science Fiction Convention. At the beginning of each year, WSFC members nominate up to five people or works from the previous year in fifteen categories. In April, a shortlist is announced that has five finalists in each category and a final ballot is sent to WSFC members. Usually around 1000 WSFC members then vote using a preferential ballot that allows voters to rank all nominees. You can see a detailed list of the voting results here.

Since its inception in 1953, the awards ceremony has honored and included such science fiction giants as Isaac Asimov (multiple times as toastmaster), Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, Poul Anderson, Rod Serling, Brian Aldiss,Frederik Pohl, Michael Whelan and many others.

This year, the “Best Novel” award went to author Connie Willis with her two volume time traveling novels ‘Blackout/All Clear’. Her novels narrowly beat out fellow author Mira Grant’s zombie apocolypse novel ‘Feed’. Ted Chiang’s artificial intelligence work ‘The Lifecycle of Software Objects’ took the “Best Novella” award beating out Alastair Reynolds first alien contact work ‘Troika’. Other winners included Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ for “Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form”. The sublime, mind-bending film easily beat out 2nd place ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’.

Here are some of the winners:

BEST NOVEL
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)

BEST NOVELLA
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)

BEST NOVELETTE
“The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s, June 2010)

BEST SHORT STORY
“For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010)

BEST RELATED WORK
Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea (Mad Norwegian)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY
Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM
Inception, written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM
Doctor Who: “The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang,” written by Steven Moffat; directed by Toby Haynes (BBC Wales)

For more on the awards visit TheHugoAwards.org.