British Fantasy Awards Shortlists

The votes have been cast and counted – twice! – jurors have been empanelled and publishers contacted. We are delighted to be able to share with you the shortlists for the 2024 British Fantasy Awards. Congratulations to all of our wonderful nominees and thank you to the jurors who have a hard task ahead of them!

The winners will be announced at Fantasycon. Join us there at The Queen at Chester hotel from 11th-13th October. Find out more and book your tickets here.

Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel

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

• 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)
• Talonsister – Jen Williams (Titan)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)

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

• A House with Good Bones – T. Kingfisher (Titan)
• Boys in the Valley – Philip Fracassi (Orbit)
• Don’t Fear the Reaper – Stephen Graham Jones (Titan)
• 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

• The Darkness in the Pines – David Green (Eerie River Publishing)
• The Last Day and the First – Tim Lebbon (PS Publishing)
• The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar – Indra Das (Subterranean Press)
• 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

• Professor Flotsam’s Cabinet of Peculiarities – Shona Kinsella (Great British Horror 8)
• The Brazen Head of Westinghouse – Tim Major (IZ Digital)
• 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 Collection

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

• A Curious Cartography – Alison Littlewood (Black Shuck Books)
• Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic – Tobi Ogundiran (Undertow Publications)
• 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)

Best Anthology

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

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

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

Best Non-Fiction

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

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

Best Magazine / Periodical

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

• Hellebore
• Interzone/IZ Digital
• khōréō 
• Occult Detective Magazine
• Shoreline of Infinity

Best Artist

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

• Jenni Coutts
• Vince Haig
• David Rix
• Asya Yordonova

Best Audio

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

• 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)
• The Tiny Bookcase – Nico Rogers & Ben Holroyd-Dell

Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer

Jurors: Rhian Drinkwater, Devin Martin, Arturo Serrano

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

Update

As a BFS committee member was lucky enough to receive multiple nomination this year, we had an independent audit carried out prior to the shortlists being finalised. A long-term member in good standing of the BFS was given access to all voting information along with all systems required to check eligibility of voters. This audit supported the final shortlists as displayed here.

The Awards Process

The British Fantasy Awards are voted on by members of the BFS and attendees at Fantasycon. This process is managed by our awards admin – no other committee member has access to or influence over the votes or their collection.

The shortlists are formed from the (usually 4) most voted-for titles. Juries are then empanelled and given the opportunity to add egregious omissions. After this stage, the final shortlists are made public and the juries start reading. The winner is selected by the jury and communicated to the awards admin.

The jury and egregious omissions stages act as checks and balances to ensure that the final shortlist and ultimate winner are selected as objectively as possible.

The awards admin is the only committee member who has any ability to affect or influence the outcome of the awards, and as such, the awards admin is not eligible to be nominated for any awards. The rest of the committee is in exactly the same position as any other member of the society with regard to the awards, with the exception of the Karl Edward Wagner award.

The BFS committee as a whole votes on the recipient of the Karl Edward Wagner award. Serving committee members are not eligible to receive this award – a change which was made to the constitution by the current Chair and President, to remove a potential conflict of interest.

The BFS is run by volunteers – people who give a great deal of time and effort to this community because they love it. Excluding our volunteers from consideration in awards in which they have no influence or control would serve no practical purpose in safeguarding the awards, but would professionally disadvantage our volunteers, which would likely lead to difficulty in recruiting and retaining volunteers. We are a community built largely of publishing professionals – and as a result our volunteers are largely made up of people professionally involved in the industry too.

We would like to thank our awards admin, Katherine Fowler, for the huge effort she puts into this role year on year. We would also like to thank the jurors who help to make the awards possible. Many congratulations to all of the nominees and we wish you the best of luck.