The winner of the 2023(24) Crawford Award is Vajra Chandrasekera’s The Saint of Bright Doors (Tor).  

Honourable Mentions go to:

• Juhani Karila,  Summer Fishing in Lapland (Pushkin)
• Emma Torzs, Ink Sister Blood Scribe (William Morrow)
• Wole Talabi, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon (Daw/Gollancz)
• B Pladek, Dry Land (University of Wisconsin Press)

 The award jury members were: Brian Attebery, Candas Jane Dorsey, Niall Harrison, Cheryl Morgan, Mimi Mondal, Graham Sleight.

 The IAFA Crawford Award each year recognizes an outstanding new writer whose first fantasy book was published during the previous calendar year. It is not specifically a first novel award. The award was established with the support of the late Andre Norton, who also helped establish the criteria and who continued to support the award over the years. 

William L. Crawford (1911–1984) was an American publisher and editor who produced the first full-size book issued by a publisher that specialized in science fiction. Mars Mountain, published in 1935, is a collection of science fiction short stories by Eugene George Key. Crawford created several publishing companies, including the Fantasy Publishing Company (FPCI), and edited several magazine series including Spaceway, Fantasy Book and Marvel Tales.

The list of past winners is here.

 The Crawford Award for 2025 is now open: submissions may be made at this link.

 The award is given at the International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, in Florida, in March each year.

Judges for the award to be given in 2025 are: Eddie Clark, Candas Jane Dorsey, Brian Attebery, Mimi Mondal and Yilin Wang.

The eligibility for the award is as follows:

• A fantasy book must be published between 1 January 2024 and 31st December 2024 in the English Language.
• It must be a first fantasy book: prose (ie both novels and story collections) and poetry are permitted, it may be written for any age group. A graphic novel may be considered but the assumption is that it is the writing that is being judged. An original audio novel may be considered. If the work is in translation it should be the first book the author has had translated into English.

[Based on a press release.]