2021 Aurealis Awards Shortlist

Best Science Fiction Novel

• Waking Romeo, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)
• The 22 Murders of Madison May, Max Barry (Hachette Australia)
• Stealing Time, Rebecca Bowyer (Story Addict)
• Papa Lucy & The Boneman, Jason Fischer (Outland Entertainment)
• Aurora’s End, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• Deepwater King, Claire McKenna (HarperCollins)

Best Science Fiction Novella

• “Access Denied”, Baden Chant (Aurealis #142)
• The Cruise to the End of the World, Craig Cormick (Merino)
• “The Birdsong Fossil”, DK Mok (Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures)
• “Problem Landing”, Sean Monaghan (Analog 3-4/21)
• “Preserved in Amber”, Samantha Murray (Clarkesworld 7/21)
• “A Vast Silence”, T.R. Napper (F&SF 11-12/21)

Best Science Fiction Short Story

• “He Leaps for the Stars, He Leaps for the Stars” Grace Chan (Clarkesworld 7/21)
• “For Autumn”, Melissa Ferguson (Revolutions)
• “Honey and a Hanging”, Aiki Flinthart (Tribute)
• “The Reunion”, Emily Fox (Nature: Futures 8/25/21)
• “Relict: (noun) A Widow; a Thing Remaining From the Past”, Alison Goodman (Relics, Wrecks & Ruins)
• “Legacy of the Species”, Pamela Jeffs (The Terralight Collection)

Best Fantasy Novel

• Supermums – And So It Begins, Meg Grace (self-published)
• The Rose Daughter, Maria Lewis (Piatkus)
• A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske (Tor)
• Dark Rise, C.S. Pacat (Allen & Unwin)
• She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan (Mantle)
• All the Murmuring Bones, Angela Slatter (Titan)

Best Fantasy Novella

• “Mother in Bloom”, Alan Baxter (The Gulp)
• “The Little One”, Rebecca Fraser (Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract)
• Bones of the Sea, Amy Laurens (Inkprint Press)
• “Echo and Narcissus”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Sheep Might Fly)
• The Scarab Children of Montague, Suzanne J. Willis (Falstaff)

Best Fantasy Short Story

• “Who Wants to be a Reaper”, Jane Brown (The Centropic Oracle)
• “So-called Bin Chicken”, E.J. Delaney (Curiouser Magazine #2)
• “All my Tuesdays”, Laura J. Fitzwilson (Cicerone Journal Issue 5: Curious Worlds)
• “Old Souls”, Aiki Flinthart (Relics, Wrecks & Ruins)
• “The Woods Echo Back”, Tania Fordwalker (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/3/21)
• “Frabjous”, Alexander Gibbs (Cicerone Journal Issue 5: Curious Worlds)

Best Horror Novel

• The Bridge, J.S. Breukelaar (Meerkat)
• Midnight in the Chapel of Love, Matthew R Davis (JournalStone)
• Papa Lucy & The Boneman, Jason Fischer (Outland Entertainment)
• The Airways, Jennifer Mills (Picador Australia)
• Holly and the Nobodies, Ben Pienaar (Hellbound)

Best Horror Novella

• When the Cicadas Stop Singing, Zachary Ashford (Horrific Tales)
• “The Band Plays On”, Alan Baxter (The Gulp)
• “Hell’s Teeth”, Matthew R. Davis (Haunted: An Anthology)
• Cryptid Killers, Alister Hodge (Severed)
• “All The Long Way Down”, Alf Simpson (Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 3)

Best Horror Short Story

• “Don’t Look!”, Lisa Fuller (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales)
• “Traces of Us, Hot Enough for Dinner”, Ephiny Gale (The Dread Machine 1.3)
• “The House that Hungers”, Maria Lewis (Aurealis #146)
• “The Quiet Room”, Martin Livings (Midnight Echo #16)
• “Sins of the Mother”, Tracie McBride (Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies)
• “Mother Dandelion”, Antoinette Rydyr (Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies)

Best Young Adult Novel

• Waking Romeo, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)
• Aurora’s End, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• Dirt Circus League, Maree Kimberley (Text)
• Terciel and Elinor, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
• Echo in the Memory, Cameron Nunn (Walker Books Australia)
• It’s Not You, It’s Me, Gabrielle Williams (Allen & Unwin)

Best Young Adult Short Story

• “The Woods Echo Back”, Tania Fordwalker (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/3/21)
• “Don’t Look!”, Lisa Fuller (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales)
• “Of Slaves and Lions”, Pamela Jeffs (Stories of Survival)
• “Slaughterhouse Boys”, Emma Osborne (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales)
• “Way-bread Rising”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Stories of Survival)
• “Hunger”, Marianna Shek (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales)

Best Children’s Fiction

• The Boy Who Stepped Through Time, Anna Ciddor (Allen & Unwin)
• Stellarphant, James Foley (Fremantle)
• Dragon Skin, Karen Foxlee (Allen & Unwin)
• The Curiosities, Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie (Hachette Australia)
• Elsewhere Girls, Emily Gale & Nova Weetman (Text)
• Barebum Billy, Nicholas Snelling (BAD DAD)

Best Collection

• The Gulp, Alan Baxter (self-published)
• Danged Black Thing, Eugen Bacon (Transit Lounge)
• The Terralight Collection, Pamela Jeffs (Four Ink)
• The Tallow-Wife & Other Tales, Angela Slatter (Tartarus)
• Little Labyrinths: Collected Microfictions, Sean Williams (Brain Jar)

Best Anthology

• Who Sleuthed It?, Lindy Cameron, ed. (Clan Destine)
• Relics, Wrecks & Ruins, Aiki Flinthart, ed. (CAT)
• Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Poppy Nwosu, ed. (Wakefield)
• Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, Deborah Sheldon, ed. (IFWG Publishing Australia)

Best Graphic Novel/Illustrated Work

• The Curiosities, Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie (Hachette Australia)
• Treasure in the Lake, Jason Pamment (Allen & Unwin)
• Mechanix, Ben Slabak & Edoardo Natalini (Cloud 9)
• Killeroo: Semper Fidelis, Matthew Soall & Ignacio Di Meglio (OzComics)

Sara Douglass Book Series Award

• Lifespan of Starlight: Lifespan of Starlight (2015); Split Infinity (2016); Edge of Time (2018), Thalia Kalkipsakis (Hardie Grant Egmont)
• Elementals: Ice Wolves (2018); Scorch Dragons (2019); Battle Born (2020), Amie Kaufman (HarperCollins)
• Unearthed: Unearthed (2017); Undying (2018), Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)
• Lifelike: LIFEL1K3 (2018); DEV1AT3 (2019); TRUEL1F3 (2020), Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)
• Winter: The Road to Winter (2016); Wilder Country (2017); Land of Fences (2019), Mark Smith (Text Publishing)
• Blood and Gold: Crown of Rowan (2014); Daughters of the Storm (2014); Sisters of the Fire (2016); Queens of the Sea (2019), Kim Wilkins (HarperCollins)

For more, see the official website.

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