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August, 2026

The Theory of Related-ivity: A History and Analysis of the Best Related Work Hugo Category

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The Best Related Work Hugo Award category has seen significant variation in interpretation. It has gone through three major administrative definitions: Best Non-Fiction Book, Best Related Book, and Best Related Work. Within each of these eras, the nominating body has explored and expanded the parameters of those definitions. As a result, the category has both reflected and shaped changing understandings of what it means to be “related” to the field of speculative fiction and to be a “work.”

Latest Blog Entry

Looking for Homoeroticism; Finding Homophobia

The medieval French Roman de Silence is a rich text for exploring gender and sexuality, but as is often the case, what you find can depend on what you're looking for. What I personally look for is often imagery that could have informed a medieval woman's understanding of her sexual possibilities. This author seems to have been looking for ways to associate the homoeroticism in the tale with the villainess--even though the villainess's sexual transgressions are all heterosexual from her point of view.

Meet the author

Heather Rose Jones

Heather Rose Jones writes fantasy, historic fantasy, and historical fiction, including the Alpennia series with swordswomen and magic in an alternate Regency setting, and The Language of Roses an aromantic Beauty and the Beast story. Her novel Mother of Souls won the Gaylactic Spectrum award for Best Novel in 2017, and she was a Hugo Award finalist in 2025 for Best Related Work. She blogs about research into lesbian-like motifs in history and literature at the Lesbian Historic Motif Project which provides inspiration for her fiction. She has a PhD in linguistics, studying metaphor theory and the semantics of Medieval Welsh prepositions, and is a retired industrial failure investigator in biotech.