The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction and art published in English during the preceding calendar year. The awards have been described by sources such as The Guardian as a "prestigious fantasy prize", and as one of the three most renowned speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and science fiction). The World Fantasy Special Award—Non-professional is given each year to individuals for their non-professional work in the preceding calendar year in fields related to fantasy that are not covered by other World Fantasy Award categories. These have included editors of magazines and novels, publishers, and authors of non-fiction works. Occasionally some publishing companies have been nominated along with individual editors and publishers. The nomination reasons have sometimes not been specified beyond "contributions to the genre". Individuals are also eligible for the Special Award—Professional category for their professional work. The World Fantasy Special Award—Non-professional has been awarded annually since 1975.
World Fantasy Award nominees and winners are decided by attendees and judges at the annual World Fantasy Convention. A ballot is posted in June for attendees of the current and previous two conferences to determine two of the finalists, and a panel of five judges adds three or more nominees before voting on the overall winner. The panel of judges is typically made up of fantasy authors and is chosen each year by the World Fantasy Awards Administration, which has the power to break ties. The final results are presented at the World Fantasy Convention at the end of October. Through 2015, winners were presented with a statuette of H. P. Lovecraft; more recent winners receive a statuette of a tree.
During the 52 nomination years, 275 individuals and 3 organizations have been nominated; 61 people and 2 organizations have won, including ties and co-nominees. The organizations that have been nominated are: The British Fantasy Society, with one winning nomination; The Friends of Arthur Machen, with one unsuccessful nomination; and Fedogan & Bremer, with one win out of three nominations. Stuart David Schiff has received the most awards at four wins out of six nominations, for his work at Whispers magazine and Whispers Press. R. B. Russell has won four times out of nine nominations, and Rosalie Parker four out of eight, for their work at Tartarus Press. Three other individuals have won twice: Paul C. Allen out of three nominations for Fantasy Newsletter, Richard Chizmar out of seven for Cemetery Dance and Cemetery Dance Publications, and W. Paul Ganley out of ten for Weirdbook and Weirdbook Press. Ganley's ten nominations are the most of anyone, tied with Scott H. Andrews's one win out of ten nominations for his work at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and followed by Stephen Jones with nine, winning once, for Fantasy Tales and other work, and Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas with one win out of nine nominations for Uncanny Magazine.
Winners and nominees In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the work was performed. The table includes the stated reason the individual (or company) was nominated, which may not have been the only fantasy-related non-professional work they did during the previous calendar year. "N/A" in the reason column represents a nomination where no reason was given. Entries with a yellow background and an asterisk (*) next to the individual's name have won the award; the other entries are the other nominees on the shortlist.
* Winners
+ YearWinner or nomineeReason(s)Ref. 1975 * Whispers publishing Nyctalops 1976 * Carcosa, publisher * * publishing/editing publishing/editing publishing/editing publishing/editing publishing/editing 1977 * editing/publishing Whispers editing/publishing Fantasy Crossroads editing/publishing Chacal publishing/editing Xenophile publishing/editing Midnight Sun editing/publishing Nyctalops 1978 * publishing and editing Weirdbook Midnight Sun Fantasy Tales Nyctalops Fantasy Crossroads 1979 * Fantasy Newsletter Shayol Weirdbook Whispers and Whispers Press 1980 * Fantasy Newsletter Shayol Nyctalops Whispers and Whispers Press 1981 * Shayol * Triskell Press; Dragonfields Weirdbook Fantasy Tales; Airgedlamh 1982 * Fantasy Newsletter * Weirdbook Fantasy Tales Trumpet 1983 * Whispers and Whispers Press Weirdbook American Fantasy Kadath Fantasy Tales 1984 * Fantasy Tales * Crypt of Cthulhu criticism Weirdbook Fantasy Newsletter/Fantasy Review 1985 * Whispers and Whispers Press Scream/Press Weirdbook and Weirdbook Press Dark Harvest 1986 * reviewing Dark Harvest Scream/Press Weirdbook and Weirdbook Press 1987 * Weirdbook and Weirdbook Press * Scream/Press Fantasy Tales 1988 * American