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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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Congratulations are in order for the inaugural Ignyte Awards finalists, who were revealed by the FIYAHCON 2020 Committee on Monday! As FIYAH announced earlier this month, the Ignyte Awards “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.” According to the announcement, those on the shortlist “represent the brightest lights in speculative fiction’s future,” and winners will be announced during the weekend of the very first FIYAHCON, to take place virtually October 17-18. Click through to see the finalists below, and make sure to cast your votes!

Best Novel – Adult

for novel-length (40k+ words) works intended for the adult audience

The Dragon Republic – R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)

Gods of Jade and Shadow – Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)

Jade War – Fonda Lee (Orbit)

Storm of Locusts – Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga Press)

Kingdom of Copper – S. A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)

 

Best Novel – YA

for novel-length (40k+ words) works intended for the young adult audience

Pet – Akwaeke Emezi (Make Me a World/PRH Children’s Books)

Everlasting Rose – Dhonielle Clayton (Freeform)

Slay – Brittney Morris (Simon Pulse)

War Girls – Tochi Onyebuchi (Razorbill)

We Hunt the Flame – Hafsah Faizal (FSG BYR)*

*BYR: “Books for Young Readers”

 

Best in MG

for works intended for the middle grade audience

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky – Kwame Mbalia (Disney Hyperion)

Just South of Home – Karen Strong (S&S BYR)*

The Mystwick School of Musicraft – Jessica Khoury (Audible/HMH BYR)* **

Other Words for Home – Jasmine Warga (HarperCollins)

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe – Carlos Hernandez (Disney Hyperion)

*BYR: “Books for Young Readers”

** audiobook released in 2019

 

Best Novella

for speculative works ranging from 17,500-39,999 words

The Deep – Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes (Gallery/Saga Press)

The Survival of Molly Southbourne – Tade Thompson (Tor/Forge (Tor.com))

The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday – Saad Z. Hossain (Tor/Forge (Tor.com))

This is How You Lose the Time War – Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar (Gallery/Saga Press)

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 – P. Djèlí Clark (Tor/Forge (Tor.com))

 

Best Novelette

for speculative works ranging from 7,500-17,499 words

Emergency Skin – N K Jemisin for the Amazon Forward Collection

While Dragons Claim the Sky – Jen Brown for FIYAH Literary Magazine

Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy – JY Neon Yang for Tor.com

The Archronology of Love – Caroline Yoachim for Lightspeed

Omphalos – Ted Chiang for Exhalation: Stories

 

Best Short Story

for speculative works ranging from 2,000-7,499 words

Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island – Nibedita Sen for Nightmare Magazine

Dune Song – Suyi Davies Okungbowa for Apex Magazine

And Now His Lordship is Laughing – Shiv Ramdas for Strange Horizons

Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan – Christopher Caldwell for Uncanny Magazine

A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy – Rebecca Roanhorse for Mythic Dream

 

Best in Speculative Poetry

Heaven is Expensive – Ruben Reyes, Jr. for Strange Horizons

Elegy for the Self as Villeneuve’s Beast – Brandon O’Brien for Uncanny Magazine

A Conversation Between the Embalmed Heads of Lampião and Maria Bonita on Public Display at the Baiano State Forensic Institute, Circa Mid-20th Century – Woody Dismukes for Strange Horizons

Those Who Tell the Stories – Davian Aw for Strange Horizons

goddess in forced repose – Tamara Jerée for Uncanny Magazine

 

Critics Award

for reviews and analysis of the field of speculative literature

Jesse – Bowties & Books

Charles Payseur – Quick Sip Reviews

Maria Haskins

Alex Brown – Tor.com

Liz Bourke

 

Best Fiction Podcast

for excellence in audio performance and production for speculative fiction

PodCastle – Editors Jen R. Albert, Cherae Clark, Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali, Host + Assistant Editor Setsu Uzume, & Audio Producer Peter Adrian Behravesh

Nightlight Podcast – Tonia Thompson

LeVar Burton Reads – LeVar Burton

Beneath Ceaseless Skies – Editor Scott H. Andrews

Obsidian Podcast – Co-Creators, Producers, and Writers Adetola Abdulkadir & Safiyah Cheatam

 

Best Artist

for contributions in visual speculative storytelling

Geneva Bowers

Nilah Magruder

Grace P. Fong

John Picacio

Paul Lewin

 

Best Comics Team

for comics, graphic novels, and sequential storytelling

These Savage Shores – Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Vitorio Astone, Aditya Bidikar, & Tim Daniel

Blackbird Vol. 1 – Sam Humphries, Jen Bartel, & Triona Farrell

Excellence – Khary Randolph, Brandon Thomas, Emilio Lopez, & Deron Bennett

Coda – Simon Spurrier, Matías Bergara, Michael Doig, Jim Campbell, & Colin Bell

Bitter Root – David F Walker, Chuck Brown, & Sanford Greene

 

Best Anthology/Collected Works

The Mythic Dream – Editors Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe

Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Fiction in Translation – Editor, Translator Ken Liu

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color – Editor Nisi Shawl

This Place: 150 Years Retold – Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, Brandon Mitchell, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, David A. Robertson, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Jen Storm, Richard Van Camp, Katherena Vermette, Chelsea Vowel | illustrated by Tara Audibert, Kyle Charles, GMB Chomichuk, Natasha Donovan, Scott B. Henderson, Ryan Howe, Andrew Lodwick, Jen Storm | colour by Scott A. Ford, Donovan Yaciuk

A People’s Future of the United States – Victor LaValle & John Joseph Adams

 

Best in Creative Nonfiction

for works related to the field of speculative fiction

AfroSurrealism: The African Diaspora’s Surrealist Fiction – Rochelle Spencer (Routledge)

The Dark Fantastic – Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (NYU Press)

Black Horror Rising – Tananarive Due (Uncanny Magazine)

Our Opinions are Correct – Charlie Jane Anders & Analee Newitz

Tongue-Tied: A Catalog of Losses – Layla Al-Bedawi (Fireside Fiction)

 

The Ember Award

for unsung contributions to genre

Tananarive Due

LeVar Burton

Keidra Chaney

Nisi Shawl

Malon Edwards

 

The Community Award

for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre

Beth Phelan

Mary Robinette Kowal

Diana M. Pho

Writing The Other – Nisi Shawl + K Tempest Bradford

Strange Horizons – Gautam Bhatia, Vajra Chandrasekera, Joyce Chng, Kate Cowan, Tahlia Day, William Ellwood, Rebecca Evans, Ciro Faienza, Lila Garrott, Dan Hartland, Amanda Jean, Lulu Kadhim, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Catherine Krahe, Anaea Lay, Dante Luiz, Heather McDougal, AJ Odasso, Vanessa Rose Phin, Clark Seanor, Romie Stott, Aishwarya Subramanian, Fred G. Yost, and the SH copyediting team and first readers

 

You can cast your votes here until September 11, 11:59 Eastern Time.

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