A BOOKS editor from York has been nominated for a prestigious award.

Lee Harris, who lives in the Scarcroft Road area, has been shortlisted for a Hugo Award in the Best Editor category for editing a series of science fiction and fantasy novellas.

He is the only British editor ever to be recognised by the awards.

The annual awards are science fiction’s most prestigious award. They are given to science fiction and fantasy books, writers, fans, TV shows, films and editors every year.

Lee was also nominated for Hugo Award in the Best Editor (Long Form, i.e. novels) category four years ago.

This time around the 49-year-old has been nominated in the Short Form category, as he mostly, though not exclusively, edits novellas, these days. The short form section is for anything shorter than a novel, such as a novella, novelette and short story.

He said: "I'm obviously delighted to be nominated, again, especially as no other British editor has ever been recognised in these awards, which I feel is a terrible oversight as there are some amazing people working in the field in the UK."

Books he has edited have won the Hugo and many other awards.

Lee will have to wait until August to find out if he has won the accolade, which is when the Hugo Awards ceremony takes place in San Jose, California.

He works for Tor.com Publishing, who are based in New York and are part of Macmillan Publishers.

Lee began his career as a books editor in 2009 and since then has edited close to 100 novels and novellas. Before becoming an editor, he had an eclectic career, which included theatre director, actor and cocktail barman, though he feels editing is what he was always meant to do.

He said: "Working as an editor has been a dream come true. I get to travel the world and I work with some of the most talented new and established authors working in the genre, today. Finding an exciting new voice and being their first step in their publishing career is immensely satisfying."