Fantasy * * Fantasy Tales Dark Harvest 1989 * Pulphouse * Dagon Press Grue Horrorstruck 1990 * Grue Charnel House Cemetery Dance 1991 * Cemetery Dance Strange Plasma Gauntlet Necronomicon Press 1992 * Weirdbook Charnel House Grue Gauntlet Eldritch Tales 1993 * Roadkill Press * Wildside Press Tal Publications Horror's Head Press Cemetery Dance Charnel House 1994 * Necronomicon Press small press reviews Horror's Head Press Charnel House Cemetery Dance Publications 1995 * Broken Mirrors Press; Crank! Wildside Press Cemetery Dance Publications Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary for the Urth Cycle (Sirius Fiction) Voices from Shadow (Shadow Publishing) 1996 * Necronomicon Press Fedogan & Bremer book publishing Century Edgewood Press contributions to the genre 1997 * Ash-Tree Press * Fedogan & Bremer book publishing DarkEcho 1998 Fedogan & Bremer* book publishing Cemetery Dance and Cemetery Dance Publications Tigereyes Press Gauntlet and Gauntlet book publishing 1999 * Cemetery Dance Publications Tachyon Publications Edgewood Press Pumpkin Books 2000 * N/A Terminal Fright Press Fedogan & Bremer Haunted Library Subterranean Press Tartarus Press 2001 * At the Foot of the Story Tree: An Inquiry into the Fiction of Peter Straub (Subterranean Press) Tartarus Press Ash-Tree Press Fedogan & Bremer Night Shade Books PS Publishing 2002 * Tartarus Press * PS Publishing Sidecar Preservation Society Horror Garage Cocytus Press 2003 * Night Shade Books * * Small Beer Press Prime Books Old Earth Books PS Publishing 2004 * Tartarus Press * Wheatland Press Earthling Publications Tangent Online SF Site 2005 * Sarob Press Ariel All Hallows Old Earth Books 2006 * Telos Publishing * Faunus, Machenalia, and The Life of Arthur Machen (Telos Publishing) SF Site (MonkeyBrain Books) 2007 * reviews and criticism in Locus and elsewhere her work at Clarion West Strange Horizons Electric Velocipede 2008 Endicott Studios Website * Café Irreal Electric Velocipede Tartarus Press Travellers in Darkness: The Souvenir Book of the World Horror Convention 2007 (World Horror Convention) 2009 * Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books her work with The Mythopoeic Society setting out to inspire and for serving as inspiration for works of poetry, fantasy, and SF over the last decade through her jewelry-making and her "artist's challenges". Clarkesworld Magazine Electric Velocipede 2010 * Strange Horizons Readercon Clarkesworld Magazine Electric Velocipede Powers: Secret Histories (PS Publishing) Tartarus Press 2011 * Twelfth Planet Press Brighton Shock!: The Souvenir Book Of The World Horror Convention 2010 (PS Publishing) Sybil's Garage and Senses Five Press Bibliophile Stalker 2012 * Tartarus Press * Bibliophile Stalker blog Clarkesworld Magazine Fantasy Magazine Wormwood 2013 * Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, Volumes 1 & 2 (PS Publishing) Aqueduct Press Beneath Ceaseless Skies Bibliophile Stalker blog Centipede Press Hannes Bok: A Life in Illustration (Centipede Press) 2014 * Clarkesworld Magazine * * Beneath Ceaseless Skies Fantasy-Faction Clarion West administration 2015 * Tartarus Press * Beneath Ceaseless Skies Born to Fear: Interviews with Thomas Ligotti (Subterranean Press) Civilian Reader Fairwood Press 2016 * Black Gate Tales After Tolkien Society Beneath Ceaseless Skies (Ninepin Press) Letters to Tiptree (Twelfth Planet Press) Uncanny Magazine 2017 * fostering excellence in the genre through her role as Workshop Director, Clarion West Beneath Ceaseless Skies Fireside Fiction Company Uncanny Magazine 2018 * FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction * Beneath Ceaseless Skies PodCastle Tartarus Press Uncanny Magazine 2019 * Beneath Ceaseless Skies Myth and Moor Mythic Delirium Shimmer Uncanny Magazine 2020 * Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research * * Undertow Publications, The Year's Best Weird Fiction Coode Street Podcast Uncanny Magazine Myth & Moor 2021 * Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts Beneath Ceaseless Skies Undertow Publications Fantasy Magazine Uncanny Magazine 2022 * Nightlight: A Horror Fiction Podcast Strange Horizons Hellebore Undertow Publications Fantasy Magazine Uncanny Magazine 2023 * Undertow Publications Neon Hemlock Press Uncanny Magazine Editing The Deadlands 2024 * Uncanny Magazine * Beneath Ceaseless Skies Phantasmagoria Swan River Press The Sunday Morning Transport 2025* Black Shuck Books Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet Undertow Publications and Weird Horror FIYAH Literary Magazine 2026 Beneath Ceaseless Skies Remains Fairwood Press and the Rainforest Writers Village Retreat Nightmare
Notes
See also World Fantasy Convention
References
External links World Fantasy Convention official site