The British Fantasy Awards 2023

The British Fantasy Society (BFS) has announced the winners for the 2023 British Fantasy Awards:

Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel

• WINNER: The Spear Cuts Through Water, Simon Jimenez (Del Rey)

• Path of War, David Green (Eerie River)
• Cast Long Shadows, Cat Hellisen (Luna)
• Glitterati, Oliver K. Langmead (Titan)
• The Bone Orchard, Sara A. Mueller (Tor)
• The Oleander Sword, Tasha Suri (Orbit)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)

• WINNER: Just Like Home, Sarah Gailey (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Full Immersion, Gemma Amor (Angry Robot)
• The Hollows, Daniel Church (Angry Robot)
• Miracle Growth, Tim Mendees (Eerie River)
• Sundial, Catriona Ward (Viper)

Best Novella

• WINNER: The Queen of the High Fields, Rhiannon A. Grist (Luna)

• And Then I Woke Up, Malcolm Devlin (Tordotcom)
• Interference, Terry Grimwood (Elsewhen)
• The Entropy of Loss, Stewart Hotston (NewCon)
• Pomegranates, Priya Sharma (PS)
• Ogres, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)

Best Short Fiction

• WINNER: “Morta”, James Bennett (The Book of Queer Saints)

• “The Tails That Make You”, Eliza Chan (Fantasy  8/22)
• “The Call of El Tunche”, Shona Kinsella (Weird Horror Anthology)
• “A Moment of Zugzwang”, Neil Williamson (ParSec #4)

Best Collection

• WINNER: Under the Moon, E.M. Faulds (Ghost Moth)

• Candescent Blooms, Andrew Hook (Salt)
• Behind a Broken Smile, Penny Jones (Black Shuck)
• Breakable Things, Cassandra Khaw (Undertow)

Best Anthology

• WINNER: Someone in Time, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)

• Sky Breaker: Tales of the Wanderer, Lee C. Conley, H.L. Tinsley, J.E. Hannaford, David Green, Derek Power, C. Marry Hultman, Damien Larkin, & C.F. Welburn, eds. (Nordic)
• Isolation: The Horror Anthology, Dan Coxon, ed. (Titan)
• The Book of Queer Saints, Mae Murray, ed. (Medusa)
• Great British Horror 7: Major Arcana, Steve J. Shaw, ed. (Black Shuck)
• Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fic­tion, Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Zelda Knight, eds. (Tordotcom)

Best Independent Press

• WINNER: Luna

• Black Shuck
• Flame Tree
• NewCon

Best Non-Fiction

• WINNER: An Earnest Blackness, Eugen Bacon (Anti-Oedipus)

• Fantasy: How it Works, Brian Attebery (OUP)
• Outlander and the Real Jacobites, Shona Kinsella (Pen & Sword History)
• My Life in Horror, Vol. 2, Kit Power (self-published)
• The Full Lid, Alasdair Stuart & Marguerite Kenner, eds.
• Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, Rob Wilkins (Doubleday)

Best Magazine / Periodical

• WINNER: Interzone

• Ginger Nuts of Horror
• Shoreline of Infinity
• Strange Horizons

Best Artist

• WINNER: Vince Haig

• Chris Baker (Fangorn)
• Ben Baldwin
• Jenni Coutts
• Dan Hillier

Best Audio

• WINNER: The Stranger Times, C.K. McDonnell

• The Painkiller Podcast, Bitter Pill Theatre
• The Secret of St. Kilda, Michael Ireland & Naomi Clarke
• PodCastle, Escape Artists
• PseudoPod, Escape Artists
• Breaking the Glass Slipper, Megan Leigh, Charlotte Bond, & Lucy Hounsom

Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer

• WINNER: Hiron Ennes

• Sunyi Dean
• Somto Ihezue
• Shauna Lawless
• Elijah Kinch Spector
• Susan York

Karl Wagner Award

• Ann Landmann

I am very honoured to have be a finalist in the novella category of the British Fantasy Awards and I am genuinely thrilled for Rhiannon A. Grist. A huge congratulations to all the nominees and winners.

