The shortlists for the 2021 Aurealis Awards were announced April 5 by the Continuum Foundation (ConFound). The award recognizes the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.

BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION

• The Boy Who Stepped Through Time, Anna Ciddor (Allen & Unwin)
• Stellarphant, James Foley (Fremantle Press)
• Dragon Skin, Karen Foxlee (Allen & Unwin)
• The Curiosities, Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie (illustrator) (Hachette Australia)
• Elsewhere Girls, Emily Gale & Nova Weetman (Text Publishing)
• Barebum Billy, Nicholas Snelling (BAD DAD Publishing)

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK

• The Curiosities, Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie (illustrator) (Hachette Australia)
• Treasure in the Lake, Jason Pamment (Allen & Unwin)
• Mechanix, Ben Slabak & Edoardo Natalini (Cloud 9 Comix)
• Killeroo: Semper Fidelis, Matthew Soall & Ignacio Di Meglio (illustrator) (OzComics)

BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

• “The Woods Echo Back”, Tania Fordwalker (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #331)
• “Don’t Look!”, Lisa Fuller (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Wakefield Press)
• “Of Slaves and Lions”, Pamela Jeffs (Stories of Survival, Deadset Press)
• “Slaughterhouse Boys”, Emma Osborne (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Wakefield Press)
• “Way-bread Rising”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Stories of Survival, Deadset Press)
• “Hunger”, Marianna Shek (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Wakefield Press)

BEST HORROR SHORT STORY

• “Don’t Look!”, Lisa Fuller (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Wakefield Press)  
• “Traces of Us, Hot Enough for Dinner”, Ephiny Gale (The Dread Machine 1.3)
• “The House that Hungers”, Maria Lewis (Aurealis #146, Chimaera Publications)
• “The Quiet Room”, Martin Livings (Midnight Echo #16, The Australasian Horror Writers Association)
• “Sins of the Mother”, Tracie McBride (Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, IFWG Publishing Australia)
• “Mother Dandelion”, Antoinette Rydyr (Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, IFWG Publishing Australia)

BEST HORROR NOVELLA

• When the Cicadas Stop Singing, Zachary Ashford (Horrific Tales Press)
• “The Band Plays On”, Alan Baxter (The Gulp, self-published)
• “Hell’s Teeth”, Matthew R Davis (Haunted: An Anthology, Specul8 Publishing)
• Cryptid Killers, Alister Hodge (Severed Press)
• “All The Long Way Down”, Alf Simpson (Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 3, IFWG Publishing Australia)

BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY

• “Who Wants to be a Reaper”, Jane Brown (The Centropic Oracle)
• “So-called Bin Chicken”, E J Delaney (Curiouser Magazine #2)
• “All my Tuesdays”, Laura J Fitzwilson (Cicerone Journal Issue 5: Curious Worlds)
• “Old Souls”, Aiki Flinthart (Relics, Wrecks & Ruins, CAT Press)
• “The Woods Echo Back”, Tania Fordwalker (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #331)
• “Frabjous”, Alexander Gibbs (Cicerone Journal Issue 5: Curious Worlds)

BEST FANTASY NOVELLA

• “Mother in Bloom”, Alan Baxter (The Gulp, self-published)
• “The Little One”, Rebecca Fraser (Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract, IFWG Publishing Australia)
• “Bones Of The Sea”, Amy Laurens (Inkprint Press)
• “Echo and Narcissus”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Sheep Might Fly podcast, self-published)
• “The Scarab Children of Montague”, Suzanne J Willis (Falstaff Books)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

• “He Leaps for the Stars, He Leaps for the Stars” Grace Chan (Clarkesworld #178)
• “For Autumn”, Melissa Ferguson (Revolutions, Deadset Press)
• “Honey and a Hanging”, Aiki Flinthart (Tribute, Black Hart Publishing)
• “The Reunion”, Emily Fox (Nature: Futures)
• “Relict: (noun) A Widow; a Thing Remaining From the Past”, Alison Goodman (Relics, Wrecks & Ruins, CAT Press)
• “Legacy of the Species”, Pamela Jeffs, (The Terralight Collection, Four Ink Press)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA

