2021 Ditmar Preliminary Ballot

Best Novel

• The Crying Forest, Venero Armanno (IFWG Publishing Australia)
• Hollow Empire, Sam Hawke (Penguin)
• The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay (Scribe)
• Monstrous Heart, Claire McKenna (HarperCollins)
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
• Poison & Light, Gillian Polack (Shooting Star)
• Repo Virtual, Corey J. White (Tor)

Best Novella or Novelette

• “The Attic Tragedy”, J. Ashley-Smith (The Attic Tragedy)
• The Roo, Alan Baxter (self-published)
• “Bad Weather”, Robert Hood (Outback Horrors Down Under)
• Flyaway, Kathleen Jennings (Pan Macmillan Australia)
• “The Weight of the Air, The Weight of the World”, T.R. Napper, (Neon Leviathan)

Best Short Story

• “The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter, Elaine Cuyegkeng (Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women)
• “Hacking Santorini”, Cat Sparks (Dark Harvest)
• “The Calenture”, Kaaron Warren (Of Gods and Globes 2)

Best Collected Work

• Rebuilding Tomorrow, Tsana Dolichva (Twelfth Planet)
• The Zookeeper’s Tales of Interstellar Oddities, Aiki Flinthart & Pamela Jeffs (CAT)
• Songs for Dark Seasons, Lisa L. Hannett (Ticonderoga)
• Neon Leviathan, T.R. Napper (Grimdark)
• Dark Harvest, Cat Sparks (NewCon)

Best Artwork

• Keely Van Order for the cover of Drive, She Said by Tracie McBride (IFWG Publishing Australia)
• Rovina Cai for illustrations in The Giant and the Sea (Lothian)
• Kathleen Jennings for illustrations in Mother Thorn and other tales of courage and kindness (Serenity)

Best Fan Publication in Any Medium

• Pratchat, Elizabeth Flux & Ben McKenzie (Splendid Chaps)
• Ethel the Aardvark, LynC (Melbourne Science Fiction Club)
• The AntipodeanSF Radio Show, Ion Newcombe
• The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe

Best Fan Writer

• Bruce Gillespie for writing in SF Commentary
• LynC for writing in Ethel the Aardvark

Best Fan Artist

• Lyss Wickramasinghe for fanart on Tumblr including Elsie, Hold On, The Gem and the Other, and Vesuvia Pride

Best New Talent

• Nikky Lee

William Atheling, Jr. Award for Criticism or Review

• Terry Frost for reviews in Terry Talks Movies
• Kathleen Jennings for “Contracts and Calcifer, or ‘In Which A Contract Is Concluded Before Witnesses’: the transactional structure of Howl’s Moving Castle”, The Proceedings of the Diana Wynne Jones Conference, Bristol 2019 [paper published 2020]
• Grant Watson for reviews in FictionMachine