Ormeshadow

British Fantasy Awards 2019

The British Fantasy Society announced the winners for the 2019 British Fantasy Awards on October 20, 2019 during FantasyCon 2019 at the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland.

I love British Fantasy Con – it’s one of the highlights of my year. I loved seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.

I was delighted just to be nominated alongside the other writers in the Best Collection category. I’ve read many of the books in the group and can thoroughly recommend them. Rosanne Rabinowitz’ work is humane and brave, leaping from the future to past seamlessly. Thana Niveau’s pure love and knowledge of the horror genre sings off the page. Marian Womack writes a salutory collection for our times of climate change. I look forward N.K. Jemisin’s and Catherynne M. Valente’s collections, both of which have garnered high praise.

I owe lots of thanks for the collection. The British Fantasy Society, the jurors, and the voters. To Mike Kelly, Carolyn MacDonnell-Kelly and Courtney Kelly of Undertow Press. Mike believed in this book when I didn’t. To Jeffrey Alan Love and C7 Shiina for allowing us to use their beautiful artwork, and to Vince Haig (who is good at everything) for his cover design. Ellen Datlow, who has been so important to me as a reader and a writer. To Paula Guran, always. To TTA Press and Tor.com. To everyone who has ever published me, in fact. To my family. And Mark Greenwod, my partner.

And the genre writing community, where I have made friends and felt at home. Thanks you.

 

Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)

• WINNER: The Bitter Twins, Jen Williams (Headline)

• Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett (Jo Fletcher)
• The Green Man’s Heir, Juliet E. McKenna (Wizard’s Tower)
• Priest of Bones, Peter McLean (Jo Fletcher)
• Empire of Sand, Tasha Suri (Orbit)
• The Loosening Skin, Aliya Whiteley (Unsung Stories)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)

• WINNER: Little Eve, Catriona Ward (W&N)

• Wolf’s Hill, Simon Bestwick (Snowbooks)
• The Way of the Worm, Ramsey Campbell (PS)
• The Cabin at the End of the World, Paul Tremblay (Titan)

Best Novella

• WINNER: The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)

• Breakwater, Simon Bestwick (Tor)
• The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Land of Somewhere Safe, Hal Duncan (NewCon)
• Binti: The Night Masquerade, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Last Temptation of Dr Valentine, John Llewellyn Probert (Black Shuck)

Best Short Story

• WINNER: “Down Where Sound Comes Blunt”, G.V. Anderson (F&SF 3-4/18)

• “Telling Stories”, Ruth E.J. Booth (The Dark 12/18)
• “Her Blood the Apples, Her Bones the Trees”, Georgina Bruce (The Silent Garden)
• “In the Gallery of Silent Screams”, Carole Johnstone & Chris Kelso (Black Static 9-10/18)
• “A Son of the Sea”, Priya Sharma (All the Fabulous Beasts)
• “Thumbsucker”, Robert Shearman (New Fears 2)

Best Collection

• WINNER: All the Fabulous Beasts, Priya Sharma (Undertow)

• How Long ’til Black Future Month?, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
• Octoberland, Thana Niveau (PS)
• Resonance & Revolt, Rosanne Rabinowitz (Eibonvale)
• The Future is Blue, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean)
• Lost Objects, Marian Womack (Luna)

Best Anthology

• WINNER: Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 5, Robert Shearman & Michael Kelly, eds. (Undertow)

• This Dreaming Isle, Dan Coxon, ed. (Unsung Stories)
• The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade)
• Humanagerie, Sarah Doyle & Allen Ashley, eds. (Eibonvale)
• New Fears 2, Mark Morris, ed. (Titan)

Best Independent Press

• WINNER: Unsung Stories

• Fox Spirit
• Luna
• NewCon

Best Non-Fiction

• WINNER: Noise and Sparks, Ruth EJ Booth (Shoreline of Infinity)

