Beneath Ceaseless Skies hereby recuses the magazine from further nominations or finalist appearances for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine.

It has been a wonderful honor for BCS to have been a finalist for Best Semiprozine ten times. We are deeply touched by the respect and appreciation voters showed in nominating us or voting for us. During those years, BCS‘s readership doubled, our submissions expanded, our stories received greater acclaim, and our subscriber and supporter base grew enough to fund increases in our word-count limit for submissions, our author pay rate, and the honorarium we pay our First Readers.

There are many other indie zines, run by dedicated staff and publishing great and important stories, whose work in our opinion deserves a Best Semiprozine finalist and the boost in reach and support it can provide. We want to see them get it.

(BCS has not exceeded the eligibility requirements for Best Semiprozine about revenue. This recusal does not mean our financial situation is any less precarious than it’s always been! We still need the support of our donors and ebook subscribers to fund the magazine and our patrons on the BCS Patreon to fund the author pay rate increase and the honoraria for our First Readers. If you’re already supporting us, THANK YOU. If you’re not and would like to, please consider donating, subscribing, or becoming a Patron.)

Please still consider BCS stories for Hugo nomination when you find them worthy. It’s a great honor for authors and a magazine to have stories voted finalist for the Hugo or any award. Here’s our list of award-eligible BCS stories from 2022 and their award category (Short Story, Novelette, Novella).

(If you still want to nominate part of BCS for a Hugo, Scott (me) is eligible for Best Editor Short Form. In 2022 he was six votes short of making the final ballot. But there are many great editors of pro zines or anthologies who deserve your consideration in that category first.)

For other worthy indie zines to consider for Best Semiprozine, the 2022 Hugo longlist included Mermaids Monthly, Khōréō, Fireside, Diabolical Plots, The Deadlands, GigaNotoSaurus–all unique, important, and worthy.