This image of the traditional World Fantasy Award’s Lovecraft bust created by Gahan Wilson is displayed on the 2015 WFC web page.
The 2015 World Fantasy Award shortlist has been released.
The ballot was picked by a two-step process. The two items in each category receiving the most nominations from members of the World Fantasy Convention were placed on the final ballot. The remainder were added by the judges. The 2015 World Fantasy Awards judges are Gemma Files, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Bénédicte Lombardo, Bruce McAllister and Robert Shearman.
Novel
- Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor (Tor Books)
- Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs (Broadway Books/Jo Fletcher Books)
- David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks (Random House/Sceptre UK)
- Jeff VanderMeer, Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Originals)
- Jo Walton, My Real Children (Tor Books US/Corsair UK)
Novella
- Daryl Gregory, We Are All Completely Fine (Tachyon Publications)
- Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, “Where the Trains Turn” (Tor.com, Nov. 19, 2014)
- Michael Libling, “Hollywood North” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nov./Dec. 2014)
- Mary Rickert, “The Mothers of Voorhisville” (Tor.com, Apr. 30, 2014)
- Rachel Swirsky, “Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)” (Subterranean Press magazine, Summer 2014)
- Kai Ashante Wilson, “The Devil in America” (Tor.com, April 2, 2014)
Short Story
- Kelly Link, “I Can See Right Through You” (McSweeney’s 48)
- Scott Nicolay, Do You Like to Look at Monsters? (Fedogan & Bremer, chapbook)
- Ursula Vernon, Jackalope Wives (Apex Magazine, January 2014)
- Kaaron Warren, “Death’s Door Café” (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014)
- Alyssa Wong, “The Fisher Queen,” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
Anthology
- Ellen Datlow, ed., Fearful Symmetries (ChiZine Publications)
- George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, eds., Rogues (Bantam Books/Titan Books)
- Rose Fox and Daniel José Older, eds., Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History (Crossed Genres)
- Michael Kelly, ed. Shadows & Tall Trees 2014 (Undertow Publications)
- Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, eds., Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales (Candlewick Press)
Collection
- Rebecca Lloyd, Mercy and Other Stories (Tartarus Press)
- Helen Marshall, Gifts for the One Who Comes After (ChiZine Publications)
- Robert Shearman, They Do the Same Things Different There (ChiZine Publications)
- Angela Slatter, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings (Tartarus Press)
- Janeen Webb, Death at the Blue Elephant (Ticonderoga Publications)
Artist
- Samuel Araya
- Galen Dara
- Jeffrey Alan Love
- Erik Mohr
- John Picacio
Special Award—Professional
- John Joseph Adams, for editing anthologies and Nightmare and Lightspeed magazines
- Jeanne Cavelos, for Odyssey Writing workshops
- Sandra Kasturi and Brett Alexander Savory, for ChiZine Publications
- Gordon Van Gelder, for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
- Jerad Walters, for Centipede Press
Special Award—Non-professional
- Scott H. Andrews, for Beneath Ceaseless Skies: Literary Adventure Fantasy
- Matt Cardin, for Born to Fear: Interviews with Thomas Ligotti (Subterranean Press)
- Stefan Fergus, for Civilian Reader
- Ray B. Russell and Rosalie Parker, for Tartarus Press
- Patrick Swenson, for Fairwood Press
The winners will be announced at the World Fantasy Con in Saratoga Springs, NY from November 5-8.
Already announced are the World Fantasy Life Achievement Winners: Ramsey Campbell and Sheri S. Tepper.
WFC To Continue With Lovecraft Bust? Last year Daniel Jose Older collected over 2,500 signatures on a petition calling for the replacement of “avowed racist and a terrible wordsmith” H.P. Lovecraft on the World Fantasy Award.
The Guardian reported last September that the “board of the World Fantasy awards has said that it is ‘in discussion’ about its winners’ statuette”.
When Sofia Samatar won in 2014, she made a statement about the controversy in her acceptance speech, which she later expanded into a blog post —
2. The Elephant in the Room I think I used those words. I think I said “I can’t sit down without addressing the elephant in the room, which is the controversy surrounding the image that represents this award.” I said it was awkward to accept the award as a writer of color. (See this post by Nnedi Okorafor, the 2011 winner, if you are confused about why.) I also thanked the board for taking the issue seriously, because at the beginning of the ceremony, Gordon van Gelder stood up and made an announcement to that effect: “The board is taking the issue very seriously, but there is no decision yet.” I just wanted them to know that here I was in a terribly awkward position, unable to be 100% thrilled, as I should be, by winning this award, and that many other people would feel the same, and so they were right to think about changing it.
In May, File 770 reached out to the WFC Board about the status of the Lovecraft image but received no acknowledgement.
[Thanks to Michael J. Walsh for the story.]
Update 07/12/2015: Incorporated official revisions to ballot. See details here
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That statue must have looked cool and cutting edge and modern back in the 1950s or whenever it was made.
Fashions in art have moved on. Maybe fashions in award design can too.
That statue must have looked cool and cutting edge and modern back in the 1950s or whenever it was made.
Probably no earlier than 1975.
I don’t care when it was created; its appallingly ugly. Simply having something like that in the room with me would depress me.
