British Fantasy Awards 2015 - Shortlist

[chopper]

The shortlists for the British Fantasy Awards 2015 were announced this morning. Here's the list in full, ripped straight from the BFS pages.

Best anthology
The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2, ed. Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber (The Alchemy Press)
Horror Uncut: Tales of Social Insecurity and Economic Unease, ed. by Joel Lane and Tom Johnstone (Gray Friar Press)
Lightspeed: Women Destroy Science Fiction Special Issue, ed. Christie Yant (Lightspeed Magazine)
The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, ed. Mark Morris (Spectral Press)
Terror Tales of Wales, ed. Paul Finch (Gray Friar Press)

Best artist
Ben Baldwin
Vincent Chong
Les Edwards
Sarah Anne Langton
Karla Ortiz
Daniele Serra

Best collection
Black Gods Kiss, Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
The Bright Day Is Done, Carole Johnstone (Gray Friar Press)
Gifts for the One Who Comes After, Helen Marshall (ChiZine Publications)
Nick Nightmare Investigates, Adrian Cole (The Alchemy Press and Airgedlámh Publications)
Scruffians! Stories of Better Sodomites, Hal Duncan (Lethe Press)

Best comic/graphic novel
Cemetery Girl, Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden and Don Kramer (Jo Fletcher Books)
Grandville Noël, Bryan Talbot (Jonathan Cape)
Saga, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
Seconds, Bryan Lee O’Malley (SelfMadeHero)
Through the Woods, Emily Carroll (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
The Wicked + The Divine, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie (Image Comics)

Best fantasy novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)
Breed, KT Davies (Fox Spirit Books)
City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett (Jo Fletcher Books)
Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan Children’s Books)
A Man Lies Dreaming, Lavie Tidhar (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Moon King, Neil Williamson (NewCon Press)
The Relic Guild, Edward Cox (Gollancz)

Best film/television episode
Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Alejandro González Iñárritu (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Black Mirror: White Christmas, Charlie Brooker (Channel 4)
Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn and Nicole Perlman (Marvel Studios)
Interstellar, Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan (Paramount Pictures)
Under the Skin, Walter Campbell and Jonathan Glazer (Film4 et al)

Best horror novel (the August Derleth Award)
The End, Gary McMahon (NewCon Press)
The Girl With All the Gifts, M.R. Carey (Orbit)
The Last Plague, Rich Hawkins (Crowded Quarantine Publications)
No One Gets Out Alive, Adam Nevill (Macmillan)
Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel (Knopf)
The Unquiet House, Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher Books)

Best independent press
The Alchemy Press (Peter Coleborn)
Fox Spirit Books (Adele Wearing)
NewCon Press (Ian Whates)
Spectral Press (Simon Marshall-Jones)

Best magazine/periodical
Black Static, ed. Andy Cox (TTA Press)
Holdfast Magazine, ed. Laurel Sills and Lucy Smee (Laurel Sills and Lucy Smee)
Interzone, ed. by Andy Cox (TTA Press)
Lightspeed, ed. John Joseph Adams (Lightspeed Magazine)
Sein und Werden, ed. Rachel Kendall (ISMs Press)

Best newcomer (the Sydney J. Bounds Award)
Edward Cox, for The Relic Guild (Gollancz)
Sarah Lotz, for The Three (Hodder & Stoughton)
Laura Mauro, for Ptichka (Horror Uncut: Tales of Social Insecurity and Economic Unease)
Den Patrick, for The Boy with the Porcelain Blade (Gollancz)
Jen Williams, for The Copper Promise (Headline)

Best non-fiction
D.F. Lewis Dreamcatcher Real-Time Reviews, D.F. Lewis (D.F. Lewis)
Ginger Nuts of Horror, ed. Jim McLeod (Jim McLeod)
Letters to Arkham: The Letters of Ramsey Campbell and August Derleth, 1961–1971, ed. S.T. Joshi (PS Publishing)
Rhapsody: Notes on Strange Fictions, Hal Duncan (Lethe Press)
Sibilant Fricative: Essays & Reviews, Adam Roberts (Steel Quill Books )
Touchstones: Essays on the Fantastic, John Howard (The Alchemy Press)
You Are the Hero: A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, Jonathan Green (Snowbooks)

