World Fantasy Award
First awarded in
1975, the
World Fantasy Awards are handed out annually at the
World Fantasy Convention (WFC) to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of
fantasy.
These awards are among the most prestigious given every year in the speculative fiction genre. All Fantasy is eligible, High fantasy, horror, sword & sorcery, supernatural, children's and YA books, and beyond.
World Fantasy Award winners are chosen by a panel of judges, which differs every year. For the 2006 awards, the
judges are
Steve Lockley,
Barbara Roden,
Victoria Strauss,
Jeff VanderMeer, and
Andrew Wheeler.
Winners are chosen from groups of nominees (generally five or six per category), also selected largely by the judges, with two picked by members of the annual WFC.
The World Fantasy Awards thus differ significantly in administration from other notable genre awards, such as
Hugos or
Nebulas. For the Hugos, the nominees and winners are chosen solely by members of the
World Science Fiction Convention, while the Nebulas are awards for authors chosen by authors, specifically members of the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Thus neither the Hugos nor Nebulas have overseeing judges.
Because of the small number of judges for the World Fantasy Awards, and because they usually try to read very comprehensively in the field, selections for the awards are often eclectic. For example, low-selling but high-quality works from
small press publications, which may be overlooked by other awards, often receive a critical spotlight in the World Fantasy Awards.
The World Fantasy Awards are also unique in having categories for single-author collections and multi-author anthologies, which categories the Nebulas and Hugos lack.
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Novel*
Novella (10,001 to 40,000 words)
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Short Fiction (under 10,000 words)
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Anthology (multiple author - original or reprint - single or multiple editors)
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Collection (single author - original or reprint - single or multiple editors)
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Artist* Special Awards
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Convention Award**
Life Achievement**
Special Award: Professional**
Special Award: Non-Professional*
Past and present winners and nominees
