World Fantasy Award
わーるどふぁんたじーしょう
An annual international literary award presented by the World Fantasy Convention for fantasy works published in the previous year.
- Established
- 1975
- Organizer
- World Fantasy Convention (World Fantasy Convention Board / World Fantasy Awards Administration)
- Category
- Genre Fiction
- Selection Method
- Vote
- Target
- Open
- Frequency
- 1 per year
- Application Deadline
- around June
- Announcement Period
- around October
- Status
- Active
Description
The World Fantasy Awards were established in 1975 and are awarded annually to fantasy works published in the previous year and active fantasy-related professionals. Nominations are finalized by the top 2 candidates from Convention attendee votes and additional candidates selected by the judging panel (usually 5 members), with winners in each category determined by the panel's votes. Although category compositions have changed over the years, they currently include multiple writing categories, an artist category, and special categories honoring individual achievements. The trophy used a bust of H. P. Lovecraft until 2015, but it was discontinued due to criticism, and since then a new statuette designed by Vincent Villafranca depicting a tree and full moon has been used.
Prize
- Main Prize
- Trophy (statuette). Until 2015, a bust of H. P. Lovecraft; since then, a new statuette depicting a tree and full moon is awarded.
- Industry recognition and prestige from winning
- Inclusion in the winners list
Selection
Selection Process
| Stage | Judges | Pass Rate | Announcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attendee voting (preliminary nominations) | Attendees of the current and previous two World Fantasy Conventions (voters) | — | Voting ballots are released in June, and the top 2 candidates by most votes are selected |
| Additional nominations and final voting by the judging panel | Judging panel usually consisting of 5 members (mainly fantasy writers and related professionals) | — | Judges add 3 or more candidates, and winners in each category are determined by the panel's votes. Final results are announced at the World Fantasy Convention (typically around late October) |
| Selection for Life Achievement Award / Convention Award | Life Achievement decided by the judging panel, Convention Award decided by the organizers (Convention hosts) | — | These categories usually do not announce nominees publicly, and winners are announced alongside nominee announcements for other categories |
Criteria
- Target works must principally be fantasy works published in the previous year
- Candidates in professional categories must be alive
- Whether it qualifies as the genre (fantasy) is at the discretion of nominators and judges
- Word count criteria per category (e.g., Novel=40,000 words or more, Novella=10,000–40,000 words, Short Fiction=under 10,000 words)
Application Tips
Dos
- 対象作品が前年度に出版されたものであることを確認する
- 応募（ノミネート）に関してはWorld Fantasy Conventionの出席・投票が関係するため、関係者／参加者としての手続きを確認する
- カテゴリの語数基準や対象範囲（単著コレクション／アンソロジー等）を確認して正しい部門でエントリーされるようにする
- 作品情報（出版日、出版社、著者名など）を正確に用意する
- 編集者やアンソロジーの場合、寄稿者表記や権利関係を整えておく
Don''ts
- 前年以外の出版物を対象として申請・期待しない
- ノミネーションの仕組みを誤解して、単に販売成績だけで受賞を期待しない
- グラフィックノベルを誤ったカテゴリ（例：短編）にそのまま当てはめること（カテゴリ適合性を確認する）
- 差別的・人種差別的と受け取られる表現を軽視する
From Judges
- 審査員は作品の独創性、物語力、文体・表現の質を重視する傾向がある
- ジャンル判定は委員の裁量に委ねられるため、作品がファンタジーとして明確に識別できる形で提示すること
- 出版情報やクレジットを明確に提示すると審査時の確認がスムーズになる
Related Awards
- Hugo Award
- Nebula Award
- Locus Award
- Mythopoeic Awards
- Crawford Award
- British Fantasy Award
- Japan Fantasy Novel Award
- Gandalf Award
Official Resources
http://www.worldfantasy.org/Past Winners
In a world where a vast empire depends on uncanny biology and hidden power, an eccentric investigator and her assistant work through a murder that exposes magic, deceit, and political tension.
A sharp fantasy mystery where magic and investigation collide.
An apprentice assassin and an inquisitive linguist exchange stories in the Birdverse and discover that listening can be as transformative as revenge.
Conversation itself becomes a path toward revenge and renewal.
A short story collected in Heartwood, read as part of the anthology's homage to Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood universe.
