Winners of the 2020 Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) Amateur Writing Contest were announced during Capclave, held online October 17-18, 2020.

The Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College will host an online event on October 21, 2020 at 2 p.m. Eastern time, celebrating the winners of the 2020 Neukom Literary Awards.

The event is free and open to the public, and will include a panel discussion with winners Ted Chiang and Cadwell Turnbull, 2020 judge Sam J. Miller, and awards director Dan Rockmore. An author Q&A will follow.

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“The Partisan and the Witch” by Charlotte Honigman (Skull and Pestle: New Tales of Baba Yaga) is the winner of the 2020 Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) Small Press Award for Short Fiction. Other finalists were:

The winners of the inaugural Ignyte Awards, which “seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre,” were announced during FIYAHCON on October 17, 2020.

QueerSciFi.com has announced the winners of their annual flash fiction contest, with 300-word stories inspired by a one-word theme (2020’s theme was “Innovation”). The top three winners are Devon Widmer (first place), E.M. Hamill (second), and K.A. Masters (third), and the top 120 stories were published in the Innovation anthology. For more: <www.queerscifi.com>.

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The six-title shortlist for the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize has been announced, including the following titles of genre interest:

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, edited by Nisi Shawl (Rebellion) won the Brave New Words Award, announced by Starburst magazine during Octocon 2020, the National Irish Science Fiction Convention, held online October 9-11, 2020. Other finalists were:

Winners for the 2020 Geffen Awards for best science fiction and fantasy published in Hebrew were announced by the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy during Icon 2020, held online October 6-8, 2020.

Winners for the 2020 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards for Speculative Fiction have been announced:

American Poet Louise Glück has won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” Glück was named US Poet Laureate in 2003 and often draws inspiration from classical mythological figures. The 2020 prize amount is 10 million Swedish kronor, equal to about 1.1 million USD. Glück will give her Nobel lecture in the United States due to coronavirus travel ...Read More

“The Grotesques” by Sarah Hall won the 2020 BBC National Short Story Award. The award comes with a £15,000 prize and was announced live on BBC Radio 4 Front Row on October 6, 2020. This year marks the fourth time Hall was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, and she is now the first writer to ever win the award twice, having previously won in 2013.

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Finalists for the National Book Awards (NBA) in the Fiction, Young People’s Literature, and Translated Literature categories have been announced, including titles of genre interest.

The Fiction category includes Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (Ecco), A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet (Norton), and Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (Pantheon).

The Young People’s Literature category includes King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender (Scholastic) and The Way Back by ...Read More

The European Science Fiction Society (ESFS) Hall of Fame Awards, Achievement Awards, and Chrysalis Award winners were announced during Futuricon, the 2020 Eurocon, held online October 2-4, 2020.

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) announced Howard David Ingham and Claire Fitzpatrick as recipients of the 2020 Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for Non-fiction Writing. The fund committee is empowered annually to award a “flexible amount.” The fund is named for a former president of HWA who died in 2014.

Most of the other HWA scholarships were previously announced.

For more information, including rules for applying for HWA scholarships (many of ...Read More

The inaugural shortlist for the Diverse Book Awards, created “to highlight the best of the diverse voices published in the UK during 2019, both traditionally and self-published,” has been announced. Works of genre interest follow.

Best Children’s

Temporary by Hilary Leichter (Coffee House) and How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang (Riverhead) are on the seven-title shortlist for the 2020 First Novel Prize, given by the Center for Fiction “to honor the best debut fiction of the year.”

The shortlist and winners are decided by “a committee of distinguished American writers.” The winner will be announced during the Center’s Annual Benefit & Awards ...Read More

Shortlists for the 2020 Books Are My Bag (BAMB) Readers Awards have been announced, including titles and authors of genre interest in the following categories:

The winner, finalists, and honorable mentions for the 2020 Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction have been announced:

The Salam Award, “a short story award to promote science fiction and related genres of writing in Pakistan,” ...Read More

Winners for the 2020 Imadjinn Awards, including several titles of genre interest, were announced on September 27, 2020, the last day of the Imaginarium 2020 Virtual Conference and Convention.

Chosen Spirits by Samit Basu (Simon & Schuster) and Moustache by S. Hareesh (HarperCollins India) are on the five-title shortlist for the 2020 JCB Prize.

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has announced the winners of the 2020 Elgin Awards, presented for the best poetry chapbook and the best full-length poetry book in the speculative genre. The Elgin Awards are named after the founder of SFPA, Suzette Haden Elgin.

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell (Hogarth US & UK) won the 34th Arthur C. Clarke Award, announced online. Serpell receives a check for £2,020 and an engraved bookend.

Other finalists were:

Of the Blood by Cameo Renae (self-published) is on five-title shortlist for the 2020 Kindle Storyteller Award. The award, inaugurated in 2017, comes with a £20,000 prize and “is open to writers publishing in English in any genre, who publish their work through Kindle Direct Publishing” on Amazon.co.uk.

For more information, see the award page.

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Pine by Francine Toon (Doubleday) has won the 2020 McIlvanney Prize, given by the Scottish writing festival Bloody Scotland “to the best Scottish Crime book of the year.” Toon receives a £1,000 prize “and nationwide promotion in Waterstones.” Judges were Stuart Cosgrove, James Crawford, and Karen Robinson.

For more information, see the Bloody Scotland website.

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Bestiary by K-Ming Chang (One World) and How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang (Riverhead) are among the honorees of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35, “a se­­lection of five fiction writers under the age of 35 whose debut work promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.” Each winner receives $1,000 and will be honored in an online ceremony on October 20, ...Read More

The winners of the 2020 Ditmar Awards for Australian SF were announced in an online ceremony on September 18, 2020:

Longlists for the National Book Awards (NBA) in the Fiction, Young People’s Literature, and Translated Literature categories have been announced, including titles of genre interest.

The Fiction category includes Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (Ecco), If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan (Norton), A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet (Norton), and Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (Pantheon).

The Young People’s Literature category includes King and the Dragonflies ...Read More

The New York Public Library announced Bryan Washington’s Lot (Atlantic) as the winner of its Young Lions Fiction Award for 2020. The $10,000 prize is awarded by a panel of judges “each year to a writer age 35 or younger for a novel or a collection of short stories.” 2019’s winner was Ling Ma’s Severance (Farrar, Straus, Giroux).

For more information, see the official website.

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