British Fantasy Awards 2015 Nominees

The British Fantasy Awards nominees have been named. I’m quite fond of the way the BFS nominate – they have a democratic nominations process, but the juries can add two further nominees per category as egregious omissions, which means that if the voting public undergoes a collective neurological event and puts a bunch of dross on the ticket, the juries have the ability to claw back some respectability by adding a few candidates that deserve to be there, which provides some ability to correct a failing trajectory. Assuming the jury isn’t the one having the neurological event, of course…

The awards ceremony is on October 25th, 2015, so there’s some time to read up and decide what you think ought to win. For myself, I have to admit that I have made absolutely no inroads into any of the material below, and much of it doesn’t immediately appeal, so I shall perhaps have to make an effort and acquire at least some of the writing below if I’m to understand the context of this award at all.

Best Anthology

The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2
ed. Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber
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 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 Noel
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
K.T. 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 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

Aunty-Fox-72ppi[1] NewConPressLogo1[1]
The Alchemy Press
Peter Coleborn
Fox Spirit Books
Adele Wearing
NewCon Press
Ian Whates
Spectral Press
Simon Marshall-Jones

Best Magazine / Periodical

 BlackStatic  Interzone  th_a0580aaeccec739569f2502c0aa86498_lightspeed_40_september_2013[1]
Black Static
ed. Andy Cox
TTA Press
Holdfast Magazine
ed. Laurel Sills and Lucy Smee
Laurel Sills and Lucy Smee
Interzone
ed. 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)

The Relic Guild
Edward Cox
Gollancz
The Three
Sarah Lotz
Hodder & Stoughton
Ptichka
Laura Mauro
Horror Uncut: Tales of Social Insecurity and Economic Unease
The Boy With The Porcelain Blade
Den Patrick
Gollancz
The Copper Promise
Jen Williams
Headline

Best Non-Fiction

rtr23[1] Ginger Nuts of Horror
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

I have not included the Best Artist award above, for which the nominees are Ben Baldwin, Vincent Chong, Les Edwards, Sarah Anne Langton, Karla Ortiz and Daniele Serra.

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