Lois’s answer to “Hello! A couple of questions ago you mentioned A Warrior's Apprentice as one of your evergreens, ha…” > Likes and Comments

I find that this is how most awards work, from book awards to stuff like the Oscars and the Emmys. If someone is consistently good but somehow loses out due to tough competition in a particular year or their work only gaining traction later, they just get awarded for their newest thing as a proxy for all the work they'd done so far.