We’re 2019 Hugo Finalists!!! THANK YOU!

We really don’t know where to start. We’ve known for about two weeks now that was coming, but there was a small part that didn’t believe it. That instead believed it was some terrible hoax. Not that we don’t believe that The Skiffy and Fanty Show isn’t deserving of this, but rather that becoming finalists in 2014 was probably the one and only time it would ever happen. Yay for imposter syndrome!  We have to say, it’s a relief to see the official official announcement and know it is true (though to be amongst such amazing finalists is still bewildering!!)

But then we looked at our team and knew immediately that we should never have doubted, because our team is AMAZING and deserves every bit of this nomination:

• Paul Weimer, who has been with us since March of 2012 and really helped shape who we are today through his incredible knowledge of SFF and tireless contributions to both podcast and blog.
• Julia Rios, who has brought her wit and joy and advocacy for marginalized voices to countless episodes and is like a billion time Hugo finalist and winner for a reason!!
• Mike Underwood, who said “apotheosis” at WorldCon in 2013 in referance to Sharknado, so we had to have him and, though he’s stepped back this year, his boundless knowledge of narrative has been invaluable.
• David Annandale, who knows more about film than anyone we know and brings a certain gravitas to our absurdity. Until he talks about Godzilla and then he’s “as giddy as a school-boy.”
• Alex Acks, who brings their scathing criticism, along with a wicked sense of humor, to our book and film episodes, and can actually SCIENCE!!
• Stina Leicht, who continuously stands for justice and equality, reminding us always of how we can do better.
• Trish Matson, who not only has been editing our blog for half a decade, but has become one of our most frequent hosts for a reason – she is wise and wonderful.
• Kate Sherrod, the poet with the mostest, Star Wars super-fan extraordinaire, who brings with her expansive knowledge of the weird and obscure bits of SFF to share with us.
• Daniel Haeusser, who is a keen reviewer of book and story and also knows more about science than anyone on the team (oddly useful for a half-science fiction podcast).
• Joyce Chng, who brings her quiet, burning passion for international and under-represented SFF, not to mention beautiful words.
• Becca Evans, (our first intern!!! WHAT!!) who is insightful, hilarious, and finds the BEST likes in Torture Cinema.
• Zin E. Rocklyn, a woman so brilliant that you can’t help but listen to her words and gasp with awe at her presence (not even joking).
• Brandon O’Brien, who is not only an amazing poet and writer, but a truly genuine fan of SFF that brings his delighted joy to every episode.
• Trang Ngo, (our second intern???), who pushed us to find new ways to express our love of SFF and produces our Booktube show.
• Elizabeth Fitzgerald, who started out as a fantastic reviewer and then quickly became one of our most invaluable hosts, graciously willing to help out wherever needed.
• Cameron Coulter, who hasn’t been on an episode yet (we’ll get him), but his Short Fiction reviews are just so insightful that it pushes the rest of us to do more.
• Stephen Geigen-Miller, who has the best comics reviews anywhere (and the best radio voice), and his love for SFF and the community is palpable.
• Kerry Truong, our newest review team member, who is introducing us to a whole new area of SFF that we hadn’t even thought about before they joined!
• Rachel Cordasco, who brought her podcast, Speculative Fiction in Translation, to Skiffy and Fanty, turning our humble show into a network and fulfilling our goal to give the SFF community even greater access to international SFF. Her love of translation is awe-inspiring!
• And last, but certainly not least, we just welcomed Iori Kusano and her show, with Brandon O’Brien, Righteous Kicks!

It was beyond difficult when the Hugo committee contacted us and asked for names and then wouldn’t let us list everyone individually, so we do so here, because every single member of this team is important in some way shape or form. They lend a diversity of perspectives that is invaluable to making sure that the show itself represents a wide variety of voices. They are literally what make us who we are and we cannot thank them or recognize them enough.

Which leads me to our second area of thanks: Our guests. Last year, we had on approximately too many guests to count, at least four, errr… no… 10… wait, 12??? of which are Hugo finalists!!! WOW!  We especially have to thank Eden Royce and Tonia Thompson for their help in creating and coordinating some of our strongest podcast episodes last year. We love them and at some point they’re just going to be team members because we say so. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg that was our 2018. All of our guests were just so incredible and we are so grateful for the time they gave to us to talk about all their amazing books and projects. We highly recommend you go listen to all those episodes from last year so you don’t miss ANY of these amazing creators. We pride ourselves on reaching beyond the expected voices, into the margins of the SFF world, to find amazing people to share with our listeners, but that would all be for naught if they didn’t agree to join us!! 🙂

And now for the third and most important area of thanks, especially in terms of becoming a Hugo Finalist: our fans. Honestly, we have no idea how many of you there are. But the reality is that even if there are only 100 of you, you’re all the most special people to us. Well, sort of, honestly even if there were zero of you we would probably still make our silly little show, because we love what we do. HOWEVER!! We wouldn’t be as good. We’d never get new ideas, new perspectives, new anything, if it weren’t for you guys. We *certainly* wouldn’t become finalists for an award. That’s all you. YOU are the people responsible for this and we will literally never be able to repay you for this amazing opportunity. The best we can do, and we hope you accept it, is to continue to make the sometimes good, sometimes terrible, almost always entertaining podcast that you have come to know and love.

Thank you.

Love always,

Jen Zink and Shaun Duke