The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the winners in each category of the 2020 Locus Awards. Winners were announced June 27, 2020 at the virtual Locus Awards Weekend; Connie Willis MCed the awards ceremony, with co-presenter Daryl Gregory.

Additional weekend events included readings and panels with leading authors.

The Locus Awards are normally given out at the Locus Awards Weekend each year in Seattle, Washington. This year, of course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it had to be done virtually, so the entire weekend event was held online. Here’s the ceremony itself:

Locus magazine was founded in 1968 in New York by Charles N. Brown, Ed Meskys, and Dave Vanderwerf . They’ve given the Locus Award every year in various forms since 1970. Gardner Dozois has the most wins.

2020 Nominees and Winners:
SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• WINNER: The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)

• The Testaments, Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese; Chatto & Windus)
• Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
• Empress of Forever, Max Gladstone (Tor)
• The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
• Luna: Moon Rising, Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)
• The Future of Another Timeline, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)
• Fleet of Knives, Gareth L. Powell (Titan US & UK)
• The Rosewater Insurrection/The Rosewater Redemption, Tade Thompson (Orbit US & UK)
• Wanderers, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Solaris)

FANTASY NOVEL

• WINNER: Middlegame, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)

• Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; Gollancz)
• A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Berkley; Viking Canada; Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie (Orbit US & UK)
• Jade War, Fonda Lee (Orbit US & UK)
• Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
• The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday; Harvill Secker)
• Storm of Locusts, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
• The Iron Dragon’s Mother, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
• Dead Astronauts, Jeff VanderMeer (MCD; Fourth Estate)

HORROR NOVEL

• WINNER: Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James (Riverhead; Hamish Hamilton)

• Imaginary Friend, Stephen Chbosky (Grand Central; Orion)
• Prisoner of Midnight, Barbara Hambly (Severn House)
• Curious Toys, Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland)
• The Grand Dark, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager US & UK)
• The Institute, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Twisted Ones, T. Kingfisher (Saga)
• Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju, Kim Newman (Titan US & UK)
• The Pursuit of William Abbey, Claire North (Orbit US & UK)
• The Toll, Cherie Priest (Tor)

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

• WINNER: Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion)

• King of Scars, Leigh Bardugo (Imprint; Orion)
• The Wicked King, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key)
• Pet, Akwaeke Emezi (Make Me a World; Faber & Faber)
• Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (TorTeen)
• Destroy All Monsters, Sam J. Miller (Harper Teen)
• Angel Mage, Garth Nix (Katherine Tegen; Allen & Unwin; Gollancz)
• War Girls, Tochi Onyebuchi (Razorbill)
• The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman (Knopf; Penguin UK & David Fickling)
• Shadow Captain, Alastair Reynolds (Orbit US; Gollancz)

FIRST NOVEL

• WINNER: Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)

• The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)
• Magic for Liars, Sarah Gailey (Tor)
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
• A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor)
• Infinite Detail, Tim Maughan (MCD x FSG Originals)
• Finder, Suzanne Palmer (DAW)
• A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley)
• Waste Tide, Chen Qiufan (Tor; Head of Zeus)
• The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling (Harper Voyager)

NOVELLA

• WINNER: This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga)

• “A Time to Reap“, Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 12/19)
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
• “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
• Desdemona and the Deep, C.S.E. Cooney (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, Saad Z. Hossain (Tor.com Publishing)
• Permafrost, Alastair Reynolds (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)
• The Ascent to Godhood, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

NOVELETTE

• WINNER: “Omphalos”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)

• “Erase, Erase, Erase”, Elizabeth Bear (F&SF 9-10/19)
• “For He Can Creep“, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19)
• “A Country Called Winter”, Theodora Goss (Snow White Learns Witchcraft)
• “Late Returns”, Joe Hill (Full Throttle)
• “Emergency Skin”, N.K. Jemisin (Forward)
• “The Justified”, Ann Leckie (The Mythic Dream)
• “Phantoms of the Midway”, Seanan McGuire (The Mythic Dream)
• “Binti: Sacred Fire”, Nnedi Okorafor (Binti: The Complete Trilogy)
• “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye“, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19)

SHORT STORY

• WINNER: “The Bookstore at the End of America”, Charlie Jane Anders (A People’s Future of the United States)

