Comments: Although 1976 was only the second year for the World Fantasy Awards, one can already see the awards maturing, with full slates of nominees in every category except Best Novel, where there were only two total nominees. Fritz Leiber did very well in the awards, winning an award for his short story Belsen Express along with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
However, the pervasive racism and sexism of the era is also readily apparent as not a single woman or non-white was nominated in any of the categories.Although the white boys club of science fiction was slowly breaking up by the mid-1970s, in the fantasy world, the lily white sausage commandos that dominated fantasy fiction were much slower to release their death grip on the genre.
Best Novel
Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson
Other Nominees:
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Best Short Fiction
Belsen Express by Fritz Leiber
Other Nominees:
The Barrow Troll by David Drake
Born of the Winds by Brian Lumley
The Ghastly Priest Doth Reign by Manly Wade Wellman
Best Collection
The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy by Avram Davidson
Other Nominees:
Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
The Early Long by Frank Belknap Long
Far Lands, Other Days by E. Hoffmann Price
Lifetime Achievement
Fritz Leiber
Other Nominees:
Ray Bradbury
Frank Belknap Long
Manly Wade Wellman
Best Artist
Frank Frazetta
Other Nominees:
George Barr
Steve Fabian
Edward Gorey
Tim Kirk
Special Award, Professional
Donald M. Grant
Other Nominees:
Willis Conover
L. Sprague de Camp
Arkham House
Frank Belknap Long
Donald A. Wollheim
Special Award, Non-Professional
Karl Edward Wagner, David Drake, and James Groce
Other Nominees:
Gerry de la Ree
Harry O. Morris, Jr.
George Scithers
Roy A. Squires
Robert Weinberg
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