The 2018 World Fantasy Awards Ballot, containing a whole bunch of books I haven’t read yet, has just been announced. The ballot is compiled by the voting attendees of the World Fantasy Convention, all of whom clearly read a lot more than I do. Where do they find the time? Don’t they have blog posts to write, like normal people?

At least I have my membership for the convention, so I’ll be there to watch all the excitement unfold. It’s still a few months away, so I a little time to get caught up. Wish we luck.

As has been tradition since 1998, the coveted Life Achievement Award is being given to two recipients. This year they are Canadian author Charles de Lint and DAW Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth (Betsy) Wollheim. Both are fine selections, richly deserving of this recognition.

The winners in every other category will be selected by a panel of judges. Here’s the complete list of nominees, with links to our previous coverage.

Life Achievement

• Charles de Lint
• Elizabeth Wollheim

Novel

• The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)
• Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymir by John Crowley (Saga Press)
• The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss (Saga Press)
• Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory (Bond Street Books CA/Knopf US/Riverrun UK)
• The Changeling by Victor LaValle (Spiegal & Grau)
• Jade City by Fonda Lee (Orbit)

Long Fiction (10,000 to 40,000 words)

• The Teardrop Method by Simon Avery (TTA Press)
• In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon Publications)
• Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
• Passing Strange by Ellen Klages (Tor.com)
• The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang (Tor.com)

Short Fiction (under 10,000 words)

• “Old Souls” by Fonda Lee (Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy)
• “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™” by Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex Magazine, August 2017)
• “The Birding: A Fairy Tale” by Natalia Theodoridou (Strange Horizons, December 18, 2017)
• “Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand” by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, Sept.-Oct. 2017)
• “Carnival Nine” by Caroline Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, May 11, 2017)

Anthology

• The New Voices of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman (Tachyon Publications)
• Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales, edited by Ellen Datlow (Pegasus Books)
• The Book of Swords, edited by Gardner Dozois (Bantam Books US/Harper Voyager UK)
• The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories, edited by Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin (Solaris)
• The Best of Subterranean edited by William Schafer (Subterranean Press)

Collection

• Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages (Tachyon Publications)
• Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf Press)
• Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers by Tim Powers (Baen Books)
• Tender by Sofia Samatar (Small Beer Press)
• The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen (Tachyon Publications)

Artist

• Gregory Manchess
• Victo Ngai
• Omar Rayyan
• Rima Staines
• Fiona Staples

Special Award – Professional

• Harry Brockway, Patrick McGrath, and Danel Olson for Writing Madness (Centipede Press)
• C. C. Finlay, for F&SF editing
• Irene Gallo, for Art Direction at Tor Books and Tor.com
• Greg Ketter, for DreamHaven Books
• Leslie Klinger, for The New Annotated Frankenstein (Liveright Publishing Corp.)

Special Award – Nonprofessional

• Scott H. Andrews, for Beneath Ceaseless Skies: Literary Adventure Fantasy
• Justina Ireland and Troy L. Wiggins, for FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction
• Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali and Jen R Albert, for PodCastle
• Ray B. Russell and Rosalie Parker, for Tartarus Press
• Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, for Uncanny Magazine

Congratulations to all the nominees! We hope you all win.

See the complete list of 2017 winners here.

Read complete details on the nominations at the World Fantasy Convention website.