# Sidewise Award for Alternate History

The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year.

## Overview

The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with their analogs from other timelines.
The awards were created by Steven H Silver, Evelyn C. Leeper, and Robert B. Schmunk. Over the years, the number of judges has fluctuated between three and eight and have included judges in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa.
Two awards are normally presented each year, usually at WorldCon or at NASFiC. The Short-Form award is presented to a work under 60,000 words in length. The Long-Form award is presented to a work or works longer than 60,000 words, which may include a single novel or a multi-volume series. The judges have four times also recognized an individual with a Special Achievement Award in recognition for works published prior to the award's inception or for other contributions to the genre.

## Award winners

Note: The Sidewise Awards are announced as for the year of publication rather than by the year of award presentation.

### Long Form

    1995 – Paul J. McAuley, Pasquale's Angel
    1996 – Stephen Baxter, Voyage
    1997 – Harry Turtledove, How Few Remain
    1998 – Stephen Fry, Making History
    1999 – Brendan DuBois, Resurrection Day
    2000 – Mary Gentle, Ash: A Secret History
    2001 – J. N. Stroyar, The Children's War
    2002 – (tie): Martin J. Gidron (name since changed to Martin Berman-Gorvine), The Severed Wing and Harry Turtledove, Ruled Britannia
    2003 – Murray Davies, Collaborator
    2004 – Philip Roth, The Plot Against America
    2005 – Ian R. MacLeod, The Summer Isles
    2006 – Charles Stross, The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, and The Clan Corporate
    2007 – Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union
    2008 – Chris Roberson, The Dragon's Nine Sons
    2009 – Robert Conroy, 1942
    2010 – Eric G. Swedin, When Angels Wept: A What-If History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
    2011 – Ian R. MacLeod, Wake Up and Dream
    2012 – C. J. Sansom, Dominion
    2013 – (tie) D. J. Taylor, The Windsor Faction and Bryce Zabel, Surrounded by Enemies: What If Kennedy Survived Dallas?
    2014 – Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Enemy Within
    2015 – Julie Mayhew, The Big Lie
    2016 – Ben H. Winters, Underground Airlines
    2017 – Bryce Zabel, Once There Was a Way
    2018 – Mary Robinette Kowal, The Calculating Stars
    2019 – Annalee Newitz, The Future of Another Timeline
    2020 – Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Doors of Eden
    2021 – Laurent Binet, Civilizations (translated by Sam Taylor)
    2022 – B. L. Blanchard, The Peacekeeper
    2023 – Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz

### Short Form

    1995 – Stephen Baxter, "Brigantia's Angels"
    1996 – Walter Jon Williams, "Foreign Devils" (in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches)
    1997 – William Sanders, "The Undiscovered"
    1998 – Ian R. MacLeod, The Summer Isles
    1999 – Alain Bergeron, "The Eighth Register" (translated by Howard Scott)
    2000 – Ted Chiang, "Seventy-Two Letters"
    2001 – Ken MacLeod, The Human Front
    2002 – William Sanders, "Empire"
    2003 – Chris Roberson, "O One"
    2004 – Warren Ellis, The Ministry of Space
    2005 – Lois Tilton, "Pericles the Tyrant"
    2006 – Gardner Dozois, "Counterfactual"
    2007 – (tie): Michael Flynn, "Quaestiones Super Caelo Et Mundo" & Kristine Kathryn Rusch, "Recovering Apollo 8"
    2008 – Mary Rosenblum, "Sacrifice"
    2009 – Alastair Reynolds, "The Fixation"
    2010 – Alan Smale, "A Clash of Eagles"
    2011 – Lisa Goldstein, "Paradise Is a Walled Garden"
    2012 – Rick Wilber, "Something Real"'
    2013 – Vylar Kaftan, "The Weight of the Sunrise"
    2014 – Ken Liu, "The Long Haul: From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009"
    2015 – Bill Crider, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore"
    2016 – (tie): Daniel M. Bensen, "Treasure Fleet" & Adam Rovner, "What If the Jewish State Had Been Established in East Africa"
    2017 – Harry Turtledove, "Zigeuner"
    2018 – Oscar (Xiu) Ramirez and Emmanuel Valtierra, Codex Valtierra
    2019 – Harry Turtledove, "Christmas Truce"
    2020 – Matthew Kresal, "Moonshot"
    2021 – Alan Smale, "Gunpowder Treason"
    2022 – (tie): Eric Choi, "A Sky and a Heaven" & Wole Talabi "A Dream of Electric Mothers"
    2023 – Rosemary Claire Smith, "Apollo in Retrograde"

### Special Achievement

    1995 – L. Sprague de Camp, lifetime achievement
    1997 – Robert Sobel, For Want of a Nail
    1999 – Randall Garrett, the Lord Darcy series
    2018 – Eric Flint, for support of writers in the alternate history genre, most notably via the 1632 series