The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction and fantasy 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 Award—Life Achievement is given each year to individuals for their overall career in fields related to fantasy. These have included, for example, authors, editors, and publishers. The specific nomination reasons are not given, and nominees are not required to have retired, though they can only win once. The Life Achievement category has been awarded annually since 1975.
World Fantasy Award nominees 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 of each category. Unlike the other World Fantasy Award categories, the nominees for the Life Achievement award are not announced; instead, the winner is announced along with the nominees in the other categories. The panel of judges is typically made up of fantasy or horror authors, editors, publishers, booksellers, and others connected to the genres of fantasy and horror in some way 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, 85 people have been given the Life Achievement Award. Multiple winners have been awarded 26 times, typically two co-winners, though five were noted in 1984. Since 2000, it has become an unofficial tradition for two winners to be announced, often with one winner primarily an author and the other not. While most winners have been authors and editors, six winners have been primarily artists of fantasy art and book covers, and six winners are best known for founding or running publishing houses that produce fantasy works.
Winners In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony. Items in the Work(s) column are items and companies that the winner created or worked at; they are meant to be representative of the winner's career in the field of fantasy to that point, but the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement is not given for any specific achievement, and no such achievements are listed by the World Fantasy Convention as reasons for the award. In many cases the winner is well known for their non-fantasy works, such as science fiction novels, which are not listed.
+ YearWinner(s)Work(s) 1975 Psycho, "That Hell-Bound Train" 1976 "Gonna Roll the Bones", Ill Met in Lankhmar 1977 Dandelion Wine, The Illustrated Man 1978 The Hounds of Tindalos, The Horror from the Hills 1979 "The Garden of Forking Paths", Ficciones 1980 Worse Things Waiting, Who Fears the Devil? 1981 Jirel of Joiry, Northwest of Earth 1982 The Baron in the Trees, The Castle of Crossed Destinies 1983 James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 1984 The Goblin Tower, Land of Unreason Bid Time Return, I Am Legend "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", Far Lands, Other Days The Dying Earth, Lyonesse Trilogy The Web of Easter Island, Strange Harvest 1985 Without Sorcery, E Pluribus Unicorn 1986 The Phoenix and the Mirror, Vergil in Averno 1987 The Body Snatchers, Marion's Wall 1988 Editing Guide to Supernatural Fiction, A Treasury of Victorian Ghost Stories 1989 The Island of the Mighty, The Song of Rhiannon 1990 Serpent's Egg, The Devil is Dead 1991 The Bishop's Daughter, The Devil's Mirror 1992 Artwork for Unknown, Fantasy Press 1993 Deathbird Stories, Mefisto in Onyx 1994 "Hocus Pocus Universe", Darker Than You Think 1995 A Wizard of Earthsea, Always Coming Home 1996 The Book of the New Sun, Soldier of the Mist 1997 A Wrinkle in Time, A Swiftly Tilting Planet 1998 Editing The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction Witch World, The Halfblood Chronicles 1999 Murgunstrumm and Others, Death Stalks the Night 2000 The Mists of Avalon, Darkover Elric of Melniboné, The Knight of Swords 2001 Artwork such as Conan the Destroyer, Death Dealer Hadon of Ancient Opar, Inside Outside 2002 Editing Famous Monsters of Filmland, work as a literary agent Editing Weird Tales, Amra 2003 The Black Cauldron, The High King Founding/running Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Centaur Press 2004 The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, It Artwork for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The New Yorker 2005 Founder of Tor Books, publisher for Ace Books The Mount, The Start of the End of It All 2006 Little, Big, Great Work of Time Artwork for Dungeons & Dragons, Ladies & Legends 2007 Co-founded Bantam Books, Ballantine Books Howl's Moving Castle, Charmed Life 2008 Artwork for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, Ashanti to Zulu Harpist in the Wind, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld 2009 Editor of Science Fiction Book Club, New American Library Owl Moon, Lost Girls 2010 Necroscope, Blood Brothers The Colour of Magic, Mort Ghost Story, The Talisman 2011 The Last Unicorn, "Two Hearts" Kalpa Imperial, Opus dos 2012 The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, "The Owl Service" A Song of Ice and Fire, Sandkings 2013 The Dark Is Rising, The Grey King Death's Master, The Birthgrave 2014 Editing Omni, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror The Palace, Ariosto 2015 To Wake the Dead, Alone with the Horrors The True Game, Beauty 2016 Editor of The New York Review of Science Fiction, Tor Books The Witcher Saga 2017 Shannara series, Magic Kingdom of Landover series Research and non-fiction works on fairy tales and myths 2018 Newford series President, co-Publisher, and co-Editor-in-Chief of DAW Books 2019 Co-founder of Studio Ghibli, and animator, filmmaker, screenwriter, author, and manga artist of multiple works Academic and folklorist on fairy tales 2020 We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, "Always", cofounded the Otherwise Award Science fiction and fantasy illustrations 2021 The Farseer Trilogy, Wizard of the Pigeons Science fiction and fantasy short stories 2022 Science fiction and fantasy novels, criticism, and essays Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and other anthologies 2023 Co-founder of PS Publishing and editor of anthologies Science fiction and fantasy editing 2024 Editor-in-Chief at Ace Books and Roc Books Founder and publisher of Jo Fletcher Books 2025 Daughter of the Forest, Wildwood Dancing Science fiction and fantasy illustrations 2026 Books of Blood, The Hellbound Heart Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque, American Gothic Tales
Notes
References Clute, John; Langford, David; Nicholls, Peter, ed (2011). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (3rd ed.), World Fantasy Award. ESF Ltd.
External links World Fantasy Convention official site