Ticknor Wins 2021 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award

M. Elizabeth Ticknor, 2021 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest winner.

The results of the 2021 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award for best original fantasy short story were announced September 4. They are:

GRAND PRIZE: “Echoes of Meridian” by M. Elizabeth Ticknor

SECOND PLACE: “Absinthe & the Alchemist” by Stephanie Kraner

THIRD PLACE: “The Codes of Binding” by C. Jonah Abbott

The other finalists were:

  • “Shadows of the Children” by Jacob Barlow
  • “The First” by Dale Cozort
  • “Soulshifters” by Charles Dib
  • “The Teardrop Harvest” by J.D. Lars
  • “Reverse the Clock” by Ari Officer
  • “Blood and Ashes” by Grant Riddell
  • “War Painting” by Elise Stephens

The annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest began in 2014. The award honors stories that best exemplify the spirit of adventure, imagination, and great storytelling in a work of short fiction containing an element of the fantastic, whether epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, sword and sorcery, contemporary fantasy, or historical fantasy. The stories are judged anonymously.

The Grand Prize and Second and Third Place Winners were announced during the Baen Travelling Roadshow at this year’s Dragon Con.

Author of the Grand Prize story receives an award trophy, a prize box filled with Baen merchandise, and paid professional rates for first publication rights. The winning story also will be featured on Baen.com main webpage from September 15 through October 15, 2021, and will be available in the Baen Free Library thereafter.

[Thanks to Sean CW Korsgaard for the story.]