2023 Ignyte Awards Finalists

Best Novel: Adult

• The Blood Trials, N.E. Davenport (Harper Voyager)
• The Spear Cuts Through Water, Simon Jimenez (Del Rey)
• Babel, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
• Kaikeyi, Vaishnavi Patel (Redhook)
• Siren Queen, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

Best Novel: YA

• Bloodmarked, Tracy Deonn (McElderry; Simon & Schuster UK)
• The Kindred, Alechia Dow (Inkyard)
• Blood Scion, Deborah Falaye (HarperTeen)
• Lakelore, Anna-Marie McLemore (Feiwel and Friends)
• Ballad & Dagger, Daniel José Older (Hyperion)

Best in Middle Grade

• Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion, K. Tempest Bradford (Farrar, Straus, Giroux
• The Marvellers, Dhonielle Clayton (Henry Holt & Company)
• Witchlings, Claribel Ortega (Scholastic Press)
• You Only Live Once, David Bravo, Mark Oshiro (HarperCollins)
• The Last Mapmaker, Christina Soontornvat (Candlewick Press)

Best Novella

• Empire of the Feast, Bendi Barrett (Neon Hemlock)
• “Bishop’s Opening”, R.S.A. Garcia (Clarkesworld 1/22)
• Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
• Helpmeet, Naben Ruthnum (Undertow)
• Into the Riverlands, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

Best Novelette

• “If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You“, John Chu (Uncanny 7-8/22)
• “Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness“, S.L. Huang (Clarkesworld 12/22)
• “Men, Women, and Chainsaws“, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com 4/20/22)
• “The Epic of Qu-Shittu”, Tobi Ogundiran (F&SF 3-4/22)
• “To Carve Home In Your Bones”, Aigner Loren Wilson (F&SF 11-12/22)

Best Short Story

• “The Voice of a Thousand Years”, Fawaz Al-Matrouk (F&SF 5-6/22)
• “Girl Oil”, Grace Fong (Tor.com 2/22/22)
• “Wanderlust”, LP Kindred (Anathema 8/22)
• “The Lady of the Yellow-Painted Library”, Tobi Ogundiran (Africa Risen)
• “The Locked Pod”, Malka Older (The Sunday Morning Transport 9/11/22)

Best in Speculative Poetry

• Year of the Unicorn Kidz, jason b. crawford (Sundress Publications)
• “The Recipe for Time Travel”, Monique Collins (Fiyah 6/22)
• “I Shall Not Surrender”, Beatrice Winifred Iker (Anathema 8/22)
• “We Smoke Pollution”, Ai Jiang (Star*Line Winter ’22)
• “In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White”, Terese Mason Pierre (Uncanny 5-6/22)

Critics Award

• Nerds of a Feather
• Christina Orlando
• Charles Payseur
• Bogi Takács
• Aigner Loren Wilson

Best Fiction Podcast

• Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Black Women Are Scary
• Good Morning Antioch
• PodCastle
• Pseudopod

Best Artist

• Aimee Campbell
• Terri Chieyni
• N’kai DeLauter
• Taj Francis
• Raymond Sebastien

Best Comics Team

• Where Black Stars Rise, Marie Enger & Nadia Shammas (Nightfire)
• Changa and the Jade Obelisk #2, Matteo Illuminat, Loris Ravina, Massimiliano Veltri & Robert Jeffrey II (MVmedia)
• Squire, Nadia Shammas & Sara Alfageeh (HarperCollins)

Best Anthology/Collected Works

• Reclaim the Stars, Zoraida Córdova, ed. (Wednesday)
• Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, Kim Fu (Tin House Books)
• Voodoonauts Presents: (Re)Living Mythology, Shingai Njeri Kagunda & Yvette Lisa Ndlovu & H.D. Hunter & LP Kindred, eds. (Android)
• The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, Janelle Monáe et al. (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
• Night of the Living Rez, Morgan Talty (Tin House Books)

Best Creative Nonfiction

• “The H Word: Horror in a Country that Is Not Afraid of Death”, Dante Luiz (Nightmare 1/22)
• “Indigeneity in SFF Gaming: The Ongoing Need for Respectful, Native-Centered Storytelling”, Chesley Oxendine (SFWA)
• “Preliminary Observations From An Incomplete History of African SFF”, Wole Talabi (SFWA)
• “The Line Between Science Fiction and Fantasy Is Blurring and I’m Into It”, Joy Sanchez Taylor (Apex 12/22)
• “When Black Boys Find Magic”, LaDarrion Williams (Fiyah Winter ’22)

Ember Award

• Afronauts Podcast
• Maurice Broaddus
• Alex Brown
• Ruoxi Chen
• Kate Elliott

Community Award

• Carl Brandon Society
• Clarion West
• Flights of Foundry
• Loyalty Bookstore’s Crowdcast
• dave ring

Finalists were selected by the Ignyte Awards Committee. The organizers say, “This year, we’ve added a slate of judges aged 12-18 to help select the YA and Middle Grade finalists! The philosophy is that kidlit categories should heavily weigh the opinions of the people they’re written for.” Public voting for the winners is open now through June 30, 20223 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. For more information, see the Ignyte Awards website.

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