2020 Aurealis Awards Shortlist Announcement

Posted on March 31, 2021 by Tehani

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!

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Aurealis Awards entries closed

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Tehani

Entries for the 2020 Aurealis Awards have closed. A complete list of the 850 entries received across the 15 categories can be found here.

Entries for the Convenors’ Award for Excellence are open until December 31, 2020. Please note this Award is not open to entries that would be eligible in the regular Aurealis Awards categories. More information can be found here.

Good luck to our judges in their reading and deliberations!

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Aurealis Awards entries close TODAY!

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Tehani

LAST CHANCE TO GET YOUR ENTRIES IN!

Entries for the 2020 Aurealis Awards close TODAY, December 14, 2020. 

Remember, this deadline covers all work published between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020

Visit the website to check the Entries list and enter your work.

The deadline is FINAL and no entries may be submitted after this date.

Don’t miss out!

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2020 Aurealis Awards are open for entry

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Tehani

2020 Aurealis Awards now open for entries

2020 Aurealis Awards overseers the Continuum Foundation (ConFound) announces that the 2020 Aurealis Awards are now open for entries.

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 2020 and 31 December 2020.

Full guidelines and FAQ can be found on the Aurealis Awards website:

https://aurealisawards.org/rules/

https://aurealisawards.org/faq/

We strongly encourage publishers and authors to enter all works published so far this year by September 30, 2020, then subsequent publications as they are released; our judges appreciate having time to consider each entry carefully.

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 2021 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 form, visit the Aurealis Awards website at https://aurealisawards.org/.

For more information contact the judging coordinator Tehani Croft at aajudges@gmail.com.

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Announcing the 2020 Aurealis Awards judging panels

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Tehani

We are very pleased to welcome our 2020 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!

ANTHOLOGIES / COLLECTIONS PANEL
Andrew Finegan
David Versace
Jemimah Brewster
Rob Porteous (Convenor)
Tehani Croft

CHILDREN’S PANEL
Caylee Tierney
Eugen Bacon (Convenor)
Kate Lomas Glendenning
Mia Macrossan
Nicole Gosling

FANTASY NOVEL PANEL
Beth Mason
Linda Sengsourinho (Convenor)
Lorraine Cormack
Nathan Phillips
Paula Boer

FANTASY SHORT STORY PANEL
Annette McQuarrie
David Reiter
Heidi Kneale (Convenor)
Melody Beier
Rick Keuning

FANTASY NOVELLA PANEL
Alexa Shaw
Amy Laurens
Brie Hawthorne
Mark Fazackerley (Convenor)
Shannon Kelly

HORROR PANEL
Dianne De Bellis (Convenor)
Hillary Albertson
Jan-Andrew Henderson
Karen Seeneevassen
Sofia Casanova

ILLUSTRATED WORK / GRAPHIC NOVEL PANEL
Benjamin Corby
Iurgi Urrutia
Joanna Kasper (Convenor)
Kaaron Warren
Rachel Cramp

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL PANEL
Emma Jane Phillips
Jess Gately
Natalie Haigh
Stephanie Gunn (Convenor)
Tansy Roberts

SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY PANEL
Christine Yunn-Yu Sun
Elizabeth Luchjenbroers
Mark Lingane
Tamantha Smith
Thomas Wilson (Convenor)

SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA PANEL
Cathie Tasker (Convenor)
Darren Nash
Lynda Young
Mark Phillips
Sarah Cabot

YA NOVEL PANEL
Bron Swasbrick
Justine Barker
Maureen Flynn
Miffy Farquharson (Convenor)
Sue Wright

YA SHORT STORY PANEL
Bianca Maybe
Christine Armstrong
Deb Gates
Ellie Macavei
Rachel Aitken (Convenor)

 

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2019 Awards Ceremony Recording

Posted on August 4, 2020 by Tehani

Thanks so much to the ConFound team who made this happen! If you missed the ceremony last week, you can now view it in all its glory 🙂

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Aurealis Awards 2020 – Call for Judges

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Tehani

AA logo

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 2020 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, 2020 and December 31, 2020 eligible for entry. Shortlists from each panel will be required by February 2021 (firm dates will be advised), and prospective judges should be aware that this may be an intensive process.

Dates for Judging (to be confirmed):

  • August 16 2020 – judging applications close
  • August 2020 – entries open
  • Mid December 2020 – entries close
  • December 31 2020– final entries must be received by judges
  • February 2021 – shortlists and finalists must be decided by panels
  • March 2021 – Convenors’ Award for Excellence decided by convenors.
  • 2021 – 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 16 August, 2020. 

The judging positions are open to Australian residents only.

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2019 Aurealis Awards Winners

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Tehani

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 first ever online ceremony,  and all the creators and publishers who continue to make the Aurealis Awards Australia’s premier speculative fiction award each year.

The winners of the 2019 Aurealis Awards are:

BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION

The Dog Runner, Bren MacDibble (Allen & Unwin)

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK

Black Magick, Greg Rucka & Nicola Scott (Image Comics)

BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

The Jindabyne Secret, Jo Hart (Deadset Press)

BEST HORROR SHORT STORY

“Vivienne and Agnes”, Chris Mason (Beside the Seaside – Tales from the Day Tripper)

BEST HORROR NOVELLA

“Into Bones Like Oil”, Kaaron Warren (Into Bones Like Oil)

BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY

“Dragon by Subscription”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Patreon, self-published)

BEST FANTASY NOVELLA

“‘Scapes Made Diamond”, Shauna O’Meara (Interzone 280)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

“Wreck Diving”, Joanne Anderton (Aurealis #123, Chimaera Publications)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA

“‘Scapes Made Diamond”, Shauna O’Meara (Interzone 280)

BEST COLLECTION

Collision: Stories, J S Breukelaar (Meerkat Press)

BEST ANTHOLOGY

Mission: Critical, Jonathan Strahan (Ed.) (Solaris)

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Aurora Rising, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

BEST HORROR NOVEL

The Rich Man’s House, Andrew McGahan (Allen & Unwin)

BEST FANTASY NOVEL

Angel Mage, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Aurora Rising, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

CONVENORS’ AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

Watermarks: Science Fiction, Mitigation and the Mosaic Novel Structure in Australian Climate Fiction, Jason Nahrung (PhD thesis, University of Queensland)

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Aurealis Awards Ceremony information

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Tehani

This year the Awards ceremony will be held online via Zoom, and will take place THIS SATURDAY! There are limited places available to join live, so if you would like to attend, please make sure you register. The event is hosted by Kat Clay and Eugen Bacon.

Time: 7.00 pm

Date: Saturday 25 July, 2020

Online @ https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEucuGoqToqE9ebQsuFPnb3pa8XrDW5m3eG

We encourage you to “frock up” – pyjamas and sequins sound appropriate! – and bring your party cocktails! We can’t be together in person, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun.

If you have queries relating to the event, please contact aajudges@gmail.com

 

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Aurealis Awards ceremony date claimer!

Posted on July 10, 2020 by Tehani

Save the date for the online Aurealis Awards ceremony, which will take place at 7pm AEST on Saturday July 25, 2020.

Details of how to join the party to follow soon!

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