Announcing the 2021 Locus Awards Winners

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation announced the winners in each category of the 2021 Locus Awards on June 26, 2021, during the virtual Locus Awards Weekend. Connie Willis (Doomsday Book, The Last of the Winnebagos) MCed the awards ceremony. Additional weekend events included readings and panels with leading authors. You can watch the ceremony HERE. Connie Willis is a great, laugh-out-loud speaker.

The Locus Awards are in their 50th year, voted on by the readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine Locus.    Scifi.radio announced the nominees here.

The links are to sites where you can buy or read the story. There are also synopsis and illustrations for most nominees covering decades of the Awards here: worldswithoutend

The all time leader in Locus nominations is Robert Silverberg, the most wins by Gardner Dozois. 

What do you think of these selections? Did your favorites win? Did you notice that all 5 novel category winners are women? I think that’s a first!

Here are all the 2021 nominees and winners of the Locus Awards:

Science Fiction Novel

• WINNER: Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

• Machine, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
• Attack Surface, Cory Doctorow (Tor; Ad Astra)
• Unconquerable Sun, Kate Elliott (Tor)
• Agency, William Gibson (Berkley; Viking UK)
• The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor; Solaris)
• War of the Maps, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
• The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US & UK)
• The Last Emperox, John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK)
• Interlibrary Loan, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

Fantasy Novel

• WINNER: The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US & UK)

• The Trouble with Peace, Joe Abercrombie (Orbit US; Gollancz)
• The Angel of the Crows, Katherine Addison (Tor; Solaris)
• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK)
• The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit)
• Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tordotcom)
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Tegen Books; Allen & Unwin; Gollancz)
• The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
• Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga; Solaris)
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab (Tor; Titan UK)

Horror Novel

• WINNER: Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)

• Devolution, Max Brooks (Del Rey; Century)
• Plain Bad Heroines, Emily M. Danforth (Morrow)
• Beowulf, Maria Dahvana Headley (MCD x FSG Originals)
• The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix (Quirk)
• The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan)
• The Deep, Alma Katsu (Putnam; Bantam Press UK)
• The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher (Saga)
• The Hole, Hiroko Oyamada (New Directions)
• Survivor Song, Paul Tremblay (Morrow; Titan)

Young Adult Novel

• WINNER: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)

• Over the Woodward Wall, A. Deborah Baker (Tordotcom)
• The Silvered Serpents, Roshani Chokshi (Wednesday)
• The Scapegracers, Hannah Abigail Clarke (Erewhon)
• Legendborn, Tracy Deonn (McElderry; Simon & Schuster UK)
• Deathless Divide, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray; Titan)
• A Song Below Water, Bethany C. Morrow (Tor Teen)
• Shadowshaper Legacy, Daniel José Older (Scholastic)
• Race to the Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Rick Riordan Presents)
• A Peculiar Peril, Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

First Novel

• WINNER: Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)

• The Vanished Birds, Simon Jimenez (Del Rey; Titan)
• The Space Between Worlds, Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey; Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Unspoken Name, A.K. Larkwood (Tor; Tor UK)
• Beneath the Rising, Premee Mohamed (Solaris)
• Architects of Memory, Karen Osborne (Tor)
• The Bone Shard Daughter, Andrea Stewart (Orbit US & UK)
• Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas (Swoon Reads)
• The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Candlewick; Walker UK)
• Hench, Natalie Zina Walschots (Morrow)

Novella

• WINNER: Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom)

• The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, Zen Cho (Tordotcom)
• Finna, Nino Cipri (Tordotcom)
• Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders, Aliette de Bodard (JABberwocky)
• Seven of Infinities, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
• Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey (Tordotcom)
• The Four Profound Weaves, R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)
• Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
• Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom)
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

Novellete

• WINNER: “The Pill“, Meg Elison (Big Girl)

• “If You Take My Meaning“, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com 2/11/20)
•  “The Inaccessibility of Heaven“, Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny 07-08/20)
• “Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super“, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 05-06/20)
• “A Whisper of Blue”, Ken Liu (The Book of Dragons)
• “A City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat“, Usman T. Malik (Tor.com 10/21/20)
• “Two Truths and a Lie“, Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
• “Fairy Tales for Robots”, Sofia Samatar (Made to Order)
• “Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo“, Catherynne M. Valente (Strange Horizons 9/7/20)
• “A Stick of Clay, in the Hands of God, is Infinite Potential“, JY Neon Yang (Clarkesworld 5/20)

Short Story

• WINNER: “Little Free Library“, Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com 4/8/20)

