World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction

This World Fantasy Award is given to the fantasy short story voted best by a panel of judges, and presented each year at the World Fantasy Convention.

After Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess won the 1991 Short Fiction award in 1991—for the "A Midsummer Night's Dream" issue of The Sandman—comics were restricted to the Special Award: Professional category.[1][2]

Award winners and finalists

1989

WFC 1989 was held in held Seattle, Washington, and was chaired by Robert Doyle. Judges were Susan Allison, Ed Bryant, Lisa Goldstein, Peter Dennis Pautz and Jon White.

• Winner: "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station", John M. Ford
• "Night They Missed the Horror Show", Joe R. Lansdale
• "Life of Buddha", Lucius Shepard
• "Metastasis", Dan Simmons

2004

WFC 2004 was held in Tempe, Arizona. Judges were John Clute, Sherwood Smith, Michael Stackpole, Alain Nevant, and Scott Wyatt.

• Winner: "Don Ysidro", Bruce Holland Rogers (Polyphony 3, Wheatland Press)
• Circle of Cats, Charles de Lint (Viking)
• "Ancestor Money", Maureen F. McHugh (SCIFICTION)
• "Gus Dreams of Biting the Mailman", Alex Irvine (Trampoline, Small Beer Press)
• "O One", Chris Roberson (Live Without a Net, Roc)

2005

WFC 2005 was held in Madison, Wisconsin, and is chaired by Meg Turville-Heitz. Judges were Alis Rasmussen (Kate Elliott), Jeffrey Ford, Tim Lebbon, Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Jessica Amanda Salmonson.

• Winner: "Singing My Sister Down", Margo Lanagan (Black Juice, Allen & Unwin Australia)
• "The Wings of Meister Wilhelm", Theodora Goss (Polyphony 4, Wheatland Press)
• "The Faery Handbag", Kelly Link (The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm, Viking)
• "Reports of Certain Events in London", China Miéville (McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, Vintage)
• "Northwest Passage", Barbara Roden (Acquainted With The Night, Ash Tree Press)

2006

WFC 2006 was held in Austin, Texas. Judges were Steve Lockley, Barbara Roden, Victoria Strauss, Jeff VanderMeer, and Andrew Wheeler.

• Winner: "CommComm", George Saunders (The New Yorker, August 1, 2005)
• "Two Hearts", Peter S. Beagle (F&SF, October/November 2005)
• "Best New Horror", Joe Hill (Postscripts 3, Spring 2005)
• "The Other Grace", Holly Phillips (In the Palace of Repose, Prime Books)
• "La Peau Verte", Caitlín R. Kiernan (To Charles Fort, With Love, Subterranean Press)

2007

WFC 2007 was held in Saratoga Springs, New York. Judges for the event were Gavin Grant, Ed Greenwood, Jeremy Lassen, Jeff Mariotte, and Carsten Polzin.

• Winner: "Journey Into the Kingdom", M. Rickert (F&SF, May 2006)
• "The Way He Does It", Jeffrey Ford (Electric Velocipede 10, Spring 2006)
• "A Siege of Cranes", Benjamin Rosenbaum (Twenty Epics, All-Star Stories)
• "Another Word for Map Is Faith", Christopher Rowe (F&SF, August 2006)
• "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)", Geoff Ryman (F&SF, October/November 2006)

2008

WFC 2008 was held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

• Winner: "Singing of Mount Abora", Theodora Goss (Logorrhea, Bantam Spectra)
• "The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics", Daniel Abraham (Logorrhea, Bantam Spectra)
• "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change", Kij Johnson (The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, Viking)
• "Damned if you Don't", Rob Shearman (Tiny Deaths, Comma Press)
• "The Church on the Island", Simon Kurt Unsworth (At Ease with the Dead, Ash-Tree Press)

2009

WFC 2009 was held in San Jose, California.

• Winner: "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss", Kij Johnson (Asimov's 7/08)
• "Caverns of Mystery", Kage Baker (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy)
• "Pride and Prometheus", John Kessel (F&SF 1/08)
• "Our Man in the Sudan", Sarah Pinborough (The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories)
• "A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica", Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld Magazine 5/08)

2010

WFC 2010 was held in Columbus, Ohio in October 2010. Judges were Greg Ketter, Kelly Link, Jim Minz, Jürgen Snoeren, and Gary K. Wolfe.

• Winner: "The Pelican Bar", by Karen Joy Fowler (Eclipse Three)
• "A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc, or, A Lullaby", by Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons 6/09)
• "Singing on a Star", by Ellen Klages (Firebirds Soaring)
• "The Persistence of Memory, or This Space for Sale", by Paul Park (Postscripts 20/21: Edison’s Frankenstein )
• "In Waiting", by R. B. Russell (Putting the Pieces in Place)
• "Light on the Water", by Genevieve Valentine (Fantasy 10/09)

2011

WFC 2011 was held in San Diego, California in October 2011. Judges were Andrew Hook, Sacha Mamczak, Mark Rich, Sean Wallace, and Kim Wilkins.

• Winner: "Fossil—Figures," by Joyce Carol Oates (Stories: All-New Tales)
• "Beautiful Men," by Christopher Fowler (Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts, edited by Stephen Jones, Ulysses Press)
• "Booth's Ghost," by Karen Joy Fowler (What I Didn't See and Other Stories, Small Beer Press)
• "Ponies," by Kij Johnson (Tor.com)
• "Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us," by Mercurio D. Rivera (Black Static #18, 08/09.10)

See also

• World Fantasy Convention

External links

• World Fantasy Convention official site
• World Fantasy Awards, complete list of all winning and nominated works