Entries for the Sara Douglass Book Series Award close shortly.
If you or someone you know had an Australian speculative fiction series of at least two books that was considered finished in 2018, 2019 or 2020, make sure it is entered!
Entry for this Award is free, and judges prefer digital files for reading.
Find more information and the entry form here.
We are delighted to announce that the 2021 Aurealis Awards are now open for immediate entry.
The Aurealis Awards, Australia’s premier awards for speculative fiction, are for works created by an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and published for the first time between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021.
We strongly encourage publishers and authors to enter all works published already this year by September 30, 2021, then subsequent publications as they are released; our judges appreciate having time to consider each entry carefully.
Entries for the Aurealis Awards main categories close on December 14, 2021.
Full guidelines and FAQ can be found on the Aurealis Awards website:
The Aurealis Awards judges welcome electronic entries in all categories, including novels, short stories, novellas, illustrated work / graphic novels, collections, anthologies, children’s and young adult fiction. The Aurealis Awards management team recognises the financial burden of entering multiple works in multiple categories to some authors, editors and publishers at independent small presses. We accept epub and mobi files, although PDF may be provided if no other format is available (particularly for graphic works). Print may also be supplied.
Finalists of all award categories will be announced early in 2022 and winners announced at a ceremony to take place in the first half of the year. For more information on the awards or for the entry forms, visit the Aurealis Awards website at https://aurealisawards.org/.
For more information contact the judging coordinator Tehani Croft at aajudges@gmail.com.
We are very pleased to welcome our 2021 Aurealis Awards judging panels. All our judges are volunteers and we are extremely grateful for their hard work and professionalism throughout the process. The Awards would not exist without them!
Judging Coordinator: Tehani Croft, assisted by Joanne Anderton
ANTHOLOGIES / COLLECTIONS PANEL (two separate categories judged by one panel)
Amy Laurens
Clare May
Jemimah Brewster
Penelope Cottier
Rowena Specht-Whyte (Convenor)
CHILDREN’S PANEL
Elizabeth Luchjenbroers
Eugen Bacon (Convenor)
Kate Lomas Glendenning
Miffy Farquharson
T R Napper
FANTASY NOVEL PANEL
Bronwyn Swasbrick
Cathie Tasker (Convenor)
Caylee Tierney
Deb Gates
Rachel Aitken
FANTASY SHORT STORY PANEL
Cary Lenehan
Ella Kurz
Jan-Andrew Henderson (Convenor)
Karen Seeneevassen
Paula Duggan
FANTASY NOVELLA PANEL
David Brine
Lynda Young
Melody Beier (Convenor)
Ruth Lawlor
Shannon Kelly
HORROR NOVEL/NOVELLA PANEL (two separate categories judged by one panel)
Alannah Pearson
Allister Smith
Benjamin Corby
Emma Cutting
Mark Lingane (Convenor)
HORROR SHORT STORY PANEL
Blake Curran
Bryn Smith
Caitlin Chisholm (Convenor)
Leah Rose
Sharita Russell
ILLUSTRATED WORK / GRAPHIC NOVEL PANEL
Bryn Hepworth
Iurgi Urrutia (Convenor)
Jacqueline Wheadon
Jess Gately
Mia Macrossan
SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL PANEL
Anna Hepworth
Dianne De Bellis (Convenor)
Dorothy-Jane Daniels
Jesse Greyson
Patrick Keuning
SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY PANEL
David James
Emilie Morscheck
Louise Nice
Mark Phillips
Paula Boer (Convenor)
SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA PANEL
Christine Yunn-Yu Sun
Mark Fazackerley (Convenor)
Natalie Haigh
Rebecca Sutherland
YA NOVEL / SHORT STORY PANEL (two separate categories judged by one panel)
Amanda Diaz
Andrew Finegan (Convenor)
Emma Phillips
Linda Sengsourinho
Sarah Custance
Please read the following information carefully before submitting your application as we cannot make exceptions to the requirements.