• The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction, Francesca T. Barbini, ed. (Luna)
• Ginger Nuts of Horror
• Les Vampires, Tim Major (PS)
• The Full Lid, Alasdair Stuart

Best Magazine / Periodical

• WINNER: Uncanny

• Black Static
• Ginger Nuts of Horror
• Interzone
• Shoreline of Infinity

Best Artist

• WINNER: Vince Haig

• David Rix
• Daniele Serra
• Sophie E Tallis

Best Comic / Graphic Novel

• WINNER: Widdershins, Vol. 7: Curtain Call, Kate Ashwin (self-published)

• 100 Demon Dialogues, Lucy Bellwood (Toonhound)
• The Prisoner, Robert S. Malan & John Cockshaw (Luna)
• B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth, Vol. 1, Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, Guy Davis, Tyler Crook & Dave Stewart (Dark Horse)
• Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories, Vol. 1, Mike Mignola, et al. (Dark Horse)
• Saga #49-54, Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples (Image)

Best Audio

• WINNER: Breaking the Glass Slipper Podcast

• Bedtime Stories for the End of the World Podcast
• Blood on Satan’s Claw, Mark Morris (Bafflegab)
• PodCastle
• PsuedoPod

Best Film / Television Production

• WINNER: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

• Annihilation
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Black Panther
• The Haunting of Hill House
• Inside No. 9, series 4

Best Newcomer (the Sydney J Bounds Award)

• WINNER: Tasha Suri, for Empire of Sand (Orbit)

• Tomi Adeyemi, for The Children of Blood and Bone (Macmillan Children’s)
• Cameron Johnston, for The Traitor God (Angry Robot)
• R.F. Kuang, for The Poppy War (HarperVoyager)
• Marian Womack, for Lost Objects (Luna)
• Micah Yongo, for Lost Gods (Angry Robot)

Ian Whates received the Karl Edward Wagner Award, a “special award for contribution to genre.”

Winners were chosen by jury, except for the Karl Edward Wagner Award, which was chosen by the BFS committee.

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British Fantasy Awards 2017

The winners of the 2017 British Fantasy Awards were announced during a ceremony FantasyCon 2017 on Sunday, October 1st in Peterborough, UK. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners.

The nominees, with winners in bold:

The Karl Edward Wagner Award (Special Award)
Jan Edwards

Best Newcomer
Erica L Satifka, for Stay Crazy (Apex Book Company)
James Bennett, for Chasing Embers (Orbit)
Daniel Godfrey, for New Pompeii (Titan Books)
Phil Sloman, for Becoming David (Hersham Horror)
Martin Owton, for Exile (Tickety Boo Press)

Best Magazine / Periodical
Tor.com
Black Static
Ginger Nuts of Horror
Interzone
Uncanny Magazine

Best Non-fiction
The Geek Feminist Revolution, Kameron Hurley (Tor)
Blood Spectrum, Gary Couzens (Black Static Magazine)
Ginger Nuts of Horror, ed. Jim McLeod
This Spectacular Darkness, Joel Lane, ed. Mark Valentine (Tartarus Press)
The Women of Harry Potter series, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com)
Words are my Matter: Writings about Life and Books, 2000-2016, Ursula K Le Guin (Small Beer Press)

Best Comic / Graphic Novel
Monstress, Vol 1: Awakening – Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
2000AD (progs 1963-2011) ed. Matt Smith (2000 AD Graphic Novels)
Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! (#2-13) – Kate Leth & Brittney Williams (Marvel Comics)
Saga (#33-40) – Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
Sixpack and Dogwelder: Hard Travelin’ Heroz (#1-5) – Garth Ennis & Russ Braun (DC Comics)
Skal (Chapter 3, pages 1-19) – Jennie Gyllblad

Best Independent Press
Grimbold Press
Alchemy Press
Fox Spirit Books
NewCon Press
TTA Press

