2020 Australian Shadows Awards Finalists

Novel

• The Crying Forest, Venero Armanno (IFWG)
• Flyaway, Kathleen Jennings (Picador)
• Deception Pass, Matthew Tait (Dark Crib)
• Gutterbreed, Marty Young (Eclectic Trio)

Short Fiction

• “Hideous Armature”, Joanne Anderton (Midnight Echo #15)
• “Vision Thing”, Matthew R Davis (Black Dogs, Black Tales)
• “Brumation”, Anthony Ferguson (Midnight Echo #15)
• “The Bone Fairy”, Martin Livings (Midnight Echo #15)
• “Let Shadows Slip Through”, Kali Napier (New Gothic Review #2)
• “Needles”, Kali Napier (The Dark 7/20)

Collected Works

• Bleak Precision, Greg Chapman (self-published)
• Grotesque, Lee Murray (Things in the Well)
• The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners, Angela Slatter (PS)
• Red New Day, Angela Slatter (Brain Jar)
• Behind the Midnight Blinds, Marty Young (Things in the Well)

Edited Works

• Hadithi & the State of Black Speculative Fiction, Eugen Bacon & Milton Davis, eds. (Luna)
• Midnight Echo #15, Lee Murray, ed.
• Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Lee Murray & Geneve Flynn, eds. (Omnium Gatherum)
• Black Dogs, Black Tales: Where the Dogs Don’t Die, Tabatha Wood & Cassie Hart, eds. (Things in the Well)
• Trickster’s Treats 4: Coming, Buried or Not!, Louise Zedda-Sampson & Geneve Flynn, eds. (Things in The Well)

Long Fiction

• The Attic Tragedy, J. Ashley-Smith (Meerkat)
• “By Touch and By Glance”, Lisa L. Hannett (Songs for Dark Seasons)
• “Kua Hinga Te Kauri”, Dan Rabarts (Outback Horrors Down Under)
• “Barralang, pop. 63”, Deborah Sheldon (Dimension6 #19)
• “New Wine”, Angela Slatter (Cursed)

Poetry

• “The Tongueless Dead”, Leigh Blackmore (Spectral Realms Summer ’20)
• “The King of Eyes”, PS Cottier (Monstrous)
• “Mouthing Off”, PS Cottier (Monstrous)
• “Deadway”, K.S. Nikakis (Journey: Seeking the Sacred, Spirit and Soul in the Australian Wilderness)
• “This Soundless Murk”, Hester J. Rook (The Future Fire #54)

Non-Fiction

• “Sandalwood and Jade: The Weird and Fantastic Verse of Lin Carter”, Leigh Blackmore (Dead Reckonings Fall ’20)
• “What Makes Good Horror?”, Tim Hawken (Aurealis #128)
• “Phantasmagoria and the Earliest Forms of Horror Storytelling”, Maria Lewis (ACMI 1/1/21)
• “Cthulhu in California: The Writing of Michael Shea”, Emmet O’Cuana (Aurealis #135)
• “An Exploration of Menstruation in Horror and Dark Fiction”, Tabatha Wood (Horror Tree 2/6/20)
• “Queer Vampires in Modern Cinema”, Tabatha Wood (Divination Hollow Reviews 6/20)

Graphic Novel

• Redback Armageddon, Nathan Grixti (self-published)
• The Mycelium Complex, Daniel Reed (https://themyceliumcomplex.wordpress.com/)
• Hellblazer: Rise and Fall, Tom Taylor & Darick Robertson (DC)
• DCeased: Unkillables, Tom Taylor & Karl Mostert (DC)
• Undad: Volume Three, Katie Walsh-Smith, Miranda Richardson, Big Tim Stiles, Ryan K Lindsay, Shane W Smith, Karissa Moloney, Matias Lazaro, Anna Foubert, Mitchell Collins & Simon Robins (Deeper Meanings)

Winners will be announced in an online ceremony on June 11, 2021. For more information, see the AHWA announcement.