We are seeking expressions of interest from Australian residents who would like to judge for the 2021. Aurealis Awards. Judges are volunteers and are drawn from the Australian speculative fiction community, from diverse professions and backgrounds, including academics, booksellers, librarians, published authors, publishing industry professionals, reviewers and enthusiasts. The only qualification necessary is a demonstrated knowledge of and interest in their chosen category (good time management skills and an ability to work in a team in an online environment are also essential).
All judges must be willing and able to read digital entries in either mobi or epub format, which we accept in all categories. Graphic Novel entries may also be submitted in PDF. Print is still sometimes sent by entrants but we do not require it.
Panel sizes may vary among categories – and from year to year – depending on the perceived workload required and the availability of judges for a particular category. However, each panel will consist of at least three judges, one of which will be the panel convenor.
Being an Aurealis Awards judge involves reading entries for one panel (which may comprise more than one category). This may consist of several dozen novels and/or more than a hundred short stories / novellas in the process of evaluating the year’s entries. The reading load can become quite heavy at the end of the judging period although we endeavour to obtain works as soon as they are published. Judges may keep their reading copies of entries. Convenors of each panel are also required to participate in the judging of the Convenors’ Award for Excellence, which involves additional consumption of material.
Categories are:
The Aurealis Awards accepts digital entries in all categories. Judges must be willing to accept and read entries in this format. Willingness and ability to read digitally is an essential aspect of the judging role.
It is vital that judges be able to work as part of a team and meet stringent deadlines. Most of the judges’ discussions are conducted via a private online forum or email.
Entries to the awards close in early December, with all work published between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021 eligible for entry. Shortlists from each panel will be required by March 2022 (firm dates will be advised), and prospective judges should be aware that this may be an intensive process.
Dates for Judging (to be confirmed):
All discussions are confidential between the judges in each panel and the judging coordinator and/or the Aurealis Awards management team, as required. The Aurealis Awards judging coordinator will have no input into these decisions except to mediate panel issues.
Judges from previous Aurealis Awards processes are welcome – indeed encouraged – to re-apply. But, in the interests of transparency and impartiality, no one may judge the same category for more than two consecutive years, and a break of two consecutive years is required before a judge can reapply to be a judge in that particular category again.
Please complete the form below by Sunday 22 August, 2021.
The judging positions are open to Australian residents only.
Thanks so much to the ConFound team who made this happen! If you missed the ceremony on Thursday, you can now view it in all its glory.
Huge appreciation to Freye Marske and Leife Shallcross for their wonderful hosting duties, to all of the people around the world who were online for the ceremony, filling the chat with love and joy, and as always, to our amazing judging teams, for their work each year in what is, I can assure you, a massive and often very challenging job! They are the lifeblood of the Aurealis Awards, and we are so grateful for their time and energy in this space.
My apologies that I was unable to upload the closed captions file from the ceremony with the video (for some reason, YouTube would not permit me to) – hopefully YouTube’s auto generated version works okay.
(Please note, this video is unedited, as aired!)
The Aurealis Awards management team, on behalf of the Continuum Foundation, would like to congratulate the winners of this year’s Awards. We also take this opportunity to thank the judging panels for all their hard work making the difficult decisions of shortlists and the winning works, ConFound liaisons for organising the online ceremony, and all the creators and publishers who continue to make the Aurealis Awards Australia’s premier speculative fiction award each year.
BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION
The Lost Soul Atlas, Zana Fraillon (Hachette Australia)
BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK
Under-Earth, Chris Gooch (Top Shelf)
BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY
“Dingo & Sister”, Nikky Lee (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #78)
BEST HORROR SHORT STORY
“Phoenix Pharmaceuticals”, Jessica Nelson-Tyers (Cancer, The Zodiac Series, #7, Deadset Press)
BEST HORROR NOVELLA
“The Saltbush Queen”, Chris Mason (Outback Horrors Down Under, Things in The Well)
BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY
“Truth Be Told”, Louise Pieper (Unnatural Order, CSFG)
BEST FANTASY NOVELLA
“Dingo & Sister”, Nikky Lee (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #78)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY
“Mary, Mary”, Fiona Bell (Aurealis #135)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA
“The Weight of the Air, The Weight of the World”, T R Napper (Neon Leviathan, Grimdark Magazine)
BEST COLLECTION
The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners and Other Stories, Angela Slatter (PS Publishing)
BEST ANTHOLOGY
Rebuilding Tomorrow, Tsana Dolichva (Ed.) (Twelfth Planet Press)
BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
The Erasure Initiative, Lili Wilkinson (Allen & Unwin)
BEST HORROR NOVEL
None Shall Sleep, Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin)
BEST FANTASY NOVEL
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL (tie)
The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay (Scribe Publications)
Repo Virtual, Corey J White (Tor.com Publishing)
CONVENORS’ AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Never Afters: Female Friendship and Collaboration in Contemporary Re-visioned Fairy Tales by Women
Kirstyn McDermott
This year the Awards ceremony will be held online via Zoom once again – a fortuitous decision made slightly prior to the latest round of lockdowns (hope everyone is doing as well as can be expected).
There are limited places available to join live, so if you would like to attend, please make sure you register!
Time: 7.30 pm AEST
Date: Thursday 8 July, 2021
Online @ https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcof-2rrjsjG9fNrZxEV16Cex-XIe5tpKsP
If you have queries relating to ticketing, please contact aajudges@gmail.com
This year the Awards ceremony will once again be held online via Zoom, and will take place on Thursday 8th July, 2021 at 7.30pm AEST.
More information to follow, but if you have queries relating to the event, please contact aajudges@gmail.com
Congratulations to all the finalists, and a huge thanks to our panelists who have read an enormous number of entered works to pare it down for these amazing shortlists. With nearly 850 entries across the 15 categories, that is no small feat!
It’s a really important time to support your local creators, so if you are able, go hunt down some great reads today!
BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION
The Lost Soul Atlas, Zana Fraillon (Hachette Australia)
Tricky Nick, Nicholas J Johnson (Pan Australia)
Across the Risen Sea, Bren MacDibble (Allen & Unwin)
The Chicken’s Curse, Frances Watts (Allen & Unwin)
Hodgepodge: How to Make a Pet Monster, Lili Wilkinson, illustrated by Dustin Spence (Allen & Unwin)
Her Perilous Mansion, Sean Williams (Allen & Unwin)
BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK
Action Tank: Book 2, Mike Barry (Mike Barry Was Here)
Under-Earth, Chris Gooch (Top Shelf)
The Grot, Pat Grant (Top Shelf / IDW)
The Odds, Matt Stanton (ABC Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY
“Dingo & Sister”, Nikky Lee (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #78)
“Ram’s Revenge”, Nikky Lee (Aries, Deadset Press)
“Pea Soup”, Juliet Marillier (Mother Thorn and Other Tales of Courage and Kindness, Serenity Press)
“The Witching Well”, Juliet Marillier (Mother Thorn and Other Tales of Courage and Kindness, Serenity Press)
“Eat Prey, Love”, Freya Marske (Unnatural Order, CSFG)
“Kids These Days”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Rebuilding Tomorrow, Twelfth Planet Press)
BEST HORROR SHORT STORY
“The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter”, Elaine Cuyegkeng (Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Omnium Gatherum)
“The Bone Fairy”, Martin Livings (Midnight Echo 15, Australasian Horror Writers Association)
“Phoenix Pharmaceuticals”, Jessica Nelson-Tyers (Cancer, The Zodiac Series, #7, Deadset Press)
