British Fantasy Awards 2020 Shortlists

The shortlists for the 2020 British Fantasy Awards have been released by Katherine Fowler, BFA Administrator, along with the names of the jurors who will decide the winners.

Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)

Jury: Martha Bradley, Stewart Hotston, Hazel Impey, Edward Partridge, Abbi Shaw

  • The Bone Ships – RJ Barker (Orbit)
  • The Migration – Helen Marshall (Titan)
  • The Poison Song – Jen Williams (Headline)
  • The Ten Thousand Doors of January – Alix E Harrow (Orbit)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)

Jury: Ben Appleby-Dean, Gabino Iglesias, Siobhan O’Brien Holmes, Ross Warren, Susan York

  • The Institute – Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton)
  • The Migration – Helen Marshall (Titan)
  • Mistletoe – Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher Books)
  • The Plague Stones – James Brogden (Titan)
  • The Reddening – Adam Nevill (Ritual Limited)
  • The Twisted Ones – T. Kingfisher (Titan)

Best Newcomer (the Sydney J Bounds Award)

Jury: Barbara Barrett, Danny Hussain, Steven Poore, Natalie Ross, João F Silva

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates, for The Water Dancer (Penguin)
  • Alix E Harrow, for The Ten Thousand Doors of January (Orbit)
  • Penny Jones, for Suffer Little Children (Black Shuck Books)
  • Tamsyn Muir, for Gideon the Ninth (Tordotcom)
  • Nina Oram, for The Joining (Luna Press)

Best Novella

Jury: Rachel Aitken, Abigail Baumbach, Steve Howarth, Gagandeep Kaur, Mark West

  • The Ascent to Godhood – Neon Yang (Tordotcom)
  • Butcher’s Table – Nathan Ballingrud (Gallery / Saga Press)
  • The Deep – Rivers Solomon (Gallery / Saga Press)
  • Ormeshadow – Priya Sharma (Tordotcom)
  • Ragged Alice – Gareth L Powell (Tordotcom)
  • The Survival of Molly Southbourne – Tade Thompson (Tordotcom)

Best Short Fiction

Jury: G.V. Anderson, Charlotte Bhaskar, Niamh Brown, Peter Haynes, Devin Martin

  • Dendrochronology – Penny Jones (Hersham Horror)
  • I Say, I Say, I Say – Robert Shearman (The Shadow Booth)
  • The Pain-Eater’s Daughter – Laura Mauro (Undertow)
  • Tomorrow, When I Was Young – Julie Travis (Eibonvale Press)

Best Anthology

Jury: Rosemarie Cawkwell, Elaine Gallagher, Peter Green, Ian Hunter, Caroline Mersey, 

  • A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods, ed. Jennifer Brozek (Pulse Publishing)
  • The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, ed. Ann & Jeff VanderMeer (Vintage)
  • New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction for People of Color, ed. Nisi Shawl (Solaris)
  • Once Upon a Parsec: The Book of Alien Fairy Tales, ed. David Gullen (NewCon)
  • Wonderland, ed. Marie O’Regan & Paul Kane (Titan)
  • The Woods, ed. Phil Sloman (Hersham Horror)

Best Collection

Jury: Samantha Martin, Henrietta Rose-Inned, Kyle Tam, Heather Valentine, Neil Williamson

  • The Boughs Withered When I Told Them My Dreams – Maura McHugh (NewCon)
  • Growing Things – Paul Tremblay (Titan)
  • This House of Wounds – Georgina Bruce (Undertow)
  • Of Wars, And Memories, And Starlight – Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean Press)
  • Sing Your Sadness Deep – Laura Mauro (Undertow)

Best Non-Fiction

Jury: Lee Fletcher, Kat Kourbeti, Kevin McVeigh, Samuel Poots, Kelly Richards

  • Coffinmaker’s Blues: Collected Writings on Terror – Stephen Volk (PS Publishing)
  • The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games – Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (New York University Press)
  • The Full Lid – Alasdair Stuart
  • Joanna Russ (Modern Masters of SF) – Gwyneth Jones (University of Illinois Press)
  • Notes from the Borderland – Lynda E Rucker, for Black Static (TTA Press)
  • The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein – Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound)

Best Independent Press

Jury: Dave Brzeski, Adri Joy, Kate Macdonald, Eleanor Pender, Alasdair Stuart

  • Aqueduct Press
  • Black Shuck Books
  • Luna Press 
  • NewCon Press
  • Rebellion Publishing
  • Undertow Publications

Best Magazine / Periodical

Jury: Phoebe Barton, Louise Carey, Charles Christian, Lila Garrott, Yilin Wang

  • Black Static
  • The Dark
  • F&SF
  • Fiyah
  • Gingernuts of Horror
  • Shoreline of Infinity

Best Audio

Jury: Eunice Hung, Catherine Mann, Nemo Martin, Tam Moules, Lucy Whiteley

  • Breaking the Glass Slipper
  • PodCastle
  • PseudoPod
  • Speculative Spaces

Best Comic / Graphic Novel

Jury: Hannah Barton, Jay Faulkner, Sarah Hale, Christopher Napier, Jessica Steiner

  • 2000AD, ed. Matt Smith (Rebellion)
  • Basketful of Heads #1 – Joe Hill (DC)
  • B.P.R.D. The Devil You Know, Vol. 3: Ragna Rok – Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, Laurence Campbell et al. (Dark Horse)
  • DCeased #1-6 – Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudiano et al. (DC)
  • DIE – Kieron Gillen & Stephanie Hans (Image)
  • The Ozone Diary – Pentti Otsamo & Tero Mielonen (Luna Press)

Best Artist

Jury: Amy Brennan, Amber Culley, Ana Miljani?, Babs Nienhuis, Christie Walsh

  • Ben Baldwin
  • Vince Haig
  • Jackie Morris
  • David Rix

Best Film / Television Production

Jury: Ifeanyi Barbara Chidi, Jackie Fallis, James T Harding, Katherine Inskip, Aaron Jones

  • Game of Thrones: The Long Night – David Benioff & DB Weiss (HBO / Sky Atlantic)
  • Us – Jordan Peele (Monkeypaw Productions et al.)
  • Watchmen: It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice – Damon Lindelof (HBO / Sky Atlantic)
  • The Witcher: Rare Species – Haily Hall (Netflix)

[Thanks to James Davis Nicoll for the story.]

4 thoughts on “British Fantasy Awards 2020 Shortlists

  1. Gotta love a world in which Ta-Nehisi Coates is in the Best Newcomer category.

    (Congrats to all the finalists; there are a few I’m definitely rooting for in there and, as ever, some that had slipped past me and I will now be seeking out.)

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