The 2021 Word Fantasy Awards Finalists have been announced ! The winners will be announced during the World Fantasy Convention, 4.-7.11.2021.
I extract only a few categories which are interesting for me. I don’t exactly plan to read through everything. Some reviews are already available, mostly due to overlap with the other Award Nominations.
Here are all the nominees from short to long story. Links in the title lead to freely available online publications:
Best Short Story
- ★★★★☆ • Open House on Haunted Hill • 2020 • Ghost short story by John Wiswell • review
- ★★★☆☆ • My Country Is a Ghost • 2020 • Ghost short story by Eugenia Triantafyllou • review
- Glass Bottle Dancer by Celeste Rita Baker
- The Women Who Sing for Sklep by Kay Chronister (Thin Places)
- The Nine Scents of Sorrow by Jordan Taylor
Best Novella
- ★★★★★ • Ring Shout • 2020 • Historical horror novella by P. Djèlí Clark • review
- ★★★★★ • The Four Profound Weaves • 2020 • Fantasy novella by R.B. Lemberg • review
- ★★★★☆ • Stepsister • 2020 • Fairy tale novelette by Leah Cypess • review
- ★★★+☆☆ • Riot Baby • 2020 • Superhero novella by Tochi Onyebuchi • review
- Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings
Best Novel
- ★★★☆☆ • Piranesi • 2020 • Speculative fiction novel bySusanna Clarke • review
- Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Tor Books)
- The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press/Titan UK)
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey US/Jo Fletcher Books UK)
- The Midnight Bargain by C. L. Polk (Erewhon Books US/Orbit UK)
I’m surprised to see that The Only Good Indians is a finalist, I haven’t read it but I believed it was horror not fantasy (though the distinction between the two genres can be hard to make).
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Ring Shout is also Cthulhu horror in parts. Horror is an orthogonal genre that can be applied to Fantasy or SF or other genres.
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Yay, away we go again! Best of luck on the rest of your reading list 😀
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I‘m reluctant to accept reading chores, because I feel more like gaming. Just finished Ghost of Tsushima, yay!
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