Worldcon 75, which will take place in Helsinki, Finland in 2017, has announced the trial inclusion of a new Hugo Awards category: Best Series. Worldcon 75 will test Best Series in 2017, with the potential for inclusion in 2018 based on fan response and suggested revisions.

If it goes through, this will be the first time that a new category may be added to the written fiction Hugo categories in fifty years. Eligible works will be multi-volume (at least three) series that are united by elements including plot, characters, setting, and presentation.

The full press release is below.

The 75th World Science Fiction Convention, (“Worldcon”) taking place in Helsinki in August 2017, announced today that a special Hugo category for “Best Series” will be included in the 2017 Hugo Awards.

The HugoSociety Business Meeting held in Helsinki during the convention.

Nicholas Whyte, Worldcon 75 Hugo administrator, said, “The proposed Hugo for “Best Series” is a big change, the first time that a new category may be added to the written fiction Hugo categories in fifty years. There is clearly a great deal of interest in how this new award will work, and what might be nominated.”

An eligible work for this special award is a multi-volume science fiction or fantasy story, unified by elements such as plot, characters, setting, and presentation, which has appeared in at least three volumes consisting of a total of at least 240,000 words by the close of the calendar year 2016, at least one volume of which was published in 2016.

The 75th World Science Fiction Convention,