Connie Willis is the most highly-decorated science fiction author of recent years. According to her page at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/eaw.cgi?Connie%20Willis), she has won:
1982 - Fire Watch Nebula Award, Novelette (Win)
1982 - A Letter from the Clearys Nebula Award, Short Story (Win)
1983 - Fire Watch SF Chronicle Award, Novelette (Win)
1983 - Fire Watch Hugo Award, Best Novelette (Win)
1988 - Lincoln's Dreams John W. Campbell Award, John W. Campbell Memorial Award (Win)
1988 - The Last of the Winnebagos Nebula Award, Novella (Win)
1989 - The Last of the Winnebagos SF Chronicle Award, Novella (Win)
1989 - The Last of the Winnebagos Hugo Award, Best Novella (Win)
1989 - At the Rialto Nebula Award, Novelette (Win)
1992 - Doomsday Book Nebula Award, Novel (Win)
1992 - Even the Queen Nebula Award, Short Story (Win)
1993 - Even the Queen SF Chronicle Award, Short Story (Win)
1993 - Doomsday Book Hugo Award, Best Novel (Win)
1993 - Even the Queen Hugo Award, Best Short Story (Win)
1993 - Doomsday Book Locus Poll Award, Best SF Novel (Place: 1)
1993 - Even the Queen Locus Poll Award, Best Short Story (Place: 1)
1994 - Death on the Nile SF Chronicle Award, Short Story (Win)
1994 - Death on the Nile Hugo Award, Best Short Story (Win)
1994 - Close Encounter Locus Poll Award, Best Short Story (Place: 1)
1994 - Impossible Things Locus Poll Award, Best Collection (Place: 1)
1996 - Remake Locus Poll Award, Best Novella (Place: 1)
1997 - The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective Hugo Award, Best Short Story (Win)
1997 - Bellwether Locus Poll Award, Best Novella (Place: 1)
1998 - Newsletter Locus Poll Award, Best Novelette (Place: 1)
1999 - To Say Nothing of the Dog Hugo Award, Best Novel (Win)
1999 - To Say Nothing of the Dog Locus Poll Award, Best SF Novel (Place: 1)
1999 - Locus Poll Award, Best SF/Fantasy Author of the 90's (Place: 1)
2000 - The Winds of Marble Arch Hugo Award, Best Novella (Win)
2002 - Passage Locus Poll Award, Best SF Novel (Place: 1)
2006 - Inside Job Hugo Award, Best Novella (Win)
2008 - All Seated on the Ground Hugo Award, Best Novella (Win)
My word -- 8 Hugos, 5 Nebulas, assorted Locus and J.W. Campbell awards... quite a resume.
I have to admit that I have only read a few works by Willis. I have read the novel Doomsday Book, which I found to be excellent, with minor reservations. I have read the novel To Say Nothing of the Dog, a comedy homage to Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, set in the same universe as the foregoing (which was not at all comic). I found it much less amusing than many other people apparently find it. I have read the novella "Fire Watch", related to the two aforementioned novels, and found it to be quite good. I have read some of her short fiction, including the critically-acclaimed "All My Darling Daughters", and found them to be uneven -- and, in the case of AMDD, unreadably misanthropic. I have NOT read any of her more recent acclaimed novels, such as Bellwether or Passage. I am certainly not the ideal advocate for Ms Willis's works, but her absence from these pages is hard to miss. I have heard that she inspires rather bipolar reactions from readers; people either love her works, or loathe them. I neither loved nor loathed the works I have read (with the exception of AMDD); I thought they ranged from decent to quite good. Good enough to justify her cartload of trophies? I couldn't say.
I mentioned minor reservations about Doomsday Book. The fundamental chaos of everyday endeavors seems to be a recurring theme in Ms Willis's works. I have a certain degree of sympathy with that view, but I can take only so much ineptitude from my protagonists, and only so much adverse misfortune and coincidence in a plot. Doomsday Book was pretty close to my limits -- but did not surpass them. Oddly, the fact that it was NOT a comic novel probably helped in this regard -- I had much less patience with TSNotD.
I'd be curious to hear Eric's thoughts on Ms Willis, if any.