The British Fantasy Award Winners for 2024!

The British speculative fiction community gathered in Chester tonight, 12 October 2024, to celebrate the best of the last 12 months. Here’s the winners, plus all the nominees as well.

Best Collection

Jurors: Steven French, Heather Ivatt, Penny Jones, Graham Millichap, Stephen Theaker

Winner: Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic – Tobi Ogundiran (Undertow Publications)

Nominees:

• A Curious Cartography – Alison Littlewood (Black Shuck Books)
• No Happily Ever After – Phil Sloman
• No One Will Come Back for Us – Premee Mohamed (Undertow Publications)
• The House on the Moon – Georgina Bruce (Black Shuck Books)
• Under my Skin – K.J. Parker (Subterranean Press)

Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel

Jurors: Susan Jeferies, Brian Kinsella, Dante Luiz, Kev McVeigh, Amanda Raybould

Winner: Talonsister – Jen Williams (Titan)

Nominees:

• A Day of Fallen Night – Samantha Shannon (Bloomsbury)
• At Eternity’s Gates – David Green (Eerie River Publishing)
• Beyond Sundered Seas – David Green (Eerie River Publishing)
• Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon – Wole Talabi (Daw Books)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)

Jurors: Rebecca Gault, Rome Godwin, Laura Langrish, Adam Millard, Leanbh Pearson

Winner: Don’t Fear the Reaper – Stephen Graham Jones (Titan)

Nominees:

• A House with Good Bones – T. Kingfisher (Titan)
• Boys in the Valley – Philip Fracassi (Orbit)
• How to Sell a Haunted House – Grady Hendrix (Titan)
• Looking Glass Sound – Catriona Ward (Viper)
• One Life Left – David Green (Eerie River Publishing)

Best Novella

Jurors: Gagan Kaur, Jonathan Laidlow, Pauline Morgan, Melissa Ren, Kate Towner

Winner: The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar – Indra Das (Subterranean Press)

Nominees:

• The Darkness in the Pines – David Green (Eerie River Publishing)
• The Last Day and the First – Tim Lebbon (PS Publishing)
• They Shut Me Up – Tracy Fahey (PS Publishing)
• Thornhedge – T. Kingfisher (Titan)
• Untethered Sky – Fonda Lee (Tordotcom)

Best Short Fiction

Jurors: Andrew Freudenberg, Stephen Kotowych, Stephen McGowan, Abbi Shaw

Winner: The Brazen Head of Westinghouse – Tim Major (IZ Digital)

Nominees:

• Professor Flotsam’s Cabinet of Peculiarities – Shona Kinsella (Great British Horror 8)
• The Pilfered Quill – Rachel Rener & David Green (From the Arcane)
• The Ripe Fruit in the Garden – C.A. Yates (Great British Horror 8)
• Turn Again, O My Sweetness – C.A. Yates (At the Lighthouse)

Best Anthology

Jurors: Colleen Anderson, Adri Joy, Creag Munroe, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Abbi Shaw

Winner: Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, ed. Jordan Peele (Picador)

Nominees:

• At the Lighthouse, ed. Sophie Essex (Eibonvale Press)
• Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology, ed. Wole Talabi (Android Press)
• Never Whistle at Night, ed. Shane Hawk (Vintage)
• Something Peculiar: Great British Horror 8, ed. Steve J. Shaw (Black Shuck Books)
• The Other Side of Never: Dark Tales from the World of Peter & Wendy, eds. Marie O’Regan & Paul Kane (Titan) 

Best Independent Press

Jurors: Andy Angel, Andrew Freudenberg, Morgan Greensmith, Corinne Pollard

Winner: Flame Tree Press

Nominees:

• Angry Robot
• Black Shuck Books
• Eibonvale Press
• Luna Press Publishing
• Newcon Press

Best Non-Fiction

Jurors: Jessica Lévai, Susan Maxwell, TJ Moules, Eleanor Pender

Winner: Writing the Future, eds. Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst (Dead Ink)

Nominees:

• Spec Fic for Newbies: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror – Tiffani Angus & Val Nolan (Luna Press Publishing)
• The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts – Delyth Badder & Mark Norman (Calon)
• The Full Lid – Alasdair Stuart, ed. Marguerite Kenner

Best Magazine / Periodical

Jurors: Carla Bataller Estruch, Arden Fitzroy, Adam McDowall, Siân O’Hara

Winner: Shoreline of Infinity

Nominees:

• Hellebore
• Interzone/IZ Digital
• khōréō 
• Occult Detective Magazine

Best Artist

Jurors: David Green,Stephen Kotowych, Stephen McGowan, Kate Towner, Paul Yates

Winner: Asya Yordonova

Nominees:

• Jenni Coutts
• Vince Haig
• David Rix

Best Audio

Jurors: Eugen Bacon, Robin CM Duncan, Ann Landmann, Caroline Mersey

Winner: The Tiny Bookcase – Nico Rogers & Ben Holroyd-Dell

Nominees:

• Cast of Wonders (Escape Artists)
• The Penumbra Podcast – Harley Takagi Kaner, Kevin Vibert, Ginny D’Angelo, Alice C. LeBeau, Noah Simes
• PodCastle (Escape Artists)
• PseudoPod (Escape Artists)
• Simultaneous Times Podcast (Space Cowboy Books)

Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer

Jurors: Rhian Drinkwater, Devin Martin, Arturo Serrano

Winner: Teika Marija Smits, for “Umbilical” (Newcon Press) & “Waterlore” (Black Shuck Books)

Nominees:

• Moniquill Blackgoose, for “To Shape a Dragon’s Breath” (Del Ray)
• Vajra Chandrasekera, for “The Saint of Bright Doors” (Tordotcom)
• Hannah Kaner, for “Godkiller” (HarperVoyager)
• Charlotte Langree, for “Fractured: Tales of Flame and Fury” (Clarendon House Publications)
• Em X. Liu, for “The Death I Gave Him” (Solaris)

Legends of Fantasycon Award

Debbie Bennett

Karl Edward Wagner Award

Ramsey Campbell