The Norma K Hemming Award, under the auspices of the Australian Science Fiction Foundation (ASFF), has announced the 2019 finalists.

Designed to recognise excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, sexuality, class or disability in a published speculative fiction work, the jury of the Norma K Hemming Award considered dozens of entries published in 2018 across the long and short form categories, comprised of short fiction, novellas, novels, edited anthologies, collections, graphic novels and stage plays.

The finalists for the Short Fiction (stories up to 17,500 words) are:

• “Pinion”, Stephanie Gunn (Aurum, Ticonderoga Publications)
• “Triquetra”, Kirstyn McDermott (Tor.com)
• “The Sea-Maker of Darmid Bay”, Shauna O’Meara (Interzone, TTA Press)
• “With this Needle I Thee Thread”, Angela Rega (Aurum, Ticonderoga Publications)
• “Shatterglass”, Susan Wardle (Aurum, Ticonderoga Publications)
• “Knitting Day “, Jen White (Mother of Invention, Twelfth Planet Press)

The finalists for the Long Work category are:

• Icefall, Stephanie Gunn (Twelfth Planet Press)
• City of Lies, Sam Hawke (Tor Books / Transworld)
• Catching Teller Crow, Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina (Allen & Unwin)
• The Second Cure, Margaret Morgan (Penguin Random House)
• Mother of Invention, Rivqa Rafael & Tansy Rayner Roberts (Twelfth Planet Press)

The Norma K Hemming Award winners will be presented at Continuum 15 in Melbourne on Saturday June 8, 2019.