2018 Aurealis Winners

Best Science Fiction Novel

• WINNER: Lifel1k3, Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

• Scales of Empire, Kylie Chan (HarperCollins)
• Obsidio, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• A Superior Spectre, Angela Meyer (Ventura)
• Dyschronia, Jennifer Mills (Picador)
• The Second Cure, Margaret Morgan (Penguin Random House)

Best Science Fiction Novella

• WINNER: Icefall, Stephanie Gunn (Twelfth Planet)

• “I Almost Went To The Library Last Night”, Joanne Anderton (Aurum)
• The Starling Requiem, Jodi Cleghorn (eMergent)
• “Pinion”, Stephanie Gunn (Aurum)
• “Singles’ Day”, Samantha Murray (Interzone 9-10/18)
• Static Ruin, Corey J. White (Tor.com Publishing)

Best Science Fiction Short Story

• WINNER: “The Astronaut”, Jen White (Aurealis #108)

• “The Sixes, The Wisdom and the Wasp”, EJ Delaney (Escape Pod 1/25/18)
• “The Fallen”, Pamela Jeffs (Red Hour)
• “On the Consequences of Clinically-Inhibited Maturation in the Common Sydney Octopus”, Simon Petrie & Edwina Harvey (A Hand of Knaves)
• “A Fair Wind off Baracoa”, Robert Porteous (A Hand of Knaves)

Best Fantasy Novel (tie)

• WINNER: City of Lies, Sam Hawke (Penguin Random House)
• WINNER: The Witch Who Courted Death, Maria Lewis (Hachette)

• Devouring Dark, Alan Baxter (Grey Matter)
• The Dark Days Deceit, Alison Goodman (HarperCollins)
• Lightning Tracks, A.A. Kinsela (Plainspeak)
• We Ride the Storm, Devin Madson (self-published)

Best Fantasy Novella

• WINNER: “The Staff in the Stone”, Garth Nix (The Book of Magic)

• “This Side of the Wall”, Michael Gardner (Metaphorosis 1/18)
• “Beautiful”, Juliet Marillier (Aurum)
• Merry Happy Valkyrie, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Twelfth Planet)
• “The Dressmaker and the Colonel’s Coat”, David Versace (Mnemo’s Memory and Other Fantastic Tales)
• The Dragon’s Child, Janeen Webb (PS)

Best Fantasy Short Story

• WINNER: “The Further Shore”, J. Ashley Smith (Bourbon Penn #15)

• “Crying Demon”, Alan Baxter (Suspended in Dusk II)
• “Army Men”, Juliet Marillier (Of Gods and Globes)
• “Child of the Emptyness”, Amanda J Spedding (Grimdark #17)
• “A Moment’s Peace”, Dave Versace (A Hand of Knaves)
• “Heartwood, Sapwood, Spring”, Suzanne J. Willis (Sword and Sonnet)

Best Horror Novel

• WINNER: Tide of Stone, Kaaron Warren (Omnium Gatherum)

• The Bus on Thursday, Shirley Barrett (Allen & Unwin)
• Years of the Wolf, Craig Cormick (IFWG)

Best Horror Novella

• WINNER: “Crisis Apparition”, Kaaron Warren (Exploring Dark Short Fiction #2)

• “Andromeda Ascends”, Matthew R. Davis (Beneath the Waves: Tales from the Deep)
• “Kopura Rising”, David Kuraria (Cthulhu: Land of the Long White Cloud)
• “The Black Sea”, Chris Mason (Beneath the Waves: Tales from the Deep)
• Triquetra, Kirstyn McDermott (Tor.com Publishing)
• “With This Needle I Thee Thread”, Angela Rega (Aurum)

Best Horror Short Story

• WINNER: “Sub-Urban”, Alfie Simpson (Breach #07)

