Looking for a good bookish escape? Here are this year’s World Fantasy Award-Winners.
From about the ages of ten to sixteen I was an obsessive reader of fantasy; sadly, I eventually gave into juvenile ideas about literary snobbery and drifted away from the genre. Now that I have an 11-year-old of my own, I am happy to share with him old fantasy favorites, and discover new writers, among whom include many of the following winners of (and nominees for) a World Fantasy Award.
The full list is below, but highlights include Tasha Suri winning best novel for The Jasmine Throne, Premee Mohamed for best novella (And What Can We Offer You Tonight), “(emet),” a short story by Lauren Ring, and something I’m particularly excited by, The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2021), Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, ed. (Jembefola).
Happy (and engrossing!) reading.
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Best Novel
WINNER: The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Black Water Sister, Zen Cho (Ace; Macmillan)
A Master of Djinn, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom; Orbit UK)
The City Beautiful, Aden Polydoros (Inkyard)
The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward (Nightfire; Viper UK)
*
Best Novella
WINNER: And What Can We Offer You Tonight, Premee Mohamed (Neon Hemlock)
“For Sale by Owner”, Elizabeth Hand (When Things Get Dark)
Nothing But Blackened Teeth, Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire)
Finches, A.M. Muffaz (Vernacular)
“A Canticle for Lost Girls”, Isabel Yap (Never Have I Ever)
*
Best Short Fiction
WINNER: “(emet)”, Lauren Ring (F&SF 7-8/21)
“The Failing Name”, Eugen Bacon & Seb Doubinsky
(Fantasy 8/21)
“The Demon Sage’s Daughter”, Varsha Dinesh
(Strange Horizons 2/8/218)
“If the Martians Have Magic”, P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny 9-10/21)
“#Spring Love, #Pichal Pairi”, Usman T. Malik (Tor.com 3/3/21)
“Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 3-4/21)
*
Best Anthology
WINNER: The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2021), Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, ed. (Jembefola)
Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World (2021 Edition), Charlatan Bardot & Eric J. Guignard, eds. (Dark Moon)
When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Titan)
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror Volume Two, Paula Guran, ed. (Pyr)
Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology, Alex Hernandez, Matthew David Goodwin & Sarah Rafael García, eds. (Mad Creek)
*
Best Collection
WINNER: Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan, Usman T. Malik (Kitab)
Tales the Devil Told Me, Jen Fawkes (Press 53)
Big Dark Hole, Jeffrey Ford (Small Beer)
The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales, Angela Slatter (Tartarus)
The Ghost Sequences, A.C. Wise (Undertow)
Never Have I Ever, Isabel Yap (Small Beer)
*
Best Artist
WINNER: Tran Nguyen
Brom
Odera Igbokwe
Aleksandra Skiba
Charles Vess
*
Special Award (Professional)
WINNER: Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda, for Monstress Volume Six: The Vow (Image Comics)
Charlie Jane Anders, for Never Say You Can’t Survive (Tordotcom)
Cam Collins & Steve Shell, for Old Gods of Appalachia (podcast)
Irene Gallo, for Tor.com
William K. Schafer, for Subterranean Press
Sheree Renée Thomas, for editing F&SF
*
Special Award (Non-Professional)
WINNER: Tonia Ransom, for Nightlight: A Horror Fiction Podcast
Gautam Bhatia & Vanessa Rose Phin, for Strange Horizons
Maria J. Pérez Cuervo, for Hellebore
Michael Kelly, for Undertow Publications
Arley Sorg & Christie Yant, for Fantasy
Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny
This year’s judges are C.S.E. Cooney, Julie Crisp, C.C. Finlay, Richard Kadrey, and Misha Stone. For more information, see the WFC website.
