Ignyte Awards Winners
The winners of the inaugural Ignyte Awards, which “seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre,” were announced during FIYAHCON on October 17, 2020.
Best Novel — Adult
- WINNER: Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
- Kingdom of Copper, S.A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)
- The Dragon Republic, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)
- Jade War, Fonda Lee (Orbit)
- Storm of Locusts, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
Best Novel — YA
- WINNER: We Hunt the Flame, Hafsah Faizal (FSG)
- Everlasting Rose, Dhonielle Clayton (Freeform)
- Pet, Akwaeke Emezi (Make Me a World)
- Slay, Brittney Morris (Simon Pulse)
- War Girls, Tochi Onyebuchi (Razorbill)
Best in MG
- WINNER: Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Kwame Mbalia (Disney Hyperion)
- Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, Carlos Hernandez (Disney Hyperion)
- The Mystwick School of Musicraft, Jessica Khoury (Audible/HMH)
- Just South of Home, Karen Strong (Simon & Schuster)
- Other Words for Home, Jasmine Warga (Balzer + Bray)
Best Novella
- WINNER: This Is How You Lose the Time War, Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar (Saga)
- The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
- The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, Saad Z. Hossain (Tor.com Publishing)
- The Deep, Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)
- The Survival of Molly Southbourne, Tade Thompson (Tor.com Publishing)
Best Novelette
- WINNER: “Emergency Skin”, N.K. Jemisin (Forward)
- “While Dragons Claim the Sky”, Jen Brown (Fiyah Spring ’19)
- “Omphalos”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
- “Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy”, JY Neon Yang (Tor.com 1/30/19)
- “The Archronology of Love”, Caroline Yoachim (Lightspeed 4/19)
Best Short Story
- WINNER: “A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”, Rebecca Roanhorse (The Mythic Dream)
- “Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan”, Christopher Caldwell (Uncanny 5-6/19)
- “Dune Song”, Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Apex 5/7/19)
- “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9/9/19)
- “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, Nibedita Sen (Nightmare 5/19)
Best in Speculative Poetry
- WINNER: “A Conversation Between the Embalmed Heads of Lampião and Maria Bonita on Public Display at the Baiano State Forensic Institute, Circa Mid-20th Century”, Woody Dismukes (Strange Horizons 9/30/19)
- “Those Who Tell the Stories”, Davian Aw (Strange Horizons 10/7/19)
- “goddess in forced repose”, Tamara Jerée (Uncanny 9-10/19)
- “Elegy for the Self as Villeneuve’s Beast”, Brandon O’Brien (Uncanny 5-6/19)
- “Heaven Is Expensive”, Ruben Reyes, Jr. (Strange Horizons 10/14/19)
Critics Award
- WINNER: Alex Brown (Tor.com)
- Liz Bourke
- Maria Haskins
- Jesse (Bowties & Books)
- Charles Payseur (Quick Sip Reviews)
Best Fiction Podcast
- WINNER: LeVar Burton Reads, LeVar Burton, Julia Smith, Adam Deibert, Brendan Byrnes, Mischa Stanton, Kristen Torres, Jenny Radelet, Josephine Martorana, Chris Bannon
- Obsidian Podcast, Adetola Abdulkadir & Safiyah Cheatam
- PodCastle, Jen R. Albert, Cherae Clark, Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali, Setsu Uzume & Peter Adrian Behravesh
- Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Scott H. Andrews, ed.
- Nightlight Podcast, Tonia Thompson
Best Artist
- WINNER: Grace P. Fong
- Geneva Bowers
- Paul Lewin
- Nilah Magruder
- John Picacio
Best Comics Team
- WINNER: These Savage Shores, Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Vitorio Astone, Aditya Bidikar & Tim Daniel (Vault)
- Blackbird Vol. 1, Sam Humphries, Jen Bartel & Triona Farrell (Image)
- Excellence, Khary Randolph, Brandon Thomas, Emilio Lopez & Deron Bennett (Image)
- Coda, Simon Spurrier, Matías Bergara, Michael Doig, Jim Campbell & Colin Bell (BOOM!)
- Bitter Root, David F. Walker, Chuck Brown & Sanford Greene (Image)
Best Anthology/Collected Works
- WINNER: New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, Nisi Shawl, ed. (Solaris)
- This Place: 150 Years Retold, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, et al. (HighWater)
- A People’s Future of the United States, Victor LaValle & John Joseph Adams, eds. (One World)
- Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Fiction in Translation, Ken Liu, ed. (Tor)
- The Mythic Dream, Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe, eds. (Saga)
Best in Creative Nonfiction
- WINNER: “Black Horror Rising”, Tananarive Due (Uncanny 5-6/19)
- “Tongue-Tied: A Catalog of Losses”, Layla Al-Bedawi (Fireside 1/17/19)
- Our Opinions are Correct, Charlie Jane Anders & Annalee Newitz
- AfroSurrealism: The African Diaspora’s Surrealist Fiction, Rochelle Spencer (Routledge)
- The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (NYU Press)
The Ember Award
- WINNER: LeVar Burton
- Keidra Chaney
- Tananarive Due
- Malon Edwards
- Nisi Shawl
The Community Award
- WINNER: Strange Horizons
- Mary Robinette Kowal
- Beth Phelan
- Diana M. Pho
- Writing the Other
For more information, see the FIYAHCON website.
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