Best Novelette: The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
Hugo and Nebula award nominee Brooke Bolander’s debut is an alternate history that combines two historical moments in the early 20th century: The Radium Girls, female factory workers who died of radiation poisoning, and the public electrocution of Topsy, an elephant in Coney Island. “The novella’s commentary around workers’ rights, animal rights, and women’s rights in the late 20th century serves as a powerful backdrop for a work grounded in injustice and outrage, though Bolander’s tale never feels preachy or on-the-nose,” writes Kirkus.
