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Sunday, November 1, 2009

2009 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, San Jose, California.

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

Winner:
(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

Winner:
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

Winner:
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

Winner:
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

Winner:
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

Winner:
Ellen Asher
Jane Yolen

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Shaun Tan

Other Nominees:
Janet Chui
Kinuko Y. Craft
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant

Other Nominees:
Farah Mendlesohn
Stephen H. Segal and Ann VanderMeer
Jerad Walters
Jacob Weisman

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
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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