Voting Open for the British Fantasy Awards

We are delighted to open voting for this year’s British Fantasy Awards!

To be eligible to vote, you must be a member of the British Fantasy Society or be an attendee at Fantasycon 2024 in Chester, or have bought a ticket to the upcoming World Fantasy Convention in Brighton this year.

You can vote by completing the form here: https://forms.gle/LbGiqY8sywYSrTLF7

The crowd-sourced suggestions list is attached, but you are welcome to vote for titles which are not on this list. Eligible titles must have been published for the first time in the English language in 2024, anywhere in the world. Titles must contain some speculative element, though we interpret Fantasy widely. You can find out more about the awards by reading our FAQ here.

You may not vote for any work which you wrote, edited or published. Please do not vote for any title if you have a substantial professional involvement with it or would receive professional benefit if the title is shortlisted/wins. We ask each voter to use their best judgement with this, but here are some examples to help illustrate what we mean. If you are in doubt, please do reach out to us for guidance.

• Agents should not vote for any work by their clients, regardless of whether they represented that work or not. 
• Contributors to an anthology should not vote for the anthology.
• If you’ve had a short story published in a magazine, you may vote for that magazine, as your contribution to the overall body of work is small and the magazine winning is unlikely to have any real effect on your career.
• Publishers should not vote for any title published by their company whether they personally worked on it or not
• Freelance editors should not vote for a title they have edited
• Reviewers may vote for a title which they have reviewed

How are the winners decided?

Once the voting is closed, the votes are tallied and the short list for each category is formed. This shortlist is sent to the jurors who may then add up to 2 egregious omissions, based on their knowledge of the category. Once the short list is finalised, the jurors will have the opportunity to read, listen to, and/or view the works and discuss them as a group to decide upon the winners.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, held from 30th October to 2nd November. You can find out more about the convention and book your ticket here: World Fantasy Convention 2025

Call for Jurors

We are now also inviting applications to be a juror for the British Fantasy Awards. You do not need to be a member of the BFS to volunteer as a juror – and in fact, we like to include as many non-members as possible. The only qualification you need to be a juror is a love of Fantasy in all its forms and the time and willingness to review the materials for as many categories as you volunteer for.

You can apply to be a juror by filling in the form here: https://forms.gle/7y5prY9AsKXuPBDK9

Jurors will be given first sight of the shortlists and will be asked to declare any conflict of interest at that point. Jurors are also invited to add up to two titles as egregious omissions at this time. It should be noted that jurors should not introduce any titles at this stage which they would have been disallowed to vote for under the guidance above.

Both voting and the call for jurors will be open until the 9th of May. It is anticipated that jurors will be selected at the end of May, have access to the shortlist material by mid June, and will have until September to study the list and come to a decision.