Lynne M. Thomas

Lynne M. Thomas is an American librarian, podcaster and editor. She has won eleven Hugo Awards for editing and podcasting in the science fiction genre. She is perhaps best known as the co-publisher and co-editor-in-chief of the Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine until 2025, with her then-husband, Michael Damian Thomas. With her twelve Hugo Award wins (as of 2025), Thomas is the most awarded woman in the history of the awards, beating Connie Willis at eleven,

Biography Thomas has degrees in French and comparative literature from Smith College, a master's in library science from the University of Illinois, and a master's in English and American literature from Northern Illinois University. She and her husband had one daughter, Caitlin, who had Aicardi syndrome. Michael was a full-time caregiver to Caitlin until she died in April 2024. The Thomases divorced in 2025, according to a joint social media post.

Work Library work Thomas was the head of the rare books and special collections at Northern Illinois University (NIU) from 2004 until 2017. In her position as an archivist, she was in charge of the personal papers of over 75 science fiction authors such as Lois McMaster Bujold, Jack McDevitt, Fred Saberhagen, Eric Flint, Cherie Priest, Catherynne M. Valente, Patricia Wrede, Sharon Shinn, Ann Leckie, Elizabeth Bear, Tamora Pierce, Terri Windling, and Kage Baker, and the organizational archives of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. In addition to curating literary papers, Thomas is also interested in archiving digital ephemera. She also highlighted the special collections at NIU by creating displays based on a theme, such as gender and identity.

In 2017, Thomas was named the Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Rare Book & Manuscript Professor of The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign).

Editing and fandom Beginning in 2011, Thomas was the Editor-in-Chief of the Hugo Award-nominated Apex Magazine, a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine, taking over as editor with issue 30 and concluding her term with issue 55 in 2013. It was during her time at Apex that Thomas edited Rachel Swirsky's award-winning story "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love."

Thomas is very involved in Doctor Who fandom, though she remembers a time when the television show wasn't something most Americans knew about. She was a co-editor on Chicks Dig Time Lords, a Doctor Who anthology. The anthology has its roots among Thomas's friends who were visiting together in Chicago and who owned a publishing house, Mad Norwegian Press. It was Thomas's first anthology and was well received for "treating women's experiences with fandom seriously."

Another book that was nominated for the Hugo Awards was Chicks Dig Comics (with Sigrid Ellis). Chicks Dig Comics is a feminist take on the world of fandom surrounding comic books. She won a second and third Hugo Award for her participation in the SF Squeecast podcast with Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Catherynne M. Valente and David McHone-Chase,

In 2014, Lynne and Michael Thomas decided to go back to magazine editing. Thomas was the co-publisher and co-editor-in-chief of Uncanny Magazine until 2025. Uncanny Magazine won the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022, and its issue 2 story "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu) was a 2016 winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, and finalist for the Locus Award for Best Novelette and the Theodore Sturgeon Award. Uncanny Magazine story "You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay" by Alyssa Wong was the winner of the 2017 Locus Award for Best Novelette and a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novelette and 2016 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. Uncanny Magazine story "Like a River Loves the Sky" by Emma Törzs was the winner of the 2019 World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction. Other Uncanny Magazine Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award finalist stories include stories by Brooke Bolander, Sam J. Miller, Amal El-Mohtar, Fran Wilde, Sarah Pinsker, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, K.M. Szpara, Ursula Vernon, and Aliette de Bodard.

As of August 2025, Thomas has won twelve Hugo Awards. She has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award eight times, and nominated eleven times for the Locus Award. In Spring 2026 she and Katy Rawdon were the authors of The Infinite Loop: Archives and Time Travel in the Popular Imagination (ALA Neal-Schuman 2026).