WSFA Small Press Award Winners

The WSFA Small Press Award, created in 2007, is handed out every year by the members of the Washington Science Fiction Association. The award is intended to honor original short fiction works of science fiction, fantasy, or horror published by small presses. The award defines a "small press" as either a publication house that publishes fewer than 45 titles in the calendar year the story was published, a paper periodical that has a circulation of less than 10,000 in the year the story is published, or a web periodical that has a fewer than 10,000 subscribers in the year the story is published. The publisher must compensate the author of the story in some manner, and the author cannot contribute financially to the publication.

One interesting feature of the WSFA Small Press Award is that it is judged entirely anonymously. Although small presses may self-nominate, they must do so in a manner that allows the name of the author of a submitted story to be stripped from it before it is reviewed by either the jury that selects the list of nominees or the membership of the Washington Science Fiction Association before they vote. Only after voting is completed are the identities of the authors revealed, meaning that voting is based entirely upon the strength of the nominated stories.

2007: El Regalo by Peter S. Beagle

2008: The Wizard of Macatawa by Tom Doyle (reviewed in The Wizard of Macatawa and Other Stories)

2009: The Absence of Stars: Part 1 by Greg Siewert
2010: Siren Beat by Tansy Rayner Roberts
2011: Amaryllis by Carrie Vaughn
2012: The Patrician by Tansy Rayner Roberts
2013: Good Hunting by Ken Liu
2014: Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma by Alex Shvartsman

2015: Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon (reviewed in 2015 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)

2016: Today I Am Paul by Martin L. Shoemaker (reviewed in 2016 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)

2017: The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon (reviewed in 2017 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)

2018: The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer (reviewed in 2018 WSFA Small Press Award Voting)

2019: The Thing in the Walls Wants Your Small Change by Virginia M. Mohlere

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