“The Tomato Thief,” by Ursula Vernon, published in Apex Magazine, ed. by Jason Sizemore, (January 2016) is the winner of the 2017 WSFA Small Press Award. Congratulations to Oor Wombat!

The Washington Science Fiction Association announced the winner at Capclave on October 7. The award recognizes the best short fiction published by a small press in 2016, and consists of certificates and trophies for both the author and publisher, and $500 for the author.

The other finalists for the 2016 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction were:

• “Foxfire, Foxfire,” by Yoon Ha Lee, published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, ed. by Scott H. Andrews, (March 2016);
• “Jupiter or Bust,” by Brad R. Torgersen, published in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, ed. by Edmund Schubert, (March/ April 2016);
• “The Mytilenian Delay,” by Neil James Hudson, in Hyperpowers, ed. by Bascombe James, published by Third Flatiron Publishing (May 2016);
• “Only Their Shining Beauty Was Left,” by Fran Wilde, published in Shimmer Magazine, ed. by E. Catherine Tobler, (September 2016);
• “Radio Silence,” by Walter H. Hunt in Alien Artifacts, ed. by Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray, published by Zombies Need Brains, (2016);
• “A Salvaging of Ghosts,” by Aliette de Bodard, published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, ed. by Scott H. Andrews, (March 2016);
• “Vengence Sewn With A Fey Cord,” by Christine Lucas, published in The Future Fire, ed. by Djibril al-Ayad, (April 2016);
• “The Witch’s Knives,” by Margaret Ronald, published in Strange Horizons, ed. by Niall Harrison, Jane Crowley, Kate Dollarhyde, Lila Garrott, Catherine Krahe, An Owomoyela, and Vajra Chandrasekera, (October 2016).

The winner was chosen by members of the Washington Science Fiction Association, who voted on texts with the identity of the author (and publisher) hidden so that the final choice was based solely on the quality of the story.

[Based on the press release.]