“Many Mouths to Make a Meal”, Garth Nix (Final Cuts, Blumhouse/Anchor)
“How We Felt”, Helena O’Connor (Aurealis #136)
BEST HORROR NOVELLA
The Attic Tragedy, J Ashley-Smith (Meerkat Press)
The Cockroach King, Andrew Cull (Beneath Hell Publishing)
“Foundations”, Michael Gardner (Writers of the Future Volume 36, Galaxy Press)
“Bad Weather”, Robert Hood (Outback Horrors Down Under, Things in The Well)
“The Saltbush Queen”, Chris Mason (Outback Horrors Down Under, Things in The Well)
BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY
“The Dead May Dance”, Nikky Lee (Midnight Echo 15, Australasian Horror Writers Association)
“Truth Be Told”, Louise Pieper (Unnatural Order, CSFG)
“The Case of the Somewhat Mythic Sword”, Garth Nix (Tor.com)
“Terracotta Daughter”, J Z Ting (Coppice & Brake, Crone Girls Press)
“A Solace of Shadows”, Suzanne J Willis (Three Crows Magazine #7)
BEST FANTASY NOVELLA
“Generation Gap”, Thoraiya Dyer (Clarkesworld #161)
“By Touch and By Glance”, Lisa L Hannett (Songs for Dark Seasons, Ticonderoga Publications)
“Dingo & Sister”, Nikky Lee (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #78)
“Karkinos”, Nikky Lee (Cancer, Deadset Press)
The Frost Fair Affair, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY
“Mary, Mary”, Fiona Bell (Aurealis #135)
“The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter”, Elaine Cuyegkeng (Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Omnium Gatherum)
“Pork Belly”, Jack Heath (Aurealis #129)
“Jack’s Fine Dining”, T R Napper (Neon Leviathan, Grimdark Magazine)
“Andrei Tarkovsky”, Ben Peek (Dimension6 #20)
“All the Stars in Her Eyes”, Deborah Sheldon (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #80)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA
“Jigsaw Children”, Grace Chan (Clarkesworld #161)
“Generation Gap”, Thoraiya Dyer (Clarkesworld #161))
“Dingo & Sister”, Nikky Lee (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #78)
“The Weight of the Air, The Weight of the World”, T R Napper (Neon Leviathan, Grimdark Magazine)
BEST COLLECTION
Songs for Dark Seasons, Lisa L Hannett (Ticonderoga Publications)
Mother Thorn and Other Tales of Courage and Kindness, Juliet Marillier (Serenity Press)
Castle Charming, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self published)
Unreal Alchemy, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self published)
The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners and Other Stories, Angela Slatter (PS Publishing)
Dark Harvest, Cat Sparks (NewCon Press)
BEST ANTHOLOGY
After Australia, Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Ed.) (Affirm Press)
Rebuilding Tomorrow, Tsana Dolichva (Ed.) (Twelfth Planet Press)
The Zookeeper’s Tales of Interstellar Oddities, Aiki Flinthart & Pamela Jeffs (CAT Press)
Unnatural Order, Alis Franklin & Lyss Wickramasinghe (Eds.) (CSFG Publishing)
Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Lee Murray & Geneve Flynn (Eds.) (Omnium Gatherum)
Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Jonathan Strahan (Ed.) (Solaris)
BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Future Girl, Asphyxia (Allen & Unwin)
Aurora Burning, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
The Other Side of the Sky, Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)
Truel1f3, Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
The Erasure Initiative, Lili Wilkinson (Allen & Unwin)
BEST HORROR NOVEL
Soul Survivor, Daniel de Lorne (Scarlo Media)
An Enigma in Silver, Simon Haynes (Bowman Press)
None Shall Sleep, Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin)
Monstrous Heart, Claire McKenna (Harper Voyager)
Gutterbreed, Marty Young (Eclectic Trio Press)
BEST FANTASY NOVEL
Hollow Empire, Sam Hawke (Transworld)
Monstrous Heart, Claire McKenna (HarperCollins Publishers)
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
The Vanishing Deep, Astrid Scholte (Allen & Unwin)
Conquist, Dirk Strasser (Chimaera Publications)
The Ninth Sorceress, Bonnie Wynne (Talem Press)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
Ghost Species, James Bradley (Penguin Random House)
Aurora Burning, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
Fauna, Donna Mazza (Allen & Unwin)
The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay (Scribe Publications)
The Mother Fault, Kate Mildenhall (Simon & Schuster Australia)
Repo Virtual, Corey J White (Tor.com Publishing)
Information about this year’s Awards ceremony will follow as soon as we can confirm dates and location.
Congratulations again to all our finalists!
