Sidewise Awards for Alternate History

Overview

The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with their analogs from other timelines.

The awards were created by Steven H Silver, Evelyn C. Leeper, and Robert B. Schmunk. Over the years, the number of judges has fluctuated between three and eight and have included judges in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa.

Two awards are normally presented each year, usually at WorldCon or at NASFiC. The Short-Form award is presented to a work under 60,000 words in length. The Long-Form award is presented to a work or works longer than 60,000 words, which may include a single novel or a multi-volume series. The judges have five times also recognized an individual with a Special Achievement Award in recognition for works published prior to the award's inception or for other contributions to the genre.

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Award winners

Note: The Sidewise Awards are announced as for the year of publication rather than by the year of award presentation.

Long Form

1995 – Paul J. McAuley, Pasquale's Angel

1996 – Stephen Baxter, Voyage

1997 – Harry Turtledove, How Few Remain

1998 – Stephen Fry, Making History

1999 – Brendan DuBois, Resurrection Day

2000 – Mary Gentle, Ash: A Secret History

2001 – J. N. Stroyar, The Children's War

2002 – (tie): Martin J. Gidron (name since changed to Martin Berman-Gorvine), The Severed Wing and Harry Turtledove, Ruled Britannia

2003 – Murray Davies, Collaborator

2004 – Philip Roth, The Plot Against America

2005 – Ian R. MacLeod, The Summer Isles

2006 – Charles Stross, The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, and The Clan Corporate

2007 – Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union

2008 – Chris Roberson, The Dragon's Nine Sons

2009 – Robert Conroy, 1942

2010 – Eric G. Swedin, When Angels Wept: A What-If History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

2011 – Ian R. MacLeod, Wake Up and Dream

2012 – C. J. Sansom, Dominion

2013 – (tie) D. J. Taylor, The Windsor Faction and Bryce Zabel, Surrounded by Enemies: What If Kennedy Survived Dallas?

2014 – Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Enemy Within

2015 – Julie Mayhew, The Big Lie

2016 – Ben H. Winters, Underground Airlines

2017 – Bryce Zabel, Once There Was a Way

2018 – Mary Robinette Kowal, The Calculating Stars

2019 – Annalee Newitz, The Future of Another Timeline

2020 – Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Doors of Eden

2021 – Laurent Binet, Civilizations (translated by Sam Taylor)

2022 – B. L. Blanchard, The Peacekeeper

2023 – Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz

2024 – Sophie Burnham, Sargassa

2025 – Vaishnavi Patel, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion

Short Form

1995 – Stephen Baxter, "Brigantia's Angels"

1996 – Walter Jon Williams, "Foreign Devils" (in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches)

1997 – William Sanders, "The Undiscovered"

1998 – Ian R. MacLeod, The Summer Isles

1999 – Alain Bergeron, "The Eighth Register" (translated by Howard Scott)

2000 – Ted Chiang, "Seventy-Two Letters"

2001 – Ken MacLeod, The Human Front

2002 – William Sanders, "Empire"

2003 – Chris Roberson, "O One"

2004 – Warren Ellis, The Ministry of Space

2005 – Lois Tilton, "Pericles the Tyrant"

2006 – Gardner Dozois, "Counterfactual"

2007 – (tie): Michael Flynn, "Quaestiones Super Caelo Et Mundo" & Kristine Kathryn Rusch, "Recovering Apollo 8"

2008 – Mary Rosenblum, "Sacrifice"

2009 – Alastair Reynolds, "The Fixation"

2010 – Alan Smale, "A Clash of Eagles"

2011 – Lisa Goldstein, "Paradise Is a Walled Garden"

2012 – Rick Wilber, "Something Real"'

2013 – Vylar Kaftan, "The Weight of the Sunrise"

2014 – Ken Liu, "The Long Haul: From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009"

2015 – Bill Crider, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore"

2016 – (tie): Daniel M. Bensen, "Treasure Fleet" & Adam Rovner, "What If the Jewish State Had Been Established in East Africa"

2017 – Harry Turtledove, "Zigeuner"

2018 – Oscar (Xiu) Ramirez and Emmanuel Valtierra, Codex Valtierra

2019 – Harry Turtledove, "Christmas Truce"

2020 – Matthew Kresal, "Moonshot"

2021 – Alan Smale, "Gunpowder Treason"

2022 – (tie): Eric Choi, "A Sky and a Heaven" & Wole Talabi "A Dream of Electric Mothers"

2023 – Rosemary Claire Smith, "Apollo in Retrograde"

2024 – L. Briar, "A Brother's Oath"

2025 – Alan Smale, "Caesar at Sea"

Special Achievement

1995 – L. Sprague de Camp, lifetime achievement

1997 – Robert Sobel, For Want of a Nail

1999 – Randall Garrett, the Lord Darcy series

2018 – Eric Flint, for support of writers in the alternate history genre, most notably via the 1632 series

2025 – Ronald D. Moore — For bringing alternate history to television through For All Mankind and Star City