In a spirited five-day celebration, held August 8–12 at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow, Scotland, crowds converged from all over the globe for the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention, known as Worldcon. Show organizers said that more than 8,000 membership badges were purchased in total, with over 7,200 issued at the venue and upwards of 600 in attendance online.
On the convention floor and across a wealth of a wealth of panels, book signings, and creative showcases, the mood was buoyant, with old hands and first-timers alike connecting in bars, at events, and simply in passing. And the organization’s promise to “[consider] access, inclusion, and diversity as integral to Glasgow 2024,” found the perfect venue in the Scottish city, which was welcoming, accessible, and spacious.
This energy was summed up perfectly in one small room on Sunday evening, as a panel on science fiction and fantasy limericks got underway. Though its timing clashed with the imminent Hugo Awards, a panel led by author R.W.W. Greene still drew a great crowd, and gamely led a wonderful back and forth between panelists and the audience in the pursuit of the perfect SFF verse. It was collaborative, convivial, and showed the strong communal spirit at this year’s event.
“At no point in my early author career have I felt more like I belonged than at Worldcon,” said author Adrian M. Gibson. “This convention gave me and countless creatives from all walks of life the opportunity to see each other as fellow humans who you could break bread with, converse with, and share ideas. It opened my eyes to the importance of connection, and the fact that we’re all in this journey together.”
If connection was a key part of proceedings, so was the air of calm—in a way that was different to last year’s Worldcon in China. As Australian sci-fi author Jeremy Szal put it, in Chengdu, "they were hungry, enthusiastic, and frenzied in their love of science fiction. Whereas Glasgow felt noticeably laid-back."
From an industry perspective, there was a scarcity of American publishers at this year's Worldcon. Still, everyone in attendance seemed more focused on celebrating the current boom in the genre around the world.
“There’s never been a more exciting time to be a SFF publisher,” said Bethan Morgan, editorial director of Gollancz. Eleanor Teasdale, publisher at Angry Robot Books and Datura Books, remarked, “It’s been a joyous festival of genre, with so many international attendees too.”
This excitement was shared by Amanda Rutter, commissioning editor at Solaris Books. “I haven’t been to [a Worldcon] that felt so productive and positive since before the pandemic,” she said, adding, “The Glasgow team made it the most inclusive convention I have been to by far, given their commitment to accessibility needs and striving to ensure that every single participant felt as though they were represented.”
“The con felt very well organized,” said George Sandison, managing editor at Titan Books. “Like all effective project management, it looked like it was very simple to do and probably required Herculean efforts by numerous highly competent people!” Francesca T. Barbini, founder of Luna Press Publishing, agreed, praising the organizers for “being lots of help when we arrived. Overall, it’s been an amazing experience.”
The main takeaway from the event seemed to be about the importance of in-person connection to both the publishing industry and the greater SFF community. Cath Trechman, editor at large at Titan Books, noted, “I can say I found this year's Worldcon to be a great place to meet authors and agents and chat about the current trends and the idiosyncrasies of publishing, surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of genre fans and book lovers.”
Anna Jackson, Publisher at Orbit UK, echoed Trechman's sentiments. "We were able to meet many of our international authors in person who we’d only met online before," Jackson said. "We got to watch and participate in a range of brilliant panels and events, which were fun, informative and—importantly—very inclusive. And finally, for us to finish the weekend by having Orbit authors Emily Tesh and Ann Leckie walk away with the Hugo Awards for Best Novel and Best Series respectively was the icing on the cake!”
The Hugo Awards ceremony was held on August 11, with this year’s winners including Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory, for best novel, and T. Kingfisher’s Thornhedge, for best novella. the awards, the most significant in the SFF world, have been marred by recent controversies, from a censorship scandal at Chengdu that ended with resignations and censures earlier this year to the recent disqualifications of "fake votes" for this year's awards. However, publishers acknowledged that the commitment to transparency by this year’s organizers—which includes the release of a full administrative report and voting statistics in the wake of the show—has helped.
“The controversy surrounding the fraudulent votes cast for this year's Hugo Awards was unfortunate and it's upsetting for the SF community that someone would try to interfere with the voting system in this way,” said Jackson. “I commend the Hugo organisers for being transparent around this matter.” Liza Trombi, editor in chief at Locus magazine, concurred, saying, “The current team has done an excellent job of managing problems when they appear, in a transparent way that is rebuilding confidence within the larger SFF community.”
Amanda Rutter of Solaris remarked called it "a deep shame that Chengdu was not able to truly celebrate the fantastic slate of Chinese authors and media producers that appeared on the Hugo Awards last year, but were unfairly embroiled in the over-arching issues of what happened."
Rutter said that this year in Glasgow, "we have welcomed seeing the transparency of the award administration, including swift moves to remove vote manipulation, and a very quick presentation of the voting statistics after the award to ensure that the community could see that everything was above board. It was a commitment by this year’s award administrators, which I hope will continue, that the awards belong to the community, and that the SFFH community should have a fair say.”
