Nebula Awards 24
1990 anthology edited by Michael Bishop
Nebula Awards 24 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by Michael Bishop, the second of three successive volumes published under his editorship. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in April 1990.
Summary
The book collects pieces that won or were nominated for the Nebula Awards for novella, novelette and short story for the year 1989 and various nonfiction pieces related to the awards, together with a profile of 1989 Grand Master award winner Ray Bradbury with some representative pieces by him, tributes to recently deceased authors Clifford D. Simak and Robert A. Heinlein, the three Rhysling Award-winning poems for 1988, a couple other pieces, and an introduction by the editor. Not all nominees for the various awards are included.
Contents
"Introduction" (Michael Bishop)
"Themes and Variations: A View on the SF and Fantasy of 1988" [essay] (Ian Watson)
"Free Associating About Falling Free" [essay] (Lois McMaster Bujold)
"Ray Bradbury: Ambassador to the Future" [essay] (Greg Bear)
"The Collector Speaks" [poem] (Ray Bradbury)
"More Than One Way to Burn a Book" [essay] (Ray Bradbury)
"Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge" [Best Short Story winner, 1989) (James Morrow)
"The Devil's Arithmetic" (excerpt) [Best Novella nominee, 1989] (Jane Yolen)
"Rhysling Award Winners" [essay] (Michael Bishop)
"The Nightmare Collector" [Rhysling Award, Best Short Poem co-winner, 1988] (Bruce Boston)
"Rocky Road to Hoe" [Rhysling Award, Best Short Poem co-winner, 1988] (Suzette Haden Elgin)
"White Trains" [Rhysling Award, Best Long Poem winner, 1988] (Lucius Shepard)
"Schrödinger's Kitten" [Best Novelette winner, 1989] (George Alec Effinger)
"The Fort Moxie Branch" [Best Short Story nominee, 1989] (Jack McDevitt)
"In Memoriam" [essay] (Michael Bishop)
"In Memoriam: Clifford D. Simak" [essay] (Gordon R. Dickson)
"In Memoriam: Robert A. Heinlein" [essay] (Frank M. Robinson)
"Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus" [Best Novelette nominee, 1989) (Neal Barrett, Jr.)
"The Other Dead Man" [short story] (Gene Wolfe)
"The Daily Chernobyl" [poem] (Robert Frazier)
"The Last of the Winnebagos" [Best Novella winner, 1989] (Connie Willis)
"My Alphabet Starts Where Your Alphabet Ends" [essay] (Paul Di Filippo)
"The Year of the Pratfall: SF Movies of 1988" [essay] (Bill Warren)
"About the Nebulas"
Reception
Publishers Weekly calls the book a "richly eclectic volume" and a "high-quality collection of short fiction, prose, humor writing and poetry." Receiving particular comment are the stories by Willis, a "high point," Yolen, and Effinger, and the essays by Bradbury and Di Filippo (who "berates the genre for ignoring Dr. Seuss").
The anthology was also reviewed by Gordon Van Gelder in The New York Review of Science Fiction, April 1990, Tom Easton in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, October 1990, and Doug Fratz in Quantum, Spring 1990.
Awards
The book placed seventh in the 1991 Locus Poll Award for Best Anthology.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Nebula Awards 24” is 1990 anthology edited by Michael Bishop. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Nebula, Awards and anthology, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1990 anthology edited by Michael Bishop” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q30078046. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1990, 1989, 1988 and 1991.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Nebula Awards 24”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Nebula Awards 24 primary sources, Nebula Awards 24 archive and Nebula research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nebula Awards 24”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Nebula Awards 24” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.