Category Archives: World Fantasy Convention

A Belated Report on the 2017 World Fantasy Convention

The 2017 World Fantasy Convention ended a week ago as I write this.  It was in San Antonio, which is a 6 hour drive from where I live.  I got back Sunday night and returned to San Antonio Tuesday morning for another event, which is why I’m a little late in writing this report.  WFC started on Thursday and ran through Sunday, making it an excellent weekend.

I’ll give a brief overview of some of the panels I attended, then make some general statements. Continue reading

2014 World Fantasy Award Nominees Announced

wfclogoThe nominees for the 2014 World Fantasy Award were announced yesterday.  The complete list of the nominees is below.  Other than the Life Achievement Winners, who are announced in advance (probably to make sure they show up in case they weren’t planning on being there,) all other winners will be announced at the convention.  This year’s World Fantasy Convention will be held Nov. 6-9 in Washington, D. C..

Members of the current year’s convention plus the two previous conventions may submit two nominations in each category.  Winners are determined by a panel of judges.  This year’s judges are Andy Duncan, Kij Johnson, Oliver Johnson, John Klima, and Liz Williams.  In essence, the WFC Awards are a combination of popular and juried award.

Congratulations to all the nominees.  The nominees for 2014 are: Continue reading

Congratulations to the Winners of the David Gemmell Awards

The winners of the 2013 David Gemmell Awards have been announced at a ceremony at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, England.  They are

2013 RAVENHEART AWARD FOR BEST FANTASY COVER ART
Didier Graffet and Dave Senior for the cover of Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)

2013 MORNINGSTAR AWARD FOR BEST FANTASY DEBUT
John Gwynne for Malice (Pan MacMillan)

2013 LEGEND AWARD FOR BEST FANTASY NOVEL
Brent Weeks for The Blinding Knife (Orbit)

Adventures Fantastic would like to congratulate all the nominees and especially the winners.  A complete list of the nominees can be found at the David Gemmell Awards site.  There’s a separate menu for each award.

I decided not to include this announcement in the previous post, since the British Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards are more general genre awards, while the Gemmell Awards are focused on heroic fantasy.  I certainly cover other types of fantasy here, but heroic fantasy and sword and sorcery are the main focus of this site.

I think the Gemmell Awards are an important award, and one that is necessary to the field.  I’m more interested in the winners of this award than I am of any other award with the possible exception of the Shamus Awards, which I look at on my detective and noir blog, Gumshoes, Gats, and Gams.  I’ve seen some snide comments about the Gemmell Awards online from some of the more literary minded members of the field.  I’ll have more to say about awards in general in another post, including that attitude.  After I’ve finished sharpening my knives.

For now, let me again offer my congratulations to the winners and nominees and say Thank You to the DGLA Steering Group for making these awards possible.

Congratulations to the World Fantasy and British Fantasy Awards

Winners of the British Fantasy Awards and the World Fantasy Awards were announced over the weekend at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, England.  Adventures Fantastic would like to congratulate all the nominees, and especially  the winners.

The winners of the British Fantasy Award, awarded by the British Fantasy Society, include

Best Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)
Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)
Last Days, Adam Nevill (Macmillan)

Best Novella
The Nine Deaths of Dr Valentine, John Llewellyn Probert (Spectral)

Best Short Story
“Shark! Shark!”, Ray Cluley (Black Static #29)

Best Collection
Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman (ChiZine)

Best Anthology:
Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane, Jonathan Oliver, ed. (Solaris)

A complete list of winners can be found at the British Fantasy Society site, and a complete list of nominees in all categories can be found at the 2013 British Fantasy Awards page.

