The top ten finalists for the 2021 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award for best original fantasy short story were announced July 1. They are:

• “The Codes of Binding” by C. Jonah Abbott
• “Shadows of the Children” by Jacob Barlow
• “The First” by Dale Cozort
• “Soulshifters” by Charles Dib
• “Absinthe & the Alchemist” by Stephanie Kraner
• “The Teardrop Harvest” by J.D. Lars
• “Reverse the Clock” by Ari Officer
• “Blood and Ashes” by Grant Riddell
• “War Painting” by Elise Stephens
• “Echoes of Meridian” by M. Elizabeth Ticknor

Started in 2014, this is the eighth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award. This 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 will come from among these ten finalists,

Those winners will be announced during the Baen Travelling Roadshow at this year’s Dragon Con. Dragon Con will take place from September 2-6 in Atlanta, GA.

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.

[Based on a press release.]