DRAGON CON’S DRAGON AWARDS PUBLISHES ITS 2023 BALLOT
Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 8/13/23
Eight Annual Awards Include 11 Categories, Reduced from Fifteen, To Better Reflect Fans’ Interests and Better Recognize the Best in Literature, Comics, Gaming and Filmed Entertainment.
Award Winners Will Be Announced at Dragon Con over Labor Day Weekend.
Dragon Con’s Dragon Awards, a fan’s choice awards program to recognize the very best in science fiction and fantasy literature, comics, gaming, and filmed entertainment, has published its 2023 ballot.
Winners of the Dragon Awards are selected by fans – not just Dragon Con members or convention attendees – and voting is free. You can view the ballot here.
Reflecting changes in past years’ voting patterns, the Dragon Awards has made several changes to the assortment of voting categories, reducing the number of categories from 15 to 11. Specifically:
· “Best Media Tie-In Novel” and “Best Military Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel” categories have been eliminated. Books in these former categories may be entered in one of the five remaining novel-focused categories.
· “Best Comic Book” and “Best Graphic Novel” have been combined into a single category, “Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel.”
· “Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game” and “Best Science Fiction of Fantasy Mobile Game” have been combined into a single category, “Best Digital Game.”
· “Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game” and “Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectable Card / Role-Playing Game” have been combined into one category, “Best Tabletop Game.”
· Finally, the “Best Illustrative Book Cover” category has been added to more accurately reflect our roots and fandom in the Art community.
“From the start, we said we would be flexible and make changes that would help make the Dragon Awards a true accounting of the best in science fiction and fantasy, whether fans read it, watch it, or play it,” said convention co-chair David Cody.
In 2022, more than 7,000 fans cast ballots for Dragon Award winners, selected from among 93 properties in 15 categories covering the full range of fiction, comics, television, movies, video gaming, and tabletop gaming.
All voting is done electronically and only via a ballot emailed to each confirmed voter. To vote, fans must first register on the Dragon Awards website: Register Here. Ballots are then emailed in batches every few days through August.
Fans have until Friday, Sept. 1 at 11:59 p.m., Eastern, to register. Voting ends 24-hours later on Saturday, Sept. 2 at 11:59 p.m., also Eastern.
Winners will be announced on Sunday, Sept. 3 at Dragon Con in downtown Atlanta. The annual Labor Day convention is scheduled this year from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4.
The ballot was selected in an open nomination process, in which more than 4,000 fans participated. Using the dedicated Dragon Awards website, fans were invited to nominate one (and only one) of their favorite properties in any or all the award categories. Nominations ran from November 2022 until July 19, 2023. The best and most popular of the nominated properties were elevated to the ballot.
Further details are available on the awards website: www.dragoncon.org/awards/.
