Gene Wolfe Nebula Award Anecdote

"The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories," "The Death of Doctor Island," and "The Doctor of Death Island," are stories whose only common elements are the words of the titles. These three Wolfe stories are a thematic trilogy. At least that's how they were intended.
There is a great tale behind these stories. I have copied it below. It can be found in a specialty press edition "THE WOLFE ARCHIPELAGO" [Zeising Bros. 1983]:

"The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" not only sold (it was my sixteenth sale), but was nominated for a Nebula; and then to my complete astonishment, it gained a place on the final Nebula ballot. The awards dinner was in New York that year and Rosemary and I drove to Milford (alone, thank God, because Rosemary's mother stayed with the children), met Damon and Kate Wilhelm, and rode into New York with them.
Harlan Ellison has told the story of that Nebula banquet in his fine AGAIN DANGEROUS VISIONS. What happened, briefly, was that Isaac Asimov, who announced the winners, was expecting a real story title in each category and skipped over No Award when he came to the novellas. I stood up to claim the nonexistent trophy, and someone jumped up to correct poor Isaac, who nearly fainted. All this was in 1971.
Since then I’ve met several people who think I should be furious with Isaac, but I’ve never understood why. When Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican student , he was the kind of huge, quiet, good natured young man other students love to play pranks on; and it was said that one day a group of them gathered outside his window, pointed at the sky, and shouted, “Look, a flying ox!” As they expected, Thomas came to the window and looked up. When they were through laughing, he said, “I thought it more likely that an ox would fly than a Dominican would lie.” It has always seemed to me that it was this sort of unjustifiable but praiseworthy opinion of his fellows that was responsible for Isaac’s mistake.
A month or so after the banquet I was talking to Joe Hensley, and he joked that I should write “The Death of Doctor Island,” saying that everyone felt so sorry for me that it was sure to win. I thought about that when I got home and decided to try, turning things inside out to achieve a different story. That story is here too, and it did in fact win a Nebula, making Joe a true prophet. When you read it you may enjoy tracing the inversions.
After that a hundred readers or so challenged me to write “The Doctor of Death Island.” I wanted to show that I could, and that story is here too, and it was written in 1974, and was the last of the series.
Until now.

[the full text of the fourth story “Death of the Island Doctor” follows that introduction.

Here is Harlan Ellison’s version of the Nebula story from AGAIN DANGEROUS VISIONS:

During the 1971 nebula awards in New York, I sat in front of Gene during one of the most painful incidents it has ever been my gut-wrench to witness, and the way Gene reacted to it says much about the man.
Isaac Asimov had been pressed into service at the last moment to read the winners of the Nebulas. Gene was up in the short story category for his extravagantly excellent “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories” from Damon Knight’s ORBIT 7 (Gene has appeared nine times in the eight ORBIT collections as of this writing) (thereby attesting to Damon’s perspicacity as an editor) (taught the kid everything he knows, except table manners at banquets) (he throws peanuts and peas). Isaac had not been given sufficient time to study the list, which was hand-written, and he announced Gene as the winner. Gene stood up as the SFWA officers on the platform went pale and hurriedly whispered words to Ike. Ike went pale. Then he announced he’d made an error. There was “no award” in the short story category. Gene sat back down and smiled faintly.
Around him everyone felt the rollercoaster nausea of stomachs dropping out of backsides. Had it been me, I would have fainted or screamed or punched Norbert Slepyan of Scribner’s, who was sitting next to me. Gene Wolfe just smiled faintly and tried to make us all feel at ease by a shrug and a gentle nod of his head.