2023 World Fantasy Awards Final Ballot

The World Fantasy Awards administrator announced the final ballot for this year’s awards, and the Lifetime Achievement award winners, on July 25.

 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

  • Peter Crowther
  • John Douglas

2023 WORLD FANTASY AWARD FINALISTS

NOVEL

  • Saint Death’s Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney (Solaris)
  • Spear by Nicola Griffith (Tordotcom Publishing)
  • The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings (Redhook/Orbit UK)
  • Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)
  • Siren Queen by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom Publishing)

NOVELLA

  • The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia (Tachyon Publications)
  • The House of Drought by Dennis Mombauer (Stelliform Press)
  • Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk (Tordotcom Publishing)
  • Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum (Undertow Publications)
  • Pomegranates by Priya Sharma (Absinthe Books)

SHORT FICTION

  • “The Devil Don’t Come with Horns” by Eugen Bacon (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)
  • “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge” by Tananarive Due (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)
  • “The Morning House” by Kate Heartfield (PodCastle, July 5 2022)
  • “Telling the Bees” by Kat Howard (The Sunday Morning Transport, Jan. 30 2022)
  • “Douen” by Suzan Palumbo (The Dark magazine, March 2022)


ANTHOLOGY

  • Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, ed. Ellen Datlow (Tor Nightfire)
  • Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, eds. Vince Liguano and Rena Mason (William Morrow)
  • Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror, ed. John F. D. Taff (Tor Nightfire)
  • Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, eds. Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight (Tordotcom Publishing)
  • Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, eds. Sheree Renée Thomas, Pan Morigan, and Troy Wiggins (Third Man Books)

COLLECTION

  • Dark Breakers by C. S. E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium Books)
  • Breakable Things by Cassandra Khaw (Undertow Publications)
  • All Nightmare Long by Tim Lebbon (PS Publishing)
  • Boys, Beasts & Men by Sam J. Miller (Tachyon Publications)
  • A Different Darkness and Other Abominations by Luigi Musolino (Valancourt Books)

ARTIST

  • Kinuko Y. Craft
  • Galen Dara
  • Matt Ottley
  • Lauren Raye Snow
  • Charles Vess

SPECIAL AWARD – PROFESSIONAL

  • Irene Gallo, for Tor.com
  • Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link, for Small Beer Press
  • Tim Lebbon and Daniele Serra, for Without Walls (PS Publishing)
  • Fiona Moore, for Management Lessons from Game of Thrones: Organization Theory and Strategy in Westeros (Edward Elgar Publishing)
  • Matt Ottley, for The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness (Dirt Lane Press)

SPECIAL AWARD – NON-PROFESSIONAL

  • Michael Kelly, for Undertow Publications
  • Cristina Macía, for The Celsius Festival
  • Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny Magazine
  • Dave Ring, for Neon Hemlock Press
  • E. Catherine Tobler, for editing The Deadlands

Judges: Dale Bailey, Kelly Robson, Ginny Smith, A. C. Wise, and Ian Whates.

Update 08/09/2023: At the request of this year’s World Fantasy Convention co-chair the year of the award has been changed to 2023. (We had reported 2022 based on the WFC’s press release and past experience with the award.)