We are very pleased to welcome our 2022 Aurealis Awards judging panels. We had a massive response to our call out this year, and are delighted to welcome both returning and new panelists to the team. 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
Horror Novel Georgina Banfield J M Merryt Glenn George Celia Pearce Nathan Phillips (Convenor)
Horror Novella Jake Corvus (Convenor) Anna Hepworth Aimee Murphy Donella Reed Yunn-Yu (Christine) Sun
Horror Short Story Caitlin Chisholm (Convenor) Charmaine Clancy Roslyn Phillips Marija Sijakovska Christine Titheradhe
Anthologies / Collections Susan Beasley Emma Cutting Alannah Pearson Mark Phillips Cathie Tasker (Convenor)
Illustrated Work / Graphic Novel Eugen Bacon (Convenor) Sarah Custace Christopher Marcatili T R Napper Lucas Palermo
Fantasy Short Story Paula Boer (Convenor) Ben Dominish Natalie Haigh Cary Lenehan Allister Smith Sarah Swarbrick
Fantasy Novella Olivia Carter Deb Gates (Convenor) Raymond Hodgson Elizabeth Robinson-Griffith Rebecca Sutherland
Science Fiction Short Story Dianne De Bellis (Convenor) Nick Hartland Amy Laurens Mark Lingane Wen Moore Darren Nash
Science Fiction Novella Deborah Brown Paul Cormack Irene Davy Alexandra Pierce (Convenor) Lynda Young
Fantasy Novel Finn Barz Elizabeth Fitzgerald (Convenor) Stephen Hipkiss Heidi Kneale Ruth Lawlor
Science Fiction Novel Lorraine Cormack Mark Fazackerley (Convenor) Marian Foster Jan-Andrew Henderson Paul Voermans
Children’s Fiction Miffy Farquharson (Convenor) Ky Garvey Emily Meredith Mia Macrossan Bron Swasbrick
Thanks so much to the CSFG team (particularly Nathan!) who made this happen. If you missed the ceremony, which took place in person at the Hellenic Club in Canberra in May, and was simulcast online, you can now view it in all its glory.
Huge appreciation to Craig Cormick for his wonderful hosting duties, to all of the people who attended on the night, and those who joined us online for the ceremony – it was an absolute delight. 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.
You can see the program booklet for the ceremony, including the panel reports, below.
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 2022 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:
Science Fiction Novel
Science Fiction Short Story / Novella (two categories sometimes judged by one panel)
Fantasy Novel
Fantasy Short Story / Novella (two categories sometimes judged by one panel)
Horror Novel / Novella / Horror Short Story (three categories judged by one or two panel, depending on availability of judges)
Young Adult Novel / Young Adult Short Story (two categories sometimes judged by one panel)
Children’s Fiction
Collection / Anthology (two categories judged by one panel)
Illustrated Book / Graphic Novel
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, 2022 and December 31, 2022 eligible for entry. Shortlists from each panel will be required by March 2023 (firm dates will be advised), and prospective judges should be aware that this may be an intensive process.
Dates for Judging (to be confirmed):
July 31, 2022 – judging applications close
August 2022 – entries open
Mid December 2022 – entries close
December 31 2022 – final entries must be received by judges; Convenors’ Award for Excellence entries close
March 2023 – shortlists and finalists must be decided by panels
April 2023 – Convenors’ Award for Excellence decided by convenors.
2023 – Awards ceremony (details to be advised)
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 31 July, 2022.
The judging positions are open to Australian residents only.
Silver medallion with Chimaera logo and text reading Aurealis Awards Winner
The Aurealis Awards management team, on behalf of the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, would like to congratulate the winners of this year’s Awards. We also take this opportunity to once again thank the judging panels for all their hard work making the difficult decisions of shortlists and the winning works, the CSFG committee for organising the 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
Dragon Skin, Karen Foxlee (Allen & Unwin)
BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK
The Curiosities, Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie (illustrator) (Hachette Australia)
Holly and the Nobodies, Ben Pienaar (Hellbound Books LLC)
BEST FANTASY NOVEL
Dark Rise, C S Pacat (Allen & Unwin)
BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
Waking Romeo, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)
SARA DOUGLASS BOOK SERIES AWARD
Blood and Gold [Crown of Rowan (enovella, 2014); Daughters of the Storm (2014); Sisters of the Fire (2016); Queens of the Sea (2019)], Kim Wilkins (HarperCollins)
CONVENORS’ AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950-1985, Andrew Nette & Iain McIntyre (Eds.) (PM Press)
You are cordially invited to the Aurealis Awards presentation ceremony to be held at the Civic Hellenic Club in Canberra on Saturday May 28, 2022. We hope you’ll be able to attend in person, but a reminder that the event will also be streamed live on Facebook (details coming soon).
