The Retrospective Hugo Awards (Retro Hugos) were added to the Hugo Awards from 1996 to commemorate works from years in which no Hugo Awards were given. They are optional Awards, and prior to 2017, marked years where a Worldcon was held but no Hugos were given. A rule change in 2017 expanded the scope to any year after 1939 in which no Hugos were awarded, regardless of whether or not a Worldcon was held that year. Worldcon 76 in San Jose and this year’s Worldcon in Dublin were the first beneficiaries under this new rule.

This year’s Retro Hugos at Dublin 2019 marked the turmoil of wartime – 1944. And the Awards given were:

Best Novel: Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Unknown Worlds, April 1943)

Best Novella: The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Reynal & Hitchcock)

Best Novelette: “Mimsy Were the Borogoves,” by Lewis Padgett (C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner) (Astounding Science-Fiction, February 1943)

Best Short Story: “King of the Gray Spaces” (“R is for Rocket”), by Ray Bradbury (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1943)

Best Graphic Story: Wonder Woman #5: Battle for Womanhood, written by William Moulton Marsden, art by Harry G. Peter (DC Comics)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Heaven Can Wait, written by Samson Raphaelson, directed by Ernst Lubitsch (20th Century Fox)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, written by Curt Siodmak, directed by Roy William Neill (Universal Pictures)

Best Editor, Short Form: John W. Campbell

Best Professional Artist: Virgil Finlay

Best Fanzine: Le Zombie, editor Wilson “Bob” Tucker

That’s a reminder of the brilliance of the Golden Age of science fiction, with just one year throwing up work by giants like Fritz Leiber and Ray Bradbury, classics like “Mimsy Were the Borogroves” and Heaven Can Wait, and luminaries like John W. Campbell and Virgil Finlay. And their inheritors? You’ll have to wait until Sunday night for those…