A short piece that belongs to the lineage of myth, folklore, and anthology fiction.
An anthology created as a tribute to Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood, inviting other writers to revisit and extend the forested world of Ryhope and Oak Lodge.
A new group of writers returns to a landmark fantasy world.
A collection of stories about ghosts, uncanny presences, and bodily unease that sharpens the horror lurking beneath everyday life.
Cruel, vivid stories that cut out the uncanny hiding inside ordinary life.
A sourcebook and essay collection that traces the history and practice of Philippine speculative fiction.
A guide to mapping Philippine speculative fiction with new clarity.
A special award recognizing an independent horror publisher that has consistently championed modern and classic weird fiction.
An award aimed at editorial and publishing work rather than a single book.
A Life Achievement Award honoring Ginjer Buchanan for decades of editorial leadership at Ace Books and Roc Books.
An award for the editorial work that helped shape the field.
A Life Achievement Award honoring Jo Fletcher for a long career in publishing, editing, and genre advocacy through Jo Fletcher Books.
A tribute to decades of work as an editor, publisher, and critic.
Set in 1950s Florida, the novel follows a boy sent to a reform school where ghosts, racism, and institutional violence converge.
A haunted coming-of-age novel that confronts the violence of Jim Crow Florida.
A novella collected in Spin a Black Yarn, built around a strange presence in the house and the unsettling memories that accompany it.
The haunting of a house becomes inseparable from family history.
A short story in New Suns 2 about a royal wardrobist who resists colonization and survives invasion through craft and quiet defiance.
Resistance is expressed through the work of making and mending clothing.
An anthology of new witch stories from around the world, spanning folklore, horror, and fantasy.
A contemporary reimagining of witches by a wide range of contributors.
A collection of contemporary cosmic-horror stories that balances impossible situations, human connection, and lingering dread.
A debut collection where fear and human connection coexist.
Recognition for Audrey Benjaminsen's work as a fantasy illustrator, painter, and designer.
An award for visual imagination rather than a single book.
Locus Magazine has long served as a monthly trade magazine covering the science fiction, fantasy, and horror publishing fields.
A trade magazine that gathers reviews, news, interviews, and awards coverage.
A special award recognizing Uncanny Magazine as an online science-fiction-and-fantasy magazine publishing fiction, poetry, essays, podcasts, and art.
The award honors the magazine's continuing editorial work rather than a single issue.
A darkly comic fantasy novel about a girl with necromantic gifts who is drawn into family debt and political upheaval.
A sharply imaginative coming-of-age story where death, family, and politics intertwine.
A novella that reworks the Persephone myth while layering climate collapse over family rupture.
A mythic retelling that folds climate dread into family pain.
A horror story collected in Other Terrors, recognized for its unsettling atmosphere in a confined setting.
A short story whose tension grows inside an isolated space.
An anthology of 32 original stories showcasing the breadth of African and African diasporic fantasy and science fiction.
A wide-ranging anthology that maps the current reach of African speculative fiction.
An anthology of 32 original stories showcasing the breadth of African and African diasporic fantasy and science fiction.
A wide-ranging anthology that maps the current reach of African speculative fiction.
An anthology of 32 original stories showcasing the breadth of African and African diasporic fantasy and science fiction.
A wide-ranging anthology that maps the current reach of African speculative fiction.
A short fiction collection that gathers a wide range of terrors, from urban hauntings to apocalyptic dread.
A dense horror collection that strings together one nightmare after another.
A multi-modal work that combines text, music, and illustration to tell an allegorical story of a boy's experience of psychosis.
A sensory book that crosses picture book, music, and allegory.
A special award recognizing an independent press whose catalog and editorial direction have helped shape weird fiction and horror.
An award for the press as a whole rather than for a single title.
A short comic story collected in issue 19 of The Sandman, it revisits Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream from the perspective of Oberon, Titania, and the faerie court. By reframing the backstage world of a classic play through fantasy, it quietly unsettles the boundary between art and reality.
The faerie court looks back at the play onstage, turning theater into a mirror of enchantment.
The first volume of the annual anthology launched by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell, it gathers a wide slice of that year's horror and dark fantasy. Through its selected stories, the book reflects the energy and changing shape of the genre at the time.
An annual anthology that gathers the year's strongest horror short fiction into a single snapshot of the field.