2021 BSFA Shortlist

Best Novel

• A Desolation Called Peace, Arkady Martine (Tor)
• Green Man’s Challenge, Juliet E. McKenna (Wizard’s Tower)
• Purgatory Mount,  Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
• Shards of Earth, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)
• Skyward Inn, Aliya Whiteley (Solaris)
• Blackthorn Winter, Liz Williams (NewCon)

Best Short Fiction (under 40,000 words)

• Fireheart Tiger, Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom)
• “O2 Arena”, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Galaxy’s Edge 11/21)
• Light Chaser, Peter F. Hamilton & Gareth L. Powell (Tordotcom)
• “Things Can Only Get Better”, Fiona Moore (Abyss & Apex 9/3/21)

Best Non-Fiction

• Worlds Apart: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Francesca T. Barbini, ed. (Luna)
• The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture, Mark Bould (Verso)
• Octothorpe podcast, John Coxon, Alison Scott & Liz Batty
• Cyberpunk Culture and Psychology: Seeing Through the Mirrorshades, Anna McFarlane (Routledge)
• “Science Fiction and the Pathways out of the COVID Crisis”, Val Nolan (The Polyphony 6/21)
• Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color, Joy Sanchez-Taylor (Ohio State)

Best Book for Young Readers

• The Raven Heir, Stephanie Burgis (Bloomsbury Children’s)
• Redemptor, Jordan Ifueko (Hot Key)
• A Snake Falls to Earth, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• The Empty Orchestra, Elizabeth Priest (Luna)
• Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep, Philip Reeve (David Fickling)
• Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao (Penguin Teen; Rock the Boat)

Best Artwork

• Cover for Saving Shadows by Eugen Bacon, Elena Betti (NewCon)
• “Glasgow Green Woman”, Iain Clark (Glasgow2024)
• Cover for Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s, Dan dos Santos/Lauren Panepinto (Orbit)
• Cover for Danged Black Thing by Eugen Bacon,  Peter Lo/Kara Walker (Transit Lounge)
• Cover of Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2021) edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Maria Spada (Jembefola)

The awards will be voted on by members of BSFA and the British Annual Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon). The winners will be announced during Reclamation, this year’s Eastercon, to be held April 15-19, 2022 at the Heathrow Raddison Red. For more information, see the BSFA website.

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