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2017 World Fantasy Award Winners

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Margaret Kingsbury

Contributing Editor

Margaret Kingsbury grew up in a house so crammed with books she couldn’t open a closet door without a book stack tumbling, and she’s brought that same decorative energy to her adult life. Margaret has an MA in English with a concentration in writing and has worked as a bookseller and adjunct English professor. She’s currently a freelance writer and editor, and in addition to Book Riot, her pieces have appeared in School Library Journal, BuzzFeed News, The Lily, Parents, StarTrek.com, and more. She particularly loves children’s books, fantasy, science fiction, horror, graphic novels, and any books with disabled characters. You can read more about her bookish and parenting shenanigans in Book Riot’s twice-weekly The Kids Are All Right newsletter. You can also follow her kidlit bookstagram account @BabyLibrarians, or on Twitter @AReaderlyMom.

The 2017 World Fantasy Awards were announced last night, and it looks like a great list! Claire North won for best novel with The Sudden Appearance of Hope, along with Kij Johnson (long fiction), G.V. Anderson (short fiction), and Jeffrey Ford (collection), among others. This year’s ceremony was held in San Antonio, TX, and honors the best in fantasy. While maybe not as generally well-known as the Hugos and Nebulas, it holds a similar prestige for SFF folk.

World Fantasy Award StatueOne of the things that marks this year’s ceremony as special is the trophy itself. It’s the first year the H.P. Lovecraft statue has been switched out for the far lovelier (and non-racist) new trophy designed by Vincent Villafranca. The controversy over the Lovecraft trophy began in 2010, when both Nnedi Okorafor and China Miéville objected to it due to Lovecraft’s racism. In 2014, author Daniel José Older led a petition for it to be replaced, though he advocated for an Octavia Butler statue instead, which would’ve been awesome! The following year, the World Fantasy commission announced that the statue would be replaced, and they hired artist Vincent Villafranca to design it. 2017 marks the debut of the new statue.

Yay for protests getting things done!

Of course, also of note are the winners. Oddly, I’ve read almost all the nominees, but none of the winners! I haven’t even heard of short story winner G.V. Anderson, though I love Strange Horizons, which published her winning story, so I can’t wait to read it. And notably, several of the nominees are critiques of the Lovecraftian universe, including long fiction winner The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson, best novel nominee Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, and best long fiction nominee The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, among others. Artists gonna subvert, and I’m always gonna be here to read the results when they do.

Here are the winners! What are your favorites?

Lifetime Achievement Award

Terry Brooks

Marina Warner

Best Novel

The Sudden Appearance of Hope, Claire North (Redhook; Orbit UK) (winner)

Borderline, Mishell Baker (Saga)

Roadsouls, Betsy James (Aqueduct)

The Obelisk Gate, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Lovecraft Country, Matt Ruff (Harper)

Best Long Fiction

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson (Tor.com Publishing) (winner)

The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor.com Publishing)

Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)

“Bloodybones”, Paul F. Olson (Whispered Echoes)

A Taste of Honey, Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com Publishing)

Best Short Fiction

“Das Steingeschöpf”, G.V. Anderson (Strange Horizons 12/12/16) (winner)

“Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies”, Brooke Bolander (Uncanny 11-12/16)

“Seasons of Glass and Iron”, Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood)

“Little Widow”, Maria Dahvana Headley (Nightmare 9/16)

“The Fall Shall Further the Flight in Me”, Rachael K. Jones (Clockwork Phoenix 5)

Best Anthology

Dreaming in the Dark, Jack Dann, ed. (PS Australia) (winner)

Clockwork Phoenix 5, Mike Allen, ed. (Mythic Delirium)

Children of Lovecraft, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Dark Horse)

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016, Karen Joy Fowler & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner)

The Starlit Wood, Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe, eds. (Saga)

Best Collection

A Natural History of Hell, Jeffrey Ford (Small Beer) (winner)

Sharp Ends, Joe Abercrombie (Orbit US; Gollancz)

On the Eyeball Floor and Other Stories, Tina Connolly (Fairwood)

Vacui Magia, L.S. Johnson (Traversing Z Press)

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Ken Liu (Saga; Head of Zeus)

Best Artist

Jeffrey Alan Love (winner)

Greg Bridges

Julie Dillon

Paul Lewin

Victo Ngai

Special Award, Professional

Michael Levy & Farah Mendlesohn, for Children’s Fantasy Literature: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press) (winner)

L. Timmel Duchamp, for Aqueduct Press

C.C. Finlay, for editing F&SF

Kelly Link, for contributions to the genre

Joe Monti, for contributions to the genre

Special Award, Non-Professional

Neile Graham, for fostering excellence in the genre through her role as Workshop Director, Clarion West (winner)

Scott H. Andrews, for Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Malcolm R. Phifer & Michael C. Phifer, for their publication The Fantasy Illustration Library, Volume Two: Gods and Goddesses (Michael Publishing)

Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny

Brian White, for Fireside Fiction Company