Lightspeed was founded and run as a science fiction magazine by publisher Sean Wallace of Prime Books with John Joseph Adams as editor.
In 2011, Adam-Troy Castro's "Her Husband's Hands" and Tom Crosshill's "Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son" were finalists for the Best Short Story Nebula, while Jake Kerr's "The Old Equations" was nominated for Best Novella.
In 2012, Maria Dahvana Headley's "Give Her Honey When You Hear Her Scream" and Ken Liu's "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" were both finalists for the Best Short Story Nebula.
In 2014, Ken Liu's "The Litigation Master and the Monkey King" and Christopher Barzak's "Paranormal Romance" were both finalists for the Best Novelette Nebula.
Some stories were nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Award: Yoon Ha Lee's "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" in 2011,[15] Jake Kerr's "The Old Equations" in 2012,[16] and Ken Liu's "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" in 2013.