Using Award Lists As A RA Tool: World Fantasy Award Winners

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.   

The World Fantasy Awards recognize the very best in Fantasy and Horror. This year, one of my real life library friends was on this extremely prestigious jury. Misha Stone works at Seattle Public Library, and since March, we have been chatting about our shared experiences on genre juries. No specifics about titles, more about the processes, comparing and contrasting our experiences.

[Side note: I think having library workers on these awards committees makes the processes and results better. The Bram Stoker Awards have a bunch of library workers on our various juries, and I hope now the World Fantasy Awards consider always having one going forward.]

This past weekend, the World Fantasy winners were announced. You can see the long list and winners here or below and use them how I always say to [see link at the top of the post], but first I asked Misha for some quotes about the process.

She said, "It was an honor serving as a World Fantasy Award judge alongside C. S. E. Cooney, Julie Crisp, C. C. Finlay, and Richard Kadrey. I believe I am the first librarian to do so. The incredible and diverse talent in the field made our reading a joy and our decisions extraordinarily challenging, but we were all in agreement in the winners. 

Misha continues with the most important part for all of you, "All of the winners and the finalists are worth your time and attention. The field of fantasy and horror is diversifying and encompassing more international voices and perspectives and this year’s ballot beautifully illustrates this richness."

This last point, is one I make with every one of these "Using Award Lists As A RA Tool Posts." Every single one of these books that made the long list, this year and especially over the last 5 years are worth your time: to order for your collections, to suggest to readers, to put on displays.

And there is one easy place to find all of that backlist information for this award and every speculative fiction award and that is the Locus Magazine' SF Awards Database. 

Specifically, you can access the page for the World Fantasy Awards is here. And here for the entire database clickable by award. Each page has a description about the award and how it is chosen as well as links to every year's long list and winners. 

Again, see below or click here for the full announcement. 

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The winners of the 2022 World Fantasy Awards were announced this weekend at the World Fantasy Convention, which took place in New Orleans, with the theme of “Old Souls and New Rhythms.” Samuel R. Delany and Terri Windling received Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Congratulations to all the finalists and winners!

NOVEL

• Black Water Sister by Zen Cho (Ace Books/Macmillan)
• A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom/Orbit UK)
• The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros (Inkyard Press)
• WINNER: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
• The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (Nightfire/Viper UK) 

NOVELLA

• “For Sale by Owner” by Elizabeth Hand (When Things Get Dark)
• Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire)
• WINNER: And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed (Neon Hemlock Press)
• Finches by A. M. Muffaz (Vernacular Books)
• “A Canticle for Lost Girls” by Isabel Yap (Never Have I Ever: Stories)

SHORT FICTION

• “The Failing Name” by Eugen Bacon and Seb Doubinsky (Fantasy Magazine, Aug. 2021)
• “The Demon Sage’s Daughter” by Varsha Dinesh (Strange Horizons, 8 Feb 2021)
• “If the Martians Have Magic” by P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny Magazine #42, Sep/Oct 2021)
• “#Spring Love, #Pichal Pairi” by Usman T. Malik (Tor.com, Mar 3 2021)
• “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine #39, Mar/Apr 2021)
• WINNER: “(emet)” by Lauren Ring (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/Aug 2021)

ANTHOLOGY

• Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World (2021 Edition), eds. Charlatan Bardot and Eric J. Guignard (Dark Moon Books)
• When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson, ed. Ellen Datlow (Titan Books)
• The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror Volume Two, ed. Paula Guran (Pyr)
• WINNER: The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2021), ed. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Jembefola Press)
• Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology, eds. Alex Hernandez, Matthew David Goodwin, Sarah Rafael García (Mad Creek Books an imprint of the Ohio State University Press)

COLLECTION

• Tales the Devil Told Me by Jen Fawkes (Press 53)
• Big Dark Hole: Stories by Jeffrey Ford (Small Beer Press)
• WINNER: Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan by Usman T. Malik (Kitab)
• The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales by Angela Slatter (Tartarus Press)
• The Ghost Sequences by A. C. Wise (Undertow Publications)
• Never Have I Ever: Stories by Isabel Yap (Small Beer Press)

ARTIST

• Brom
• Odera Igbokwe
• WINNER: Tran Nguyen
• Aleksandra Skiba
• Charles Vess

SPECIAL AWARD – PROFESSIONAL

• Charlie Jane Anders, for Never Say You Can’t Survive (Tordotcom)
• Cam Collins and Steve Shell, for Old Gods of Appalachia (podcast)
• Irene Gallo, for Tor.com
• WINNER: Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, for Monstress Volume Six: The Vow (Image Comics)
• William K. Schafer, for Subterranean Press
• Sheree Renée Thomas, for editing F&SF

SPECIAL AWARD – NON-PROFESSIONAL

• Gautam Bhatia and Vanessa Rose Phin, for Strange Horizons
• Maria J. Pérez Cuervo, for Hellebore
• Michael Kelly, for Undertow Publications
• WINNER: Tonia Ransom, for Nightlight: A Horror Fiction Podcast
• Arley Sorg and Christie Yant, for Fantasy Magazine
• Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny Magazine

To be eligible, all nominated material must have been published in 2021 or have a 2021 cover date. Nominations came from two sources. Members of the current convention as well as the previous two were able to vote two nominations onto the final ballot. The remaining nominations came from the panel of judges. For this year’s awards, the judges were C. S. E. Cooney, Julie Crisp, C. C. Finlay, Richard Kadrey, and Misha Stone.