• “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse“, Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• “In the Lands of the Spill“, Aliette de Bodard (Avatars Inc)
• “Dresses Like White Elephants“, Meg Elison (Uncanny 5-6/20)
• “The Sycamore and the Sybil“, Alix E. Harrow (Uncanny 3-4/20)
• “The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods“, Maria Dahvana Headley (Tor.com 1/23/20)
• “Wait for Night“, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com 9/02/20)
• “The Mermaid Astronaut“, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/27/20)
• “50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know“, Ken Liu (Uncanny 11-12/20)
• “Open House on Haunted Hill“, John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)

Anthology

• WINNER: The Book of Dragons, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Harper Voyager UK; Harper Voyager US)

• A Phoenix First Must Burn, Patrice Caldwell, ed. (Viking; Hot Key)
• The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 5, Neil Clarke, ed. (Night Shade)
• Edited By, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Subterranean)
• Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Zelda Knight & Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald, eds. (Aurelia Leo)
• Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World that Wouldn’t Die, dave ring, ed. (Neon Hemlock)
• Made to Order, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction Vol. 1, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Saga)
• Africanfuturism, Wole Talabi, ed. (Brittle Paper)
• The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Vintage)

Collection

• WINNER: The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu (Saga; Head of Zeus)

• The Best of Elizabeth Bear, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean)
• Big Girl, Meg Elison (PM)
• The Best of Jeffrey Ford, Jeffrey Ford (PS)
• Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel, Julian K. Jarboe (Lethe)
• If It Bleeds, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
• Analog/Virtual: And Other Simulations of Your Future, Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Hachette India)
• The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean)
• Nine Bar Blues, Sheree Renée Thomas (Third Man)
• The Midnight Circus, Jane Yolen (Tachyon)

Magazine

• WINNER: Tor.com

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

Publisher

• WINNER: Tor

• Angry Robot
• DAW
• Del Rey
• Gollancz
• Orbit
• Saga
• Small Beer
• Subterranean
• Tordotcom

Editor

• WINNER: Ellen Datlow

• John Joseph Adams
• Neil Clarke
• C.C. Finlay
• Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Diana M. Pho
• Jonathan Strahan
• Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
• Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
• Sheila Williams

Artist

• WINNER: John Picacio

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

Nonfiction

• WINNER: The Magic of Terry Pratchett, Marc Burrows (White Owl)

• Plants in Science Fiction: Speculative Vegetation, Katherine E. Bishop & David Higgins & Jerry Määttä, eds. (University of Wales Press)
• Re-Enchanted: The Rise of Children’s Fantasy Literature in the Twentieth Century, Maria Sachiko Cecire (University of Minnesota Press)
• Inventing Tomorrow: H.G. Wells and the Twentieth Century, Sarah Cole (Columbia University Press)
• Bradbury Beyond Apollo, Jonathan R. Eller (University of Illinois Press)
• Weird Westerns: Race, Gender, Genre, Kerry Fine & Michael K. Johnson & Rebecca M. Lush & Sara L. Spurgeon, eds. (University of Nebraska Press)
• Beaming Up and Getting Off: Life Before and Beyond Star Trek, Walter Koenig (Jacobs/Brown)
• Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century, Isiah Lavender III & Lisa Yaszek, eds. (Ohio State University Press)
• Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach, Andrew Milner & J.R. Burgmann (Liverpool University Press)
• The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume One: The 1930’s, David Ritter & Daniel Ritter, eds. (First Fandom Experience)

Illustrated and Art Book

• WINNER: The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions, Piers Bizony (Motorbooks)

• Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, art by Brecht Evens (Beehive)
• The Dark Crystal Bestiary: The Definitive Guide to the Creatures of Thra, Adam Cesare, art by Iris Compiet (Insight Editions)
• The Art of Frank Cho: A Twenty-Year Retrospective, Frank Cho (Flesk)
• Spectrum 27: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Katherine Chu & John Fleskes, eds. (Flesk)
• Masterpieces of Fantasy Art, Dian Hanson (Taschen)
• Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration, Jesse Kowalski, ed. (Norman Rockwell Museum/Abbeville)
• The Hobbit Sketchbook, Alan Lee (HarperCollins UK 2019; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• A Storm of Swords: The Illustrated Edition, George R.R. Martin, art by Gary Gianni (Bantam)
• Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta, J. David Spurlock, art by Frank Frazetta (Vanguard)

Special Award 2021: Amplifying Diverse Voices

• Bill Campbell & Rosarium Publishing

-30-