2023 Aurealis Awards Shortlist

Best Science Fiction Novel

• Minds of Sand and Light, Kylie Chan (HarperCollins)
• The Comforting Weight of Water, Roanna McClelland (Wakefield)
• Aliens: Bishop, T.R. Napper (Titan)
• Dronikus, Marko Newman (AndAlso)
• Time of the Cat, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)
• Traitor’s Run, Keith Stevenson (coeur de lion)

Best Science Fiction Novella

• “Eight or Die”, Thoraiya Dyer (Clarkesworld 11/23)
• Killware, Tim Hawken (Seahawk)
• Once We Flew, Nikky Lee (self-published)
• The Last to Go, A.D. Lyall (Shawline)
• “Showdown on Planetoid Pencrux”, Garth Nix (Asimov’s, 7-8/23)
• Bitters, Kaaron Warren (Cemetery Dance)

Best Science Fiction Short Story

• “Beirut Robot Hyenadome”, Thoraiya Dyer (Shoreline of Infinity Autumn ’23)
• “Change YourView”, Matt Tighe (Nature: Futures)
• “Trial by Fire”, Matt Tighe (Etherea 10/23)
• “Hollywood Animals”, Corey J. White (Interzone 9/23)
• “Customer Service”, Emily Wyeth (Mother’s milk)

Best Fantasy Novel

• Shadow Baron, Davinia Evans (Orbit / Hachette)
• The Will of the Many, James Islington (Text)
• The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)
• Of Knives and Night-blooms, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)
• The Blood-Born Dragon, J.C. Rycroft (BattleWarrior)
• How to be Remembered, Michael Thompson (Allen & Unwin)

Best Fantasy Novella

• The Leaves Forget, Alan Baxter (Absinthe)
• “Hole World”, J.S. Breukelaar (Apex 11-12/23)
• The Wizard Must be Stopped!, Taylen Carver (Stories Rule)
• “A Marked Man”, T.R. Napper (Grimdark 10/23)
• A Wicked Blade, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)
• Gate Sinister, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)

Best Fantasy Short Story

• “Sea Mist, Shore Witch”, Mikhaeyla Kopievsky (Where the Weird Things Are, Vol. 2)
• “What Bones These Tides Bring”, Nikky Lee (Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa)
• “The Reeds Remember”, Juliet Marillier (The Other Side of Never)
• “The Dark Man, By Referral”, Chuck McKenzie (This Fresh Hell)
• “The Unexpected Excursion of the Murder Mystery Writing Witches”, Garth Nix (The Book of Witches)
• “12 Days of Witchmas”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (self-published)

Best Horror Novel

• Borderland, Graham Akhurst (UWA)
• When Ghosts Call Us Home, Katya de Becerra (Macmillan)
• The Graveyard Shift, Maria Lewis (Datura)
• Some Shall Break, Ellie Marney (Allen & Unwin)
• Cretaceous Canyon, Deborah Sheldon (Severed)
• Bunny, S.E. Tolsen (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Best Horror Novella

• The Morass, Zachary Ashford (Crystal Lake)
• The Leaves Forget, Alan Baxter (Absinthe Books)
• “Hole world”, J.S. Breukelaar (Apex 11-12/23)
• “Quicksilver”, J.S. Breukelaar (Vandal: Stories of Damage)
• Radcliffe, Madeleine D’Este (Deadset)
• Bitters, Kaaron Warren (Cemetery Dance)

Best Horror Short Story

• “Il Re Giallo”, Matthew R. Davis (Strange Aeon: 2023)
• “Death Interrupted”, Pamela Jeffs (Body of Work)
• “Stokehold”, Pamela Jeffs (SNAFU: PUNK’D)
• “There are Things on Me”, Matt Tighe (Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories with Bite)
• “Trial by Fire”, Matt Tighe (Etherea 10/23)
• “Blood Born”, Pauline Yates (Midnight Echo 10/23)

Best Young Adult Novel

• Borderland, Graham Akhurst (UWA)
• When Ghosts Call Us Home, Katya de Becerra (Macmillan)
• Archives of Despair, Caleb Finn (Penguin Random House Australia)
• The Weaver, Melanie Kanicky (MidnightSun)
• The Spider and Her Demons, sydney khoo (Penguin Random House Australia)
• The Non-Magical Declan Moore, Nathan Taylor (Magpie Drive)

Best Young Adult Short Story

• “The Lingering Taste of Your Last Supper”, Matthew Davis (Shallow Waters)
• “Moonfall”, Alison Evans (Everything Under the Moon)
• “Precarious Waters”, Pamela Jeffs (Precarious Waters and Other Dark Tales)
• “Follow The Water”, J. Palmer (Where the Weird Things Are, Vol. 2)
• “An ’80s Tenement Love Story”, Anthony Panegyres (Bourbon Penn 10/23)
• “Integrated Learning”, C H Pearce (Aurealis 11/23)

Best Children’s Fiction

• The Lonely Lighthouse of Elston-Fright, Reece Carter (Allen & Unwin)
• Ghost Book, Remy Lai (Allen & Unwin)
• The Letterbox Tree, Rebecca Lim & Kate Gordon (Walker Books Australia)
• Deadlands: Hunted, Skye Melki-Wegner (Walker Books Australia)
• The Hotel Witch, Jessica Miller (Text)
• Spellhound, Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)

Best Collection

• The Measure of Sorrow: Stories, J. Ashley-Smith (Meerkat)
• The Gold Leaf Executions, Helen Marshall (Unsung Stories)
• Firelight, John Morrissey (Text)

Best Anthology

• Strangely Enough, Gillian Hagenus, ed. (MidnightSun)
• An Unexpected Party, Seth Malacari, ed. (Fremantle)
• The Book of Witches, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (HarperVoyager)

Best Graphic Novel/Illustrated Work

• MEAT4BURGERS, Christof Bogacs & Beck Kubrick (self-published)
• Frankenstein Monstrance Preview #1, Jason Franks & Tam Morris (IPI Comics)
• Monomyth, David Hazan & Cecilia Lo Valvo (Mad Cave Studios)
• Ember and the Island of Lost Creatures, Jason Pamment (Allen & Unwin)

Winners will be announced in May. For more information, see the official website.

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