Comments: One thing that is notable about the 2009 World Fantasy Awards is that Neil Gaiman was nominated for two awards. That this is notable is in itself notable. During this same time frame, Gaiman routinely appeared on the ballots of the Hugo and Nebula Awards - so often that it is somewhat unusual when he doesn't appear on the slate of nominees for those awards. The World Fantasy Awards, on the other hand, seem to have avoided this trend, and Gaiman, although he has been nominated now and then, hasn't appeared nearly as frequently on the ballots for them.
The other event that seems notable is the Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed upon Jane Yolen. The interesting thing here is this award was given to her despite her having so very few nominations for her work. This isn't to say that her work is not good - it is almost uniformly excellent. But it highlights the fact that the World Fantasy awards have made it a practice to ignore female authors and editors, and the authors of young adult works. Yolen is (obviously) a woman, and her best work has generally been in the young adult arena. This combination of a lack of nominations for her work and the Lifetime Achievement Award granted to Yolen almost seems like the World Fantasy Awards noting that while they have the (correct) feeling that she is important to the genre, they are not really sure why.
Best Novel
(tie) The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford
(tie) Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
Other Nominees:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The House of the Stag by Kage Baker
Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory
Best Novella
If Angels Fight by Richard Bowes
Other Nominees:
Good Boy by Nisi Shawl
Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
The Overseer by Albert Cowdrey
Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel by Peter S. Beagle
Best Short Fiction
26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss by Kij Johnson
Other Nominees:
A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica by Catherynne M. Valente
Caverns of Mystery by Kage Baker
Our Man in the Sudan by Sarah Pinborough
Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel
Best Anthology
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy edited by Ekaterina Sedia
Other Nominees:
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow
The Living Dead edited by John Joseph Adams
Steampunk edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-First Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant
Best Collection
The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford
Other Nominees:
Filter House by Nisi Shawl
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
Strange Roads by Peter S. Beagle
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Lifetime Achievement
Ellen Asher
Jane Yolen
Other Nominees:
None
Best Artist
Shaun Tan
Other Nominees:
Janet Chui
Kinuko Y. Craft
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Special Award, Professional
Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
Other Nominees:
Farah Mendlesohn
Stephen H. Segal and Ann VanderMeer
Jerad Walters
Jacob Weisman
Special Award, Non-Professional
Michael Walsh
Other Nominees:
Edith L. Crowe
John Klima
Elise Matthesen
Sean Wallace, Neil Clarke, and Nick Mamatas
Go to previous year's nominees: 2008
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2010
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