The finalists for the 2023 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award for best original fantasy short story were announced June 30. They are:

• “The Hitchhiker on Souls’ Road” by Ashley Agbay
• “A Dragon’s True Purpose” by Ceci Black
• “The Runner” by Sidney Blaylock, Jr.
• “A Tale of Three Dragons” by Carrie Callahan
• “Winter Offerings” by Garick Cooke
• “Compact” by Arlen Feldman
• “The Knight, The Witch, and The Farmboy” by C. H. Hung
• “The Dreaded Song of Klau” by Jason Lairamore
• “Silver Spears and Sea-Songs” by Wendy Nikel
• “Fall From Grace” by Melissa Olthoff
• “Once Given a Name” by Shami Stovall

Started in 2014, this is the tenth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest. 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 will come from among these finalists.

Those winners will be announced during the Baen Travelling Roadshow at this year’s Dragon Con. Dragon Con will take place from August 31-September 4 in Atlanta, GA. The 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.