2015 Aurealis Awards overseers, the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation (WASFF), announces that the 2015 Aurealis Awards are now open for entries.

The Aurealis Awards, Australia’s premier awards for Speculative Fiction, are for works of speculative fiction written by an Australian citizen, or permanent resident, and published for the first time between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2015.

2015 Aurealis Awards convenor, PRK, says “WASFF is pleased to be overseeing the Aurealis Awards for the next three years. As Australia’s only juried speculative fiction awards, we believe the Aurealis Awards have an important place in fostering an appreciation of the genre in Australia. We look forward to continuing to keep pace with the trends in speculative fiction, and are delighted to introduce the new Sara Douglass Book Series Award to recognise book series that are greater as a whole than the sum of their individual books.”

“We strongly encourage publishers and authors to enter all works published in the first half of the year immediately, and all new works as soon after publication as possible,” says judging co-coordinator Tehani Wessely. “Our judging teams appreciate having time to consider each entry carefully. It’s a huge job!”

“We also urge publishers and creators to be aware of the different deadlines for the Sara Douglass Award, the Convenors’ Award for Excellence, and the regular Aurealis Awards, to avoid disappointment when making entries.”

“Last year we made the decision to introduce a fee for entry for book categories, in order to keep the Awards afloat and help current and future organisers to not be out of pocket. Short fiction, children’s categories, the Sara Douglass Award and the Convenors’ Award for Excellence are free to enter. Entries into all the novel categories (including Graphic Novel) and the Anthology and Collections categories incur a $10 fee per entry per category.”

Entries close on 07 December 2015, and all entries must be physically received by 31 December 2015. Finalists will be announced early in 2016 and winners announced at a special presentation evening to be announced later this year. For more information on the awards or to register your entry, visit the Aurealis Awards website at www.aurealisawards.org.

For more information contact the Awards convenor, PRK, at aurealisawards@gmail.com or judging co-coordinators Katharine Stubbs and Tehani Wessely at aajudges@gmail.com.