We congratulate the Aurealis Awards finalists for 2025! The 2025 Aurealis Awards, Australia’s premier speculative fiction award, attracted more than 775 entries across 14 categories, including record numbers in the Horror categories this year.

The winners will be celebrated at the 2025 Aurealis Awards ceremony as part of GenreCon in Brisbane, taking place on Saturday February 21, 2026 at the Thomas Dixon Centre. Tickets are selling fast, so grab yours now!

NOTE: A shortlist for the Convenors’ Award for Excellence is not published. The eligible nominations for this special Award have been shared on the Aurealis Awards website, and the winner will be announced at the ceremony.

BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION

Villain, Adrian Beck (Scholastic Australia)

Little Bones, Sandy Bigna (UQP)

Moonboy, Anna Ciddor (Allen & Unwin)

Escape from Firestone Fortress, Rachel Jackson (Riveted Press)

The Last Seed Keeper, Paul Russell (EK Books)

When the Mountain Wakes, Matt Shanks (Affirm Press)

BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

“Ne’za’s Yearning”, Eugen Bacon (Omenana) 

“Mother Tree’s Idols”, Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga (Augur Issue 8.2)

“Anomalies of Prospero Base”, Jeanette O’Hagan (Rise of the Consortium , By the Light Books)

“Crown Tourney”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Crown Tourney: Ten Tales of Deadly Damsels, Cursed Castles and Edged Weapons, self-published)

“This Ocean Was a City Once”, Spencer Rose (Conflux Inc.) 

“As Brittle as Granite”, Matt Tighe (Cast of Wonders, Escape Artists)

BEST HORROR SHORT STORY

“Catch and Consume”, Ella T Holmes (Aurealis #185)

“The Bottom Feeders”, Fionn MacPherson (Lost Souls Issue 2)

“It Will Only Hurt If I Want It To”, Kirstyn McDermott (Midnight Echo #20, AHWA)

“The Shelter”, Carol Ryles (Midnight Echo #20, AHWA)

“Bitter Skin”, Kaaron Warren (Night and Day, Saga)

“Me, Espresso”, Corey Jae White & Maddison Stoff (Patreon)

BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY

“Dragon Drops”, Baden M Chant (Deadly Flames, Bayonet Books)

“Dying Mountain”, Baden M Chant (Aurealis Magazine #177)

“The Hidden”, Jeff Clulow, (The Leper’s Garden and Other Contagions, Third Eye Press)

“What We Sew”, Brendan Cottam (Memento Mori, Jacaranda)

“Sparrow & Butler”, Nike Sulway (Fractured Reveries: A Storied Imaginarium Salon, Storied Imaginarium Books)

“Jericho and the Cursed Forest”, Matt Tighe (Drowning in the Dark and Other Stories, IFWG)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

“Gallows Humour”, Kobi Ashenden (Griffith Review 89: Here Be Monsters)

“Phantom Loop”, S L Johnson (with Gio Clairval) (Tales from the Crosstimbers, Crosstimbers Publications LLC)

“Déjà Vécu”, T R Napper (AUSTRAL 2025, Meridian Australis)

“Time Witch Airship Cruise”, Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #99)

“Full term”, Scott Steensma (Aurealis #177)

“Do Motorcycle Centaurs Dream of Five Stars and a Tip?”, Corey Jae White & Maddison Stoff (Interzone, MYY Press)

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK

Bad Friend, Robin French (Feral Rainbow)

The Photographer, Mark Rafidi & Paul O’Sullivan (Hawkeye)

Strange Bedfellows, Ariel Slamet Ries (HarperCollins)

Higher Ground, Tull Swannakit (New Frontier Publishing)

SoXiety, Tamlyn Teow (Riveted Press)

BEST COLLECTION

The Leper’s Garden and Other Contagions, Jeff Clulow (Third Eye Press)

Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere, Alex Cothren (Pink Shorts Press)

Songs of Shadow, Words of Woe, Matthew R Davis (JournalStone)

This Dark Architect and Other Grim Tales, Pamela Jeffs (Four Ink Press)

Drowning in the Dark and Other Stories, Matt Tighe (IFWG)

BEST ANTHOLOGY

Never Say Die, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (Ed.) (Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild Publishing)

AUSTRAL 2025, Matt Richardson, Michaela Teschendorff & Ciar Fhearchair (Eds.) (Meridian Australis)

Fission #5: An Anthology of Stories from the British Science Fiction Association, Gene Rowe & Eugen Bacon (Eds.) (BSFA)

Midnight Echo Issue 20, Marty Young (Ed.) (AHWA)

BEST HORROR NOVELLA

The Nga’phandileh Whisperer: A Sauútiverse Novella, Eugen Bacon (Stars and Sabers)

Sideshow Souls, J J Carpenter (self-published)

Parasitic Omens, Jessica A McMinn (self-published)

Willow Close, Helena O’Connor (IFWG)

“Walpurgis”, Ron Schroer (Strange Legacy 2025: Creature Feature, Thorncroft Legacy)

The Cold House, A G Slatter (Titan Books)

BEST FANTASY NOVELLA

Hol(l)o(w)metabolism, Lee Cope (Whimsy and Metaphor Enterprises)

Cinder House, Freya Marske (Pan Macmillan)

Parasitic Omens, Jessica A McMinn (self-published)

Trickster Tales, Leanbh Pearson (Brigid’s Gate Press)

“Crown Tourney”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Crown Tourney: Ten Tales of Deadly Damsels, Cursed Castles and Edged Weapons, self-published)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA

Quiet Like Fire, Cameron Cooper (Stories Rule Press)

“Photo in the Chip”, Callum Lewis (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #98)

“The Hidden God”, T R Napper (Asimov’s Science Fiction March/April 2025)

Homecoming, Thomas K Slee (Refraction Publishing)

All My Guns are Trans and Gay and They’re Ruining My Fucking Life, Corey Jae White & Maddison Stoff (Patreon)

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Blood Moon Bride, Demet Divaroren (Allen & Unwin)

Lady’s Knight, Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)

Dark Sun Rising, A A Kinsela (Plainspeak Publishing)

The Serpent Called Mercy, Roanne Lau (New Dawn)

This Stays Between Us, Margot McGovern (Penguin Random House Australia)

Unhallowed Halls, Lili Wilkinson (Allen & Unwin)

BEST HORROR NOVEL

Orpheus Nine, Chris Flynn (Hachette Australia)

The Farm, Jessica Mansour-Nahra (Hachette Australia)

This Stays Between Us, Margot McGovern (Penguin Random House Australia)

Slashed Beauties, A Rushby (HarperCollins Publishers)

Nightmare Reef, Deborah Sheldon (Severed Press)

The Crimson Road, A G Slatter (Titan Books)

BEST FANTASY NOVEL  

House of the Rain King, Will Greatwich (self-published)

Honeyeater, Kathleen Jennings (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Greenteeth, Molly O’Neill (Little, Brown)

Slashed Beauties, A Rushby (HarperCollins Publishers)

Grave Empire, Richard Swan (Little, Brown)

Upon a Starlit Tide, Kell Woods (HarperCollins Publishers)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Letters to Our Robot Son, Cadance Bell (Ultimo Press)

Arborescence, Rhett Davis (Hachette Australia)

Volatile Memory, Seth Haddon (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Dark Sands, J S Harman (self-published)

Wastelands, Samira Lloyd (Arianhrod Press)

All We Have, Tony Shillitoe (Millswood Books)