2021 World Fantasy Awards Announced
The 2021 World Fantasy Awards have been announced this past weekend at the World Fantasy Convention in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. This year’s theme was “Fantasy, Imagination, and the Dreams of Youth” and covers fantasy material published in 2020.
First handed out in 1975, the awards are considered to be among the most prestigious speculative fiction awards. Nominees and winners are decided by the panel of judges and convention attendees. Judges this year were Tobias Buckell, Siobhan Carroll, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Brian Evenson, and Patrick Swenson.
Winners are marked in red.
Novel
- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
- Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Tor Books)
- The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press/Titan UK)
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey US/Jo Fletcher Books UK)
- The Midnight Bargain by C. L. Polk (Erewhon Books US/Orbit UK)
Novella
- Ring Shout, or Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times by P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom)
- “Stepsister” by Leah Cypess (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2020)
- Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings (Tordotcom)
- The Four Profound Weaves by R. B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications)
- Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom)
Short Fiction
- “Glass Bottle Dancer” by Celeste Rita Baker (Lightspeed, April 2020)
- “The Women Who Sing for Sklep” by Kay Chronister (Thin Places)
- “The Nine Scents of Sorrow” by Jordan Taylor (Uncanny Magazine, July/Aug. 2020)
- “My Country Is a Ghost” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2020)
- “Open House on Haunted Hill” by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots, June 15 2020)
Anthology
- Edited By, edited by Ellen Datlow (Subterranean Press)
- The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Vol. 1, edited by James D. Jenkins and Ryan Cagle (Valancourt Books)
- Shadows & Tall Trees 8, edited by Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications)
- The Book of Dragons, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Harper Voyager)
- The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Vintage Books)
Collection
- The Best of Jeffrey Ford by Jeffrey Ford (PS Publishing)
- Velocities: Stories by Kathe Koja (Meerkat Press)
- Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoka Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton (Soft Skull Press US/Tilted Axis UK)
- We All Hear Stories in the Dark by Robert Shearman (PS Publishing)
- Nine Bar Blues: Stories of an Ancient Future by Sheree Renée Thomas (Third Man Books)
Artist
- Rovina Cai
- Jeffrey Alan Love
- Reiko Murakami
- Daniele Serra
- Charles Vess
Special Award – Professional
- Clive Bloom, for The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (Palgrave Macmillan)
- Jo Fletcher, for Jo Fletcher Books
- Maria Dahvana Headley, for Beowulf: A New Translation (MCD X FSG Originals US/Scribe UK)
- Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, for The Monster Theory Reader (University of Minnesota Press)
- C.C. Finlay, for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction editing
Special Award – Non-Professional
- Scott H. Andrews, for Beneath Ceaseless Skies: Literary Adventure Fantasy
- Brian Attebery, for Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
- Michael Kelly, for Undertow Publications
- Arley Sorg and Christie Yant, for Fantasy Magazine
- Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny Magazine
In addition to the category awards, the World Fantasy Convention also announced Lifetime Achievement Awards for fantasy author Megan Lindholm and science fiction writer Howard Waldrop.