• “Lest We Forget“, Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 5-6/19)
• “The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex”, Tobias S. Buckell (New Suns)
• “It’s 2059, and the Rich Kids Are Still Winning“, Ted Chiang (New York Times 5/27/19)
• “Fisher-Bird”, T. Kingfisher (The Mythic Dream)
• “I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we’re getting married“, Fonda Lee (MIT Technology Review 12/27/19)
• “The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear“, Kelly Link (Tin House ’19)
• “Thoughts and Prayers“, Ken Liu (Future Tense 1/26/19)
• “A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”, Rebecca Roanhorse (The Mythic Dream)
• “A Catalog of Storms“, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19)

ANTHOLOGY

• WINNER: New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, Nisi Shawl, ed. (Solaris US & UK)

• Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Saga)
• The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
• A People’s Future of the United States, Victor LaValle & John Joseph Adams, eds. (One World)
• Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, Ken Liu, ed. (Tor)
• The Mythic Dream, Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe, eds. (Saga)
• The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Thirteen, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US & UK)
• Mission Critical, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US & UK)
• The Best of Uncanny, Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, eds. (Subterranean)
• The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Vintage)

COLLECTION

• WINNER: Exhalation, Ted Chiang (Knopf; Picador)

• Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
• The Best of Greg Egan, Greg Egan (Subterranean)
• Snow White Learns Witchcraft, Theodora Goss (Mythic Delirium)
• Full Throttle, Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz)
• Meet Me in the Future, Kameron Hurley (Tachyon)
• The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Tachyon)
• The Best of R.A. Lafferty, R.A. Lafferty (Gollancz)
• Hexarchate Stories, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US & UK)
• Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea, Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer)

MAGAZINE

• WINNER: Tor.com

• Analog
• Asimov’s
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Clarkesworld
• F&SF
• File 770
• Lightspeed
• Strange Horizons
• Uncanny

PUBLISHER

• WINNER: Tor

• Angry Robot
• DAW
• Gollancz
• Harper Voyager
• Orbit
• Saga
• Small Beer
• Subterranean
• Tachyon

EDITOR

• WINNER: Ellen Datlow

• John Joseph Adams
• Neil Clarke
• Gardner Dozois
• C.C. Finlay
• Jonathan Strahan
• Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
• Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
• Sheila Williams
• Navah Wolfe

ARTIST

• WINNER: John Picacio

• Kinuko Y. Craft
• Galen Dara
• Julie Dillon
• Bob Eggleton
• Donato Giancola
• Kathleen Jennings
• Shaun Tan
• Charles Vess
• Michael Whelan

NON-FICTION

• WINNER: Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction, Lisa Kröger & Melanie R. Anderson (Quirk)

• Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Desirina Boskovich, ed. (Abrams Image)
• The Time Machine Hypothesis: Extreme Science Meets Science Fiction, Damien Broderick (Springer)
• Reading Backwards: Essays and Reviews, 2005-2018, John Crowley (Subterranean)
• Joanna Russ, Gwyneth Jones (University of Illinois Press)
• Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Markley (University of Illinois Press)
• The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound)
• Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected, Nnedi Okorafor (Simon & Schuster/TED)
• The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, Mallory O’Meara (Hanover Square)
• HG Wells: A Literary Life, Adam Roberts (Palgrave)

ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK

• WINNER: Spectrum 26: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, John Fleskes, ed. (Flesk)

• The Illustrated World of Tolkien, David Day (Thunder Bay; Pyramid)
• Julie Dillon, Daydreamer’s Journey (Julie Dillon)
• Ed Emshwiller, Dream Dance: The Art of Ed Emshwiller, Jesse Pires, ed. (Anthology Editions)
• Donato Giancola, Middle-earth: Journeys in Myth and Legend (Dark Horse)
• Raya Golden, Starport, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
• Fantasy World-Building: A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures, Mark A. Nelson (Dover)
• Tran Nguyen, Ambedo: Tran Nguyen (Flesk)
• Yuko Shimizu, The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde (Beehive)
• Bill Sienkiewicz, The Island of Doctor Moreau, H.G. Wells (Beehive)

SPECIAL AWARD 2020: INCLUSIVITY AND REPRESENTATION EDUCATION

• WINNER: Writing the Other, Nisi Shawl, Cynthia Ward, & K. Tempest Bradford

For more information about this year’s virtual Locus Awards ceremony and events, please visit the 2020 Locus Awards Information page.

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