
#FANFIC WRITER DOXXED ARCHIVE#
The Archive of Our Own was born out of fans rebelling against corporate exploitationĪO3 isn’t just a fanfic archive: It’s the most well-known project from an organization called the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW). The Hugo win is a huge validation for many fanfic authors - many of whom are used to being dismissed and culturally maligned - that all of their non-professional works are worthy of respect.

For example, Novik herself is a three-time Hugo nominated novelist, but within fandom, she’s perhaps even better known as a major fanfiction author, a writer with a tremendous output who’s had a hand in shaping some of the subculture’s most significant fandoms and fan projects, including the AO3 itself. But now the Hugo voters have sent the emphatic message that not only does an entire fanfiction archive constitute a single “related work,” but that work is worthy of standing alongside some of the most renowned sci-fi/fantasy authors around. While the category can include some experimental entries, it’s very rare for it to include an entire website - and Hugo members have never nominated unpublished fanfiction before. The organization’s 1,800 voting members chose the Archive of Our Own as the year’s Best Related Work, a category that has traditionally included books or essays that involve critical commentary, tie-in works, or other works adjacent to speculative fiction. PREORDERS NOW OPEN /dOMiKLvzHl- Becca Farrow August 18, 2019

Novik then asked audience members who were part of the AO3’s community to stand and accept the award with her. “All our hard work and contributions would mean nothing without the work of the fan creators who share their work freely with other fans, and the fans who read their stories and. And that is true of the AO3 itself,” Novik said in her acceptance speech. “All fanwork, from fanfic to vids to fanart to podfic, centers the idea that art happens not in isolation but in community. The awards ceremony took place on Augat Worldcon in Dublin, where AO3 co-founder Naomi Novik, accepted it on behalf of all of the website’s creators and readers. They are sourced and voted on by Worldcon attendees, and, along with the Nebulas, they’re considered the speculative literary community’s most prestigious awards. The Hugos are annual science fiction and fantasy awards which are handed out every year at Worldcon.

It just won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work - a significant honor in the sci-fi/fantasy literature world. The Archive of Our Own, universally affectionately shorthanded as AO3, is one of the internet’s most well-known fanfiction archives.