Best Artist
Daniele Serra
Ben Baldwin
Evelinn Enoksen
Sarah Anne Langton

Best Anthology
People of Colour Destroy Science Fiction ed. Lightspeed Magazine
Asian Monsters ed. Margrét Helgadóttir (Fox Spirit Books)
Dead Letters ed. Conrad Williams (Titan Books)
Fight Like a Girl ed. Joanne Hall & Roz Clarke (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales ed. Dominik Larisien & Navah Wolfe (Saga Press)
Something Remains ed. Peter Coleborn and Pauline E Dungate (Alchemy Press)

Best Collection
Some Will Not Sleep – Adam L G Nevill (Ritual Limited)
The Parts We Play – Stephen Volk (PS Publishing)
Secret Language – Neil Williamson (NewCon Press)
Sharp Ends – Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)
A Tiding of Magpies – Pete Sutton (KGHH/Kensington Gore Hammered Horror)
The Unheimlich Menoeuvre – Tracy Fahey (Boo Books)

Best Film / Television Production
Arrival
Black Mirror series 3
Captain America: Civil War
Deadpool
High Rise

Best Novella
The Ballad of Black Tom – Victor LaValle (Tor.com Publishing)
Arrival of Missives – Aliya Whiteley (Unsung Stories)
Bodies of Water – VH Leslie (Salt Publishing)
Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
The Grieving Stones – Gary McMahon (Horrific Tales Publishing)
Hammers on Bone – Cassandra Khaw (Tor.com Publishing)

Best Short Fiction
“White Rabbit” – Georgina Bruce (Black Static 50 – Jan/Feb 2016)
“Charmed Life” – Simon Avery (Something Remains: Joel Lane and Friends, ed. Peter Coleborn and Pauline E. Dungate)
“Greenteeth” – Gary Budden (Black Static 50 – Jan/Feb 2016)
“The Watcher” – Sammy HK Smith (The Book of Angels by AJ Dalton)
“Waxy” – Camilla Grudova (Granta)
“The Women’s Song” – Nadine West

Best Horror Novel
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock – Paul Tremblay (Titan Books)
13 Minutes – Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz)
The Hidden People – Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher Books)
The Searching Dead – Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)

Best Fantasy Novel
The Tiger and the Wolf – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Pan)
The High King’s Vengeance – Steven Poore (Kristell Ink, Grimbold Books)
The Silver Tide – Jen Williams (Headline)
The Summer Goddess – Joanne Hall (Kristell Ink, Grimbold Books)

The Asian Writer

Many thanks to Farhana Shaikh, editor of The Asian Writer for featuring me on their website with a short interview about the British Fantasy Awards and a piece called Genre fiction: Is it time to challenge our literary snobbery?

“The Asian Writer is the voice of British Asian writing and is for readers and writers interested in South Asian literature. It is both the online magazine and monthly newsletter and offers new and emerging writers a platform to showcase their fiction.

The Asian Writer offers readers an eclectic approach to South Asian writing through profile interviews, Q&A’s, and reviews. It features the latest news, original comment and thoughts on contemporary South Asian literature and publishing as well as practical advice and inspiration.”

Signs of the Times by Carole Johnstone nominated for a British Fantasy Award

The British Fantasy Award nominees for 2014 have now been announced. It’s a pretty dazzling list that includes Neil Gaiman, Adam Nevill, Sarah Pinborough, Joe Hill, Alison Littlewood, Lauren Beukes, Graham Joyce, Nina Allen, Stephen Volk, Thana Niveau, Karen Tidbeck, Ramsey Campbell and Pat Cadigan. Congratulations to everyone on the list.

I have to confess a massive soft spot for “Signs of the Times” by Carole Johnstone, which has been nominated in the short story category. My proof is in my recent interview with her. Good luck to her with this amazing story of friendship that appeared in Black Static( issue 33).

Carole Johnstone’s blog.

Carole’s latest novella, “Cold Turkey” is available from TTA Press.