• “Access Denied”, Baden Chant (Aurealis #142, Chimaera Publications)
• The Cruise to the End of the World, Craig Cormick (Merino Press)
• “The Birdsong Fossil”, D K Mok (Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures, World Weaver Press)
• “Problem Landing”, Sean Monaghan (Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact Mar/Apr)
• “Preserved in Amber”, Samantha Murray (Clarkesworld #178)
• “A Vast Silence”, T R Napper (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov/Dec)

BEST COLLECTION

• The Gulp, Alan Baxter, (self-published)
• Danged Black Thing, Eugen Bacon (Transit Lounge Publishing)
• The Terralight Collection, Pamela Jeffs (Four Ink Press)
• The Tallow-Wife & Other Tales, Angela Slatter (Tartarus Press)
• Little Labyrinths: Collected Microfictions, Sean Williams (Brain Jar Press)

BEST ANTHOLOGY

• Who Sleuthed It?, Lindy Cameron (Ed.) (Clan Destine Press)
• Relics, Wrecks & Ruins, Aiki Flinthart (Ed.), Lauren Elise Daniels & Geneve Flynn (assistant Eds.), CAT Press
• Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Poppy Nwosu (Ed.) (Wakefield Press)
• Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, Deborah Sheldon (Ed.) (IFWG Publishing Australia)

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

• Waking Romeo, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)
• Aurora’s End, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• Terciel and Elinor, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
• Echo in the Memory, Cameron Nunn (Walker Books Australia)
• Dirt Circus League, Maree Kimberley (Text Publishing)
• It’s Not You, It’s Me, Gabrielle Williams (Allen & Unwin)

BEST HORROR NOVEL

• The Bridge, J S Breukelaar (Meerkat Press)
• Midnight in the Chapel of Love, Matthew R Davis (JournalStone Publishing)
• Papa Lucy & The Boneman, Jason Fischer (Outland Entertainment)
• The Airways, Jennifer Mills (Picador Australia)
• Holly and the Nobodies, Ben Pienaar (Hellbound Books LLC)

BEST FANTASY NOVEL 

• Supermums – And So It Begins, Meg Grace (self-published)
• The Rose Daughter, Maria Lewis (Piatkus / Hachette / Little Brown)
• A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske (Tor)
• Dark Rise, C S Pacat (Allen & Unwin)
• She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan (Mantle)
• All the Murmuring Bones, Angela Slatter (Titan Books)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• Waking Romeo, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)
• The 22 Murders of Madison May, Max Barry (Hachette Australia)
• Stealing Time, Rebecca Bowyer (Story Addict Publishing)
• Papa Lucy & The Boneman, Jason Fischer (Outland Entertainment)
• Aurora’s End, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• Deepwater King, Claire McKenna (HarperCollins Publishers)

SARA DOUGLASS BOOK SERIES AWARD

• Lifespan of Starlight [Lifespan of Starlight (2015); Split Infinity (2016); Edge of Time (2018)], Thalia Kalkipsakis (Hardie Grant Egmont)
• Elementals [Ice Wolves (2018); Scorch Dragons (2019); Battle Born (2020)], Amie Kaufman (HarperCollins)
• Unearthed [Unearthed (2017); Undying (2018)], Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)
• Lifelike [LIFEL1K3 (2018); DEV1AT3 (2019); TRUEL1F3 (2020)], Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• Winter [The Road to Winter (2016); Wilder Country (2017); Land of Fences (2019)], Mark Smith (Text Publishing)
• Blood and Gold [Crown of Rowan (enovella, 2014); Daughters of the Storm (2014); Sisters of the Fire (2016); Queens of the Sea (2019)], Kim Wilkins (HarperCollins)