World Fantasy Convention is a literary gathering of professionals in the fantasy genre, including editors, publishers, artists, authors, dealers, readers, and serious-minded fans.

The World Fantasy Awards 2020 were announced in a virtual ceremony by World Fantasy Con 2020 on November 1.

The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the outstanding achievement in fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous annual convention as the central focus of the event. The convention is generally held on one of the two weekends bracketing Halloween, with some light early-bird programming usually beginning Thursday evening and the convention generally concluding Sunday afternoon, usually shortly after the World Fantasy Award Banquet. The awards banquet is a culminating highlight of the convention, offering awards ranging from lifetime achievement, to various aspects of art and literature. Additional highlights include an autograph reception, and often some sort of reception honoring the arts.

This year’s event was to have taken place in Salt Lake City, Utah. It became a virtual event, following in the example set by countless other conventions in the wake of the global pandemic that still sweeps our planet.

Here are the winners:

NOVEL

• Queen of the Conquered, by Kacen Callender (Orbit)

NOVELLA

• Silver in the Wood, by Emily Tesh (Tor.com)

SHORT FICTION

• “Read After Burning,” by Maria Dahvana Headley, (A People’s Future of the United States)

ANTHOLOGY

• New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, edited by Nisi Shawl (Solaris)

COLLECTION

• Song For the Unraveling of the World: Stories, by Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press)

ARTIST

• Kathleen Jennings

SPECIAL AWARD – PROFESSIONAL

• Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, for The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (New York University Press)

SPECIAL AWARD – NON-PROFESSIONAL

• Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Laura E. Goodin and Esko Suoranta, for Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

• Rowena Morrill
• Karen Joy Fowler

This year’s judges were: Gwenda Bond, Galen Dara, Michael Kelly, Victor LaValle, and Adam Roberts.

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