The shortlists for the 2020 Aurealis Awards were announced March 31 by the Continuum Foundation (ConFound). The award recognizes the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.

The panelists considered nearly 850 entries across the 15 categories to determine the finalists.

BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION

• The Lost Soul Atlas, Zana Fraillon (Hachette Australia) 
• Tricky Nick, Nicholas J Johnson (Pan Australia)
• Across the Risen Sea, Bren MacDibble (Allen & Unwin)
• The Chicken’s Curse,  Frances Watts (Allen & Unwin)
• Hodgepodge: How to Make a Pet Monster, Lili Wilkinson, illustrated by Dustin Spence (Allen & Unwin)
• Her Perilous Mansion, Sean Williams (Allen & Unwin)

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK

• Action Tank: Book 2, Mike Barry (Mike Barry Was Here)
• Under-Earth, Chris Gooch (Top Shelf)
• The Grot, Pat Grant (Top Shelf / IDW)
• The Odds, Matt Stanton (ABC Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)

BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

• “Dingo & Sister”, Nikky Lee (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #78) 
• “Ram’s Revenge”, Nikky Lee (Aries, Deadset Press)
• “Pea Soup”, Juliet Marillier (Mother Thorn and Other Tales of Courage and Kindness, Serenity Press)
• “The Witching Well”, Juliet Marillier (Mother Thorn and Other Tales of Courage and Kindness, Serenity Press)
• “Eat Prey, Love”, Freya Marske (Unnatural Order, CSFG)
• “Kids These Days”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Rebuilding Tomorrow, Twelfth Planet Press)

BEST HORROR SHORT STORY

• “The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter”, Elaine Cuyegkeng (Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Omnium Gatherum)
• “The Bone Fairy”, Martin Livings (Midnight Echo 15, Australasian Horror Writers Association)
• “Phoenix Pharmaceuticals”, Jessica Nelson-Tyers (Cancer, The Zodiac Series, #7, Deadset Press) 
• “Many Mouths to Make a Meal”, Garth Nix (Final Cuts, Blumhouse/Anchor)
• “How We Felt”, Helena O’Connor (Aurealis #136)

BEST HORROR NOVELLA

• The Attic Tragedy, J Ashley-Smith (Meerkat Press)
• The Cockroach King, Andrew Cull (Beneath Hell Publishing)
• “Foundations”, Michael Gardner (Writers of the Future Volume 36, Galaxy Press)
• “Bad Weather”, Robert Hood (Outback Horrors Down Under, Things in The Well)
• “The Saltbush Queen”, Chris Mason (Outback Horrors Down Under, Things in The Well) 

BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY

• “The Dead May Dance”, Nikky Lee (Midnight Echo 15, Australasian Horror Writers Association)
• “Truth Be Told”, Louise Pieper (Unnatural Order, CSFG)
• “The Case of the Somewhat Mythic Sword”, Garth Nix (Tor.com)
• “Terracotta Daughter”, J Z Ting (Coppice & Brake, Crone Girls Press)
• “A Solace of Shadows”, Suzanne J Willis (Three Crows Magazine #7)

BEST FANTASY NOVELLA

• “Generation Gap”, Thoraiya Dyer (Clarkesworld #161)
• “By Touch and By Glance”, Lisa L Hannett (Songs for Dark Seasons, Ticonderoga Publications)
• “Dingo & Sister”, Nikky Lee (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #78)
• “Karkinos”, Nikky Lee (Cancer, Deadset Press)
• The Frost Fair Affair, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

• “Mary, Mary”, Fiona Bell (Aurealis #135) 
• “The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter”, Elaine Cuyegkeng (Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Omnium Gatherum)
• “Pork Belly”, Jack Heath (Aurealis #129)
• “Jack’s Fine Dining”, T R Napper (Neon Leviathan, Grimdark Magazine)
• “Andrei Tarkovsky”, Ben Peek (Dimension6 #20)
• “All the Stars in Her Eyes”, Deborah Sheldon (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #80)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA

• “Jigsaw Children”, Grace Chan (Clarkesworld #161)
• “Generation Gap”, Thoraiya Dyer (Clarkesworld #161))
• “Dingo & Sister”, Nikky Lee (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #78)
• “The Weight of the Air, The Weight of the World”, T R Napper (Neon Leviathan, Grimdark Magazine) 

BEST COLLECTION

• Songs for Dark Seasons, Lisa L Hannett (Ticonderoga Publications)
• Mother Thorn and Other Tales of Courage and Kindness, Juliet Marillier (Serenity Press)
• Castle Charming, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self published)
• Unreal Alchemy, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self published)
• The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners and Other Stories, Angela Slatter (PS Publishing) 
• Dark Harvest, Cat Sparks (NewCon Press)

BEST ANTHOLOGY

• After Australia, Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Ed.) (Affirm Press)
• Rebuilding Tomorrow, Tsana Dolichva (Ed.) (Twelfth Planet Press) 
• The Zookeeper’s Tales of Interstellar Oddities, Aiki Flinthart & Pamela Jeffs (CAT Press)
• Unnatural Order, Alis Franklin & Lyss Wickramasinghe (Eds.) (CSFG Publishing)
• Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Lee Murray & Geneve Flynn (Eds.) (Omnium Gatherum)
• Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Jonathan Strahan (Ed.) (Solaris)

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

• Future Girl, Asphyxia (Allen & Unwin)
• Aurora Burning, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• The Other Side of the Sky, Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)
• Truel1f3, Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
• The Erasure Initiative, Lili Wilkinson (Allen & Unwin) 

BEST HORROR NOVEL

• Soul Survivor, Daniel de Lorne (Scarlo Media)
• An Enigma in Silver, Simon Haynes (Bowman Press)
• None Shall Sleep, Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin) 
• Monstrous Heart, Claire McKenna (Harper Voyager) 
• Gutterbreed, Marty Young (Eclectic Trio Press)

BEST FANTASY NOVEL 

• Hollow Empire, Sam Hawke (Transworld)
• Monstrous Heart, Claire McKenna (HarperCollins Publishers)
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
• The Vanishing Deep, Astrid Scholte (Allen & Unwin)
• Conquist, Dirk Strasser (Chimaera Publications)
• The Ninth Sorceress, Bonnie Wynne (Talem Press)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• Ghost Species, James Bradley (Penguin Random House)
• Aurora Burning, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• Fauna, Donna Mazza (Allen & Unwin)
• The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay (Scribe Publications) 
• The Mother Fault, Kate Mildenhall (Simon & Schuster Australia)
• Repo Virtual, Corey J White (Tor.com Publishing)