The winners of the World Fantasy Awards are:

Life Achievement:
Susan Cooper
Tanith Lee

Novel:
Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson (Grove; Corvus)

Novella:
“Let Maps to Others”, K.J. Parker (Subterranean Summer ’12)

Short Story:
“The Telling”, Gregory Norman Bossert (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 11/29/12)

Anthology:
Postscripts #28/#29: Exotic Gothic 4, Danel Olson, ed. (PS Publishing)

Collection:
Where Furnaces Burn, Joel Lane (PS Publishing)

Artist:
Vincent Chong

Special Award Professional:
Lucia Graves for the translation of The Prisoner of Heaven (Weidenfeld & Nicholson; Harper) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Special Award Non-Professional:
S.T. Joshi for Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, Volumes 1 & 2 (PS Publishing)

The complete list of nominees can be found at the World Fantasy Awards page.

World Fantasy Nominations Announced

The nominees for this year’s World Fantasy Awards were announced this evening.  The winners will be announced at this year’s World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, UK, on October 31 – November 3.  Adventures Fantastic would like to congratulate all the nominees.

They are as follows:

Life Achievement:

  • Susan Cooper
  • Tanith Lee

Novel:

  • The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
  • Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday)
  • The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
  • Crandolin, Anna Tambour (Chômu)
  • Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson (Grove; Corvus)

Novella:

  • “Hand of Glory”, Laird Barron (The Book of Cthulhu II)
  • “Let Maps to Others”, K.J. Parker (Subterranean Summer ’12)
  •  The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon)
  • “The Skull”, Lucius Shepard (The Dragon Griaule)
  • “Sky”, Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls)

Short Story:

  • “The Telling”, Gregory Norman Bossert (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 11/29/12)
  • “A Natural History of Autumn”, Jeffrey Ford (F&SF 7-8/12)
  • “The Castle That Jack Built”, Emily Gilman (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/26/12)
  • “Breaking the Frame”, Kat Howard (Lightspeed 8/12)
  • “Swift, Brutal Retaliation”, Meghan McCarron (Tor.com 1/4/12)

Anthology:

  • Epic: Legends of Fantasy, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Tachyon)
  • Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic, Eduardo Jiménez Mayo & Chris N. Brown, eds. (Small Beer)
  • Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane, Jonathan Oliver, ed. (Solaris)
  • Postscripts #28/#29: Exotic Gothic 4, Danel Olson, ed. (PS Publishing)
  • Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Random House)

Collection:

  • At the Mouth of the River of Bees, Kij Johnson (Small Beer)
  • Where Furnaces Burn, Joel Lane (PS Publishing)
  • The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth and Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands, Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)
  • Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman (ChiZine)
  • Jagannath, Karin Tidbeck (Cheeky Frawg)

Artist:

  • Vincent Chong
  • Didier Graffet & Dave Senior
  • Kathleen Jennings
  • J.K. Potter
  • Chris Roberts

Special Award Professional:

  • Peter Crowther & Nicky Crowther for PS Publishing
  • Lucia Graves for the translation of The Prisoner of Heaven (Weidenfeld & Nicholson; Harper) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  • Adam Mills, Ann VanderMeer, & Jeff VanderMeer for Weird Fiction Review
  • Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi for ChiZine Publications
  • William K. Schafer for Subterranean Press

Special Award Non-Professional:

  • Scott H. Andrews for Beneath Ceaseless Skies
  • L. Timmel Duchamp for Aqueduct Press
  • S.T. Joshi for Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, Volumes 1 & 2 (PS Publishing)
  • Charles A. Tan for Bibliophile Stalker blog
  • Jerad Walters for Centipede Press
  • Joseph Wrzos for Hannes Bok: A Life in Illustration (Centipede Press)

David Gemmell Awards Are Back

It dawned on me earlier today that I forgot to mention that the David Gemmell Awards have revamped their website and are now back for another year.  I mentioned them in passing in the previous post, but I forgot make them the subject of a post, something I had intended to do.  Anyway, it may be somewhat misleading to say the Gemmell Awards are back, since they never really went away.  They are merely delayed in order to coincide with this year’s World Fantasy Convention, which will be held in Brighton.

The lists of nominees in the various categories are up on the new website, which looks quite impressive and is more visually appealing than the old one.  This is becoming the only award in I care about, at least in the sff field.  But that’s a topic for another post.  Check out the nominees, join the site if you  haven’t, and make sure you vote.