We have three news items today:

• Introducing the Otherwise Awards 2026 jury.
• Reminding you to submit recommendations.
• Letting you know about our upcoming fundraising auction at Worldcon.

Jurors!

The Otherwise Motherboard is pleased to announce the Otherwise Awards 2026 Jury:

Gautam Bhatia (Chair) is an Indian SFF writer, reviewer, and editor. He is the author of THE FIFTH INFLECTION (Saga Press/Solaris 2027). Originally published in India as THE SENTENCE, the novel won the 2025 Ignyte Award for best adult fiction. His other novels include the duology THE WALL and THE HORIZON (HarperCollins India). He is also the co-ordinating editor of Strange Horizons, a Hugo Award-winning weekly, online magazine of SFF that is in its 27th year of existence. His critical and editorial work focuses on SFF from the global south, extractivism in SFF, anarchist SFF, and more. In his other life, he is a constitutional lawyer.

Abigail Nussbaum is a blogger and critic, former reviews editor of Strange Horizons, and a two-time winner of the Hugo award for Best Fan Writer. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the New Scientist, Locus, io9, and others, and she contributes to the politics blog Lawyers, Guns, & Money. Her review collection Track Changes was published by Briardene Books in 2024.

Akankshya Abismruta (she/her) is an independent books & culture writer based in India. She writes for numerous Indian newspapers and several digital platforms, including Strange Horizons. She is interested in all things gender, illness and disability, and translation. She lives with multiple chronic conditions and invisible disability, and copes by reading stories that disrupt power structures. She is @geekyliterati on Instagram and @akankshya.bsky.social on Bluesky.

Three other jury members have asked not to be named publicly until the end of the jury process. For more about our public naming of jurors, see below.

The jury is now considering works for the 2026 Awards, and will announce its decisions by late May 2027; we intend to celebrate Award winners at WisCon 2027.

A transparency note about naming jurors publicly:

In most past years, we’ve announced the name of the jury chair at the beginning of each year’s Awards cycle, but haven’t publicly named the members of the jury until the end of the process.

Last year and this year, we learned that some jurors want to be publicly named at the start of the cycle, and others don’t, for a mix of reasons (all sensible). So this year, we’re refining our process, and naming only the jurors who want to be named.

When we announce this year’s Awards around May 2027, we’ll also provide the names of all of the jurors.

Thanks to all our jurors for serving!

Send recs!

The main way that the jury finds out about works to consider is your recommendations. Our recommendation form is open for works published in 2026. Let us know about the sf works you’re appreciating that explore or expand our understanding of gender! (Works can be books, stories, poems, music, video, fanfic, social media posts, or any other form of speculative fiction.)

Auction!

This year, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) will be LAcon V, August 27-31, in Anaheim, California, USA, and online. As part of the virtual convention, the Otherwise Award will hold an online fundraising auction on Sunday, August 30^th, 6-7pm PDT (check your timezone).

The annual Otherwise Award celebrates genre fiction that expands our understanding of gender. To raise money, comedian Sumana Harihareswara auctions off rare books, vintage collectibles, discounts at retailers, wacky experiences, and more! Watch the livestream, bid in the chat, pay online - or just come to laugh! We'll also offer a special virtual gift bag to anyone who donates any amount during the auction. A WisCon tradition comes to Worldcon.

This will be our first time auctioning items at a Worldcon since Sumana emceed a fundraising auction at MidAmericon II in Kansas City ten years ago. This time, you can participate from anywhere in the world, as long as you're registered to attend convention programming! The auction will happen in realtime: Sumana will be auctioneering on a livestream, and you’ll be bidding in the Discord chat.

Sumana will auction off a variety of items (material and im-) and provide entertainment along the way.

Some examples:

• Delightful décor, such as a limited-edition letterpress art piece celebrating the mathematical concept of infinity!
• Funny fannishness, such as an illustrated zine that honors both the author’s crush on Star Trek’s Data and the aesthetic language of Geocities fan pages!
• Beautiful books, such as a compilation of over 130 artworks by Hugo Award-winning artist Geneva Bowers!
• Wacky experiences! (Sumana has promised us that there will be at least one wacky experience.)

The auction is one of the Otherwise Award’s main fundraising activities, but it’s also a fun time even if you don’t bid on anything.

Physical items: shipping within the continental US included in the bid. Shipping outside the US: one of our volunteers will message with the winning bidder to figure out a surcharge based on an estimated shipping cost for that item, probably USD $5-20.

We’ll also have a virtual gift bag for anyone who donates any amount of money during the auction, with some fun items in it, including a digital item made specially for this event! And if the total donations get high enough, there might be a quick game speedrun to watch....

Register now for the convention! There are a bunch of registration options with different prices, but any of them that let you attend convention programming (in person or online) will let you attend the auction.