Best novella
Cold Turkey, Carole Johnstone (TTA Press)
Drive, Mark West (Pendragon Press)
Newspaper Heart, Stephen Volk (The Spectral Book of Horror Stories)
Water For Drowning, Ray Cluley (This Is Horror)

Best short story
A Change of Heart, Gaie Sebold (Wicked Women)
The Girl on the Suicide Bridge, J.A. Mains (Beside the Seaside)
Ptichka, Laura Mauro (Horror Uncut: Tales of Social Insecurity and Economic Unease)
A Woman’s Place, Emma Newman (Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets)

The winners of these awards will now be decided by the previously announced juries, while the British Fantasy Society committee has the task of deciding the winner of the special award (the Karl Edward Wagner Award). The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Sunday, 25 October 2015, at FantasyCon 2015 in Nottingham.

A rather good list, and some difficult judging to be done!

 

[Overread]

I feel bad that the only things I recognise on that list are some of the films (of which I've only seen the one with the raccoon).
Either that means my fantasy is dominated by authors from other countries or I'm not keeping up with modern publications enough!

 

[wam]

Aside from the film/novel/comic book categories all of this is small press. Chance are most people outside the BFS would not have heard of these publications. This has been the case for as long as these awards have been going. They have had a problem previously with the judges for the initial stages or the award chairman also being the publisher for several of the nominated stories. Many of the publishers are listed several times although they don't necessarily publish much per year.

 

[chopper]

nowt wrong with small presses and i'd say it's an excellent opportunity to find out more about them & broaden reading horizons. it would be a bit boring after all if everything nominated came from Tor/Orbit/Gollancz.
additionally, you tend to find that the larger publishing houses don't really deal with collections or anthologies in the same way that small presses do.

 

[ratsy]

That is an interesting list. Nice to see some small presses in on the best book category. I always wanted to try The Moon King, now I'd better. And Spectral's Horror anthology is going to become a monster as it's a yearly now...pardon the pun.

 

[millymollymo]

Awesome list of talent! Though the Best Indie award should go to every single one nominated I haven't regretted a purchase from any of them. The Moon King made me realise just how much is available via these under rated presses. I'm very glad I am not a judge!

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The Moon King is a great book, give it a go. Good to see it nominated.

 

[millymollymo]

Breed is also worth a read. Some very clever writing in that too.

 

[chopper]

i voted for Breed

 

[ratsy]

Breed looks quite interesting. For the time being I bought The Moon King for the kindle, and I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Susan Boulton]

Aside from the film/novel/comic book categories all of this is small press. Chance are most people outside the BFS would not have heard of these publications. This has been the case for as long as these awards have been going. They have had a problem previously with the judges for the initial stages or the award chairman also being the publisher for several of the nominated stories. Many of the publishers are listed several times although they don't necessarily publish much per year.

Eeer... Best independent press, is an award for small presses. The big publishers rarely publish anthologies these days, it is a niche small presses have moved into and that does not mean big name authors shun them, the opposite is true in many cases, same can be said of novellas.

The whole judging and nominating system was overhauled a couple of years ago.

Quote:
"Four nominees in each category were decided by the votes of BFS members and the attendees of FantasyCon 2014 and FantasyCon 2015. The exceptions are the collection and non-fiction categories, in which two items drawing for fourth place could not be separated and both were put through to the shortlist.

Up to two further nominees in each category were added by the juries as “egregious omissions” under the rules."

http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/the-british-fantasy-awards-constitution-ii/


On a personal note, I would love to have any of my work published in any of the small presses mentioned. Small does does not mean they can't hold their own against the big boys i.e. the quality of the work they publish.