The nominating period for the Hugo Awards, given out annually by the World Science Fiction Society, has begun. To be eligible to nominate, you must be a registered member of either the 2011, 2012, or 2013 WorldCons by January 31. Nominations close on March 11, 2012.

While there is no eligible Wheel of Time book this year, there are still plenty of related works that are eligible for an award. We've taken the liberty of listing a few of these below for your consideration.

Best Related Work:

• Writing Excuses- Brandon Sanderson hosts this podcast along with several other excellent writers. It's full of great tips for improving your writing and breaking into publishing.
  
• Dragonmount.com- As there is no Hugo Award for "Best Fan Website", we've determined this is the most appropriate place to place ourselves for consideration.
  

Best Fan Writer:

 

• Linda Taglieri runs the excellent 13th Depository blog which features the most detailed analysis of the Wheel of Time series online.
  
• Leigh Butler is the host of the Wheel of Time Re-Read and A Song of Ice and Fire Read for Tor.com.
  
• Aiden Mohr is a long time friend of Dragonmount and hosts the popular review and commentary blog A Dribble of Ink.
  
• Adam Whitehead maintains The Wertzone, a popular review and fantasy site. He is also a frequent poster to our forums.
  

Best Professional Artist:

While there are many artists who have contributed art to the Wheel of Time series and are eligible for this award, we'd like to draw attention to Sam Weber, who designed Tor.com's new A Memory of Light logo and who will be JordanCon's first Artist Guest of Honor this year.

Best Fan Artist:

Again, there are many wonderful fan artists in our community. However, we'd like to recognize Seamas Gallagher and Jeremy Saliba, who are consistently cited as fan favorites and who have both generously allowed Dragonmount to use their artwork on multiple occasions.

Best Fancast:

The 2012 WorldCon will be recognizing podcasts and videocasts in a special category this year. Eligible works include our own The Fourth Age podcast, Wheel of Time Video News with Kristen Nedopak, and our friends over at TWotCast, a popular Wheel of Time discussion podcast.

Additionally, Brandon Sanderson has posted a list of his eligible works this year on his website. And we have a couple threads on our forums discussing eligible novels. For those curious, The Wheel of Time becomes eligible for Hugo nomination again next year after the publication of the final book.