Nebula Award Showcase is a series of annual science fiction and fantasy anthologies collecting stories that have won or been nominated for the Nebula Award, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers founded in 1965 by Damon Knight as the Science Fiction Writers of America.
The series has changed title a number of times over the years, with volumes 1-11 and 16-17 called Nebula Award Stories, v. 12-15 Nebula Winners, v. 18-33 Nebula Awards (v. 18-19 with the initial article The), and v. 34 onward Nebula Awards Showcase (v. 45 with the initial article The). Individual volumes are usually distinguished from each other by a volume number or year designation; both have sometimes been used for variant editions of the same volume. In general, numerical designations predominated for the first thirty-three volumes, year designations for the thirty-fourth through fifty-third volumes, and numerical designations again since.
The series has frequently changed editors and publishers.
Aside from the period from 1985–1997, when each editor edited three volumes in a row, the customary practice has been for every volume to have a different editor, or occasionally a pair of editors. The editors to date (each of one volume, unless otherwise indicated) have been Brian W. Aldiss (co-editor), Kevin J. Anderson, Poul Anderson, Catherine Asaro, Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., Michael Bishop (3 volumes), James Blish, Ben Bova, John F. Carr (co-editor), Julie E. Czerneda, Jack Dann (2 volumes), Ellen Datlow, Samuel R. Delany, Gordon R. Dickson, Gardner Dozois, Bill Fawcett, James E. Gunn, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison (co-editor), Frank Herbert, Kij Johnson, James Patrick Kelly (co-editor), John Kessel (co-editor), Damon Knight, Nancy Kress, Mercedes Lackey, Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda N. McIntyre, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, James Morrow (3 volumes), Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle (co-editor), Marta Randall, Mike Resnick, Kim Stanley Robinson, Pamela Sargent (3 volumes), Nibedita Sen, Robert Silverberg (2 volumes), Clifford D. Simak, Catherynne M. Valente, Kate Wilhelm, Connie Willis, Jane Yolen, George Zebrowski (3 volumes), and Roger Zelazny.
The publishers for the first American editions (usually, though not always, the first editions worldwide) have been Doubleday (v. 1-6), Harper & Row (v. 7-15), Holt, Rinehart and Winston (v. 16-17), Arbor House (v. 18-19), Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (v. 20-26), Harcourt Brace (v. 27-33), Harcourt (2000–2001), Roc/New American Library (2002–2010), Tor Books (2011), Pyr (2012–2018), Parvus Press (2019), and SFWA, Inc. (v. 54-55).[1] SFWA expected to release volume 56 by the end of 2021,[2] though as of February 6, 2024, it has yet to appear.
The contents of each volume are variable, but usually include an editorial introduction and the stories that won the Nebula Awards for Best Novella, Best Novelette and Best Short Story for the year covered and a selection of stories that were nominated but did not win. Also often included are excerpts from the books that won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and Andre Norton Award, the poems that won the Rhysling Award and Dwarf Stars Award for the year covered (dated for the year published rather than the year awarded, unlike the Nebulas), tributes to prominent recently deceased authors and authors voted Grand Master and Author Emeritus (together with representative pieces by them), surveys of the literature and films of the year covered, and lists of Nebula winners and nominees from previous years.
Publication date and volume editor follow each title.