• “The Offering”, Michael Gardner (Aurealis #112)
• “Slither”, Jason Nahrung (Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 2)
• “By Kindle Light”, Jessica Nelson-Tyers (Antipodean SF #235)
• “Hit and Rot”, Jessica Nelson-Tyers (Breach #08)
• “The Further Shore”, J. Ashley Smith (Bourbon Penn #15)

Best Young Adult Novel

• WINNER: Catching Teller Crow, Ambelin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina (Allen & Unwin)

• Small Spaces, Sarah Epstein (Walker)
• Lifel1k3, Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• His Name Was Walter, Emily Rodda (HarperCollins)
• A Curse of Ash and Embers, Jo Spurrier (HarperCollins)
• Impostors, Scott Westerfeld (Allen & Unwin)

Best Young Adult Short Story

• WINNER: “The Sea-Maker of Darmid Bay”, Shauna O’Meara (Interzone 9-10/18)

• “A Robot Like Me”, Lee Cope (Mother of Invention)
• “The Moon Collector”, DK Mok (Under the Full Moon’s Light)
• “Eight-Step Koan”, Anya Ow (Sword and Sonnet)
• “For Weirdless Days and Weary Nights”, Deborah Sheldon (Breach #08)

Best Children’s Fiction

• WINNER: The Endsister, Penni Russon (Allen & Unwin)

• The Relic of the Blue Dragon, Rebecca Lim (Allen & Unwin)
• The Slightly Alarming Tale of the Whispering Wars, Jaclyn Moriarty (Allen & Unwin)
• Secret Guardians, Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)
• Ting Ting the Ghosthunter, Gabrielle Wang (Penguin Random House)
• Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt, Rhiannon Williams (Hardie Grant Egmont)

Best Collection

• WINNER: Tales from The Inner City, Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin)

• Not Quite the End of the World Just Yet, Peter M Ball (Brain Jar)
• Phantom Limbs, Margo Lanagan (PS)
• Exploring Dark Short Fiction #2: A Primer to Kaaron Warren, Kaaron Warren (Dark Moon)

Best Anthology

• WINNER: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume 12, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)

• Sword and Sonnet, Aidan Doyle, Rachael K. Jones & E. Catherine Tobler, eds. (Ate Bit Bear)
• Aurum, Russell B. Farr, ed. (Ticonderoga)
• Mother of Invention, Rivqa Rafael & Tansy Rayner Roberts, eds. (Twelfth Planet)
• Infinity’s End, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)

Best Graphic Novel/Illustrated Work

• WINNER: Tales from the Inner City, Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin)

• Deathship Jenny, Rob O’Connor (self-published)
• Cicada, Shaun Tan (Hachette)

The Sara Douglass Book Series Award

• WINNER: Blackthorn & Grim: Dreamer’s Pool (2014), Tower of Thorns (2015), Den of Wolves (2016), Juliet Marillier (Pan Macmillan Australia)

• Electric Empire: The Diabolical Miss Hyde (2015), The Devious Dr. Jekyll (2015), The Dastardly Miss Lizzie (2017), Viola Carr (HarperCollins)
• The Fire Sermon: The Fire Sermon (2015), The Map of Bones (2016), The Forever Ship (2017), Francesca Haig (HarperCollins)
• Captive Prince: Captive Prince (2014), Prince’s Gambit (2014), Kings Rising (2016), C.S. Pacat (Penguin Random)
• Zeroes: Zeroes (2015), Swarm (2016), Nexus (2017), Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan & Deborah Biancotti (Allen & Unwin)

Convenors’ Award for Excellence (tie)

• “The 21st Century Catastrophe: Hyper-capitalism and Severe Climate Change in Science Fiction”, Cat Sparks (Curtin University)
• “Genre Worlds: Australian Popular Fiction in the 21st Century”, Kim Wilkins, Lisa Fletcher & Beth Driscoll (Genre Worlds)

Winners were announced in an awards ceremony on May 4, 2019 at the Jasper Hotel in Melbourne, Australia. For more, see the official website.