The ceremony will commence from 5:00pm with drinks and canapes, with the award presentation to commence from 5:30pm. Dress is anything from Smart Casual to Weird As You Want.
In addition, the Aurealis committee will host a Writers’ Development Afternoon at the venue. There’s an early draft of the program below. The afternoon will not only be a chance to meet and catch up with your peers and friends in the community, but also to hear about the state of the industry and learn from your colleagues. Come join us, whether it’s your first time at a community event or you’re seeing old friends again after what seems like a decade!
We hope you can be a part of the Aurealis Award ceremony, either in person or online. It won’t be the same without you!
The Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (CSFG) will be hosting the 2021 Aurealis Awards ceremony on Saturday 28 May, 2022.
When: 5.30pm, Saturday 28 May
Where: The Hellenic Club, 13 Moore Street, Civic
The ceremony will also be live streamed.
Details regarding ceremony ticketing coming soon!
But don’t just plan for the Aurealis Awards ceremony! The CSFG Committee has decided to expand the event to include a Writers’ Development Afternoon to make it a more memorable and worthwhile trip for our interstate peers. The theme will be “The New Unnormal – Weird as we want”. More information to follow.
A huge thanks to our amazing judges, who have read an enormous number of entered works to pare it down for these excellent shortlists. It’s always a massive job, and they’ve done it in the midst of a truly awful few months in the world.
Congratulations to all the finalists – there was fantastic competition across the board this year, with some panels receiving well over 100 entries, and increased numbers in some of our traditionally smaller categories. We’re delighted to announce the shortlists, and encourage our followers to investigate the finalists to find some great reads!
Aurealis Awards Finalist badge
BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION
The Boy Who Stepped Through Time, Anna Ciddor (Allen & Unwin)
Stellarphant, James Foley (Fremantle Press)
Dragon Skin, Karen Foxlee (Allen & Unwin)
The Curiosities, Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie (illustrator) (Hachette Australia)
Elsewhere Girls, Emily Gale & Nova Weetman (Text Publishing)
Barebum Billy, Nicholas Snelling (BAD DAD Publishing)
BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK
The Curiosities, Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie (illustrator) (Hachette Australia)
Treasure in the Lake, Jason Pamment (Allen & Unwin)
Mechanix, Ben Slabak & Edoardo Natalini (Cloud 9 Comix)
Killeroo: Semper Fidelis, Matthew Soall & Ignacio Di Meglio (illustrator) (OzComics)
BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY
“The Woods Echo Back”, Tania Fordwalker (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #331)
Winter [The Road to Winter (2016); Wilder Country (2017); Land of Fences (2019)], Mark Smith (Text Publishing)
Blood and Gold [Crown of Rowan (enovella, 2014); Daughters of the Storm (2014); Sisters of the Fire (2016); Queens of the Sea (2019)], Kim Wilkins (HarperCollins)
Information about this year’s Awards ceremony will follow as soon as we confirm dates and location.
The entry form for the 2021 Aurealis Awards, closing on Tuesday 14 December 2021, can be found here.
ALL WORK due for publication up to December 31 MUST be entered by the deadline of midnight December 14 – no exceptions can be made, and work published in the final weeks of December are ONLY eligible this year. They cannot be carried into 2022, so if you have something coming out in the next two weeks, enter it NOW!
Entries for the 2021 Aurealis Awards close on December 14!
It’s essential that ALL work published (or planned for publication) between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021 is entered by this deadline.
Check out the list of current entries here, and enter your Australian speculative fiction work in the Aurealis Awards here.
If you have a publication due out in late December, please enter it NOW. If publication is delayed into 2022 we can remove it from consideration in this year’s Awards, but we are NOT able to enter carry over work published late in the year into the following year.
There is now less than one month until entries close for the 2021 Aurealis Awards. It’s important to remember that ALL eligible Australian work published for the first time between January 1 and December 31, 2021 must be entered by December 14, even work intended for publication after the December 14 cut off date.
If you have any work scheduled for publication after December 14, enter it NOW! If publication is delayed, we can easily remove the entry, but we are unable to make exceptions afterwards if work is not entered by the December 14 deadline.
Aurealis Awards 