I think you have to like Gahan Wilson to have any appreciation at all for it.
Here’s a nice photo of one:
http://i2.wp.com/www.tor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/WFA-Howard.jpg?fit=750%2C9999&type=vertical
I have to admit that the fact that it comes with a warning not to put it in a fish tank because it kills the fish amuses me immensely. Perhaps the new award could be made of the same stuff?
I like the chimaera idea, because it is a creature of fantasy, it’s a nod to the mingled influences that inform fantasy, and yet it can also be read as a nod to the multiple related genres that it has honored in the past–SF and Horror being two such.
A dragon is indeed iconic fantasy, but doesn’t quite have the same “many influences” feel.
Yeah, I’m a genius.
It is certainly striking, but the more I look at it the more I really don’t want to be in the same space with it; I’m perfectly happy for people to want anything apart from Tolkien but the thing is almost malignant.
I wish that for once the people who want to retain it would actually open up their imaginations; at the moment they seem to have roughly the level of empathy of the average hedgehog. That in itself is striking; it’s exceedingly odd in people who purport to be sensitive to the power of mythos…
Well, I suppose we could get a bust of Nick instead…
It’ll cost ya!
If people wanted a writer who has done multi-genre and is well-known and influential Stephen King wouldn’t be the worst pick in the world. 🙂
(But I’m still Team Lamassu. 😉 )
Stephen King ain’t gonna make for a better-looking statuette.
Plus, what if he wins one! “Here you are, Mr. King. It’s a Lifetime Achievement Award for…being you.”
@Nick Mamatas
That only makes it better!
One of these:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-H-t-Wz1VNU/TIr5UTTBpNI/AAAAAAAALoQ/zopX3cpes80/s1600/WallaceTripp-MythicalKingAlexander_100.jpg
@Kurt Busiek
Only if it really works! Either lifesize or clockwork miniature, I don’t mind. 😉
Nick
I think we’d better stick to dollars; the euro and/or drachmas are tricky this year!
I’ve been looking at Sheila Gilbert’s Hugo packet; 45 years in the business, 16 books plus one she co-edited with Betsy Wollheim in the 2014 period, and a chapter from all 17 so we can make our minds up on what we see. Also, there are dragons!
So very, very different to most of the other nominees. The only problem is that it’s getting rather expensive…
I’d like to thank Meredith for inspiring one of my worst ideas ever.
Ouch.
I’m very sorry! 😀
(I’m not. I’m thoroughly entertained.)
Considering its ubiquity in fantasy novels, perhaps the award should be a representation of a bowl of stew?
In all seriousness though, I think the award should represent magic itself in some way. Ive always thought it could be represented by a hand wreathed in fire or holding a magic orb ( a geode, perhaps). Something reminiscent of a palantir or something.
Or Baba Yaga’s hut. A clockwork one would be even better. Or give it one chicken leg and one clockwork leg!
Alain: The Bone Clocks is an excellent novel whatever the category it falls under. That is another one I would have liked to see nominated for a Hugo.
I enjoyed The Bone Clocks. But I just can’t say I loved it.
I don’t know if it’s because Mitchell works so hard at not being an author of SFF, or what — but for me, it just never crossed over the boundary from good to great.
To repost my comment from the other WFA statuette thread:
I’ve always thought it would be more appropriate for a Horror Award than a Fantasy Award (but the Bram Stoker Award statue is pretty cool).
It would be really nice if, when they run out of the stock of statuettes, they’d go with something like Carrie Cuinn’s suggestion of a sea serpent wrapped around the world.
@JJ I really like the diversity of the book and thought it was extremely well structured. I may be influenced by the fact that I had a friend read it at the same time that I did and we discussed it throughout our readings which was really enjoyable. She doesn’t usually read genre books so it was a nice surprise as well.
I love, lovecraft’s work. I would be willing to have a stab at defending the man on the grounds that so far as I know he never hurt anyone directly, and by virtue of dying in basic poverty himself did not even economically benefit by a racism that he was beginning to outgrow in his latter years. That said, by all means change the award, only an idiot offends people without reasonable cause. Let’s have an image which does not require a defense.
An earlier comment read: “That said, by all means change the award, only an idiot offends people without reasonable cause. Let’s have an image which does not require a defense.”
C’mon, people, this is FANDOM, the first law of which is:
“No matter what you do, somebody will bitch…..!!!”
That is true.
If it is to be used as a justification for brushing aside people and disregarding their complaints, then it should be done with the conscious awareness that it is a deliberate choice.
It’s true, someone will always complain. But not all complaints are equally meritorious.
I have won one trophy in my adult life, for co-developing the Adventure! roleplaying game. The names on the plaque are wrong, and nobody at the Origins Awards seemed to think it was feasible to, say, replace the plaques, nor did they seem to think it was that big a deal since the game’s name is right. It bugs me sometimes. But that completely pales when I imagine winning an award and thinking “In honor of my work, deemed the best of the year in its category, I have the chance to look again and again at the face of a man who thought people like me are subhuman and to be feared.”
I like the chimera idea, and also the idea of a world serpent.
Heck, make it Yggdrasil and it could be a junior Christmas tree, too!