| World Fantasy Award—Novella | |
| Awarded For: | The best fantasy story of 10,000 to 40,000 words published in English in the prior calendar year |
| Presenter: | World Fantasy Convention |
| Year: | 1982 |
| Holder: | Priya Sharma (Pomegranates) |
| Holder Label: | Most recent winner |
| Website: | worldfantasy.org/index.php/awards/ |
The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described by book critics such as The Guardian as a "prestigious fantasy prize", and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and science fiction). The World Fantasy Award—Novella is given each year for fantasy stories published in English. A work of fiction is eligible for the category if it is between 10,000 and 40,000 words in length; awards are also given out for longer pieces in the Novel category and shorter lengths in the Short Fiction category. The Novella category has been awarded annually since 1982, though between 1975—when the World Fantasy Awards were instated—and 1982 the short fiction category covered works of up to 40,000 words. In 2016, the name of the category was changed from Best Novella to Long Fiction, before reverting to Novella in 2018.
World Fantasy Award nominees and winners are decided by attendees and judges at the annual World Fantasy Convention. A ballot is posted in June for attendees of the current and previous two conferences to determine two of the finalists, and a panel of five judges adds three or more nominees before voting on the overall winner. The panel of judges is typically made up of fantasy authors and is chosen each year by the World Fantasy Awards Administration, which has the power to break ties. The final results are presented at the World Fantasy Convention at the end of October. Winners were presented with a statue in the form of a bust of H. P. Lovecraft through the 2015 awards; more recent winners receive a statuette of a tree.
During the 42 nomination years, 154 authors have had works nominated; 41 of them have won, including ties and co-authors. Only five authors have won more than once: Elizabeth Hand, with three wins out of nine nominations; Richard Bowes, with two wins out of three nominations; K. J. Parker, who also won twice out of three nominations; Ellen Klages, with two wins out of two nominations; and Kij Johnson, also with two wins out of two nominations. Of authors who have won at least once, Hand has the most nominations, followed by George R. R. Martin at five and Ursula K. Le Guin at four. Lucius Shepard has the most nominations without winning and the most overall at ten; he is followed by Kim Newman, who has six nominations without winning.
In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the work was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". Entries with a blue background and an asterisk (*) next to the writer's name have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominees on the shortlist.
* Winners| Year | Author | Work | Publisher/publication | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "" | ||||
| Donald M. Grant | ||||
| "Mythago Wood" | ||||
| "" | Whispers III (Doubleday) | |||
| "Confess the Seasons" | Perpetual Light (Warner Books) | |||
| "Beyond Any Measure" | Whispers | |||
| "" | Different Seasons (Viking Press) | |||
| "Horrible Imaginings" | Death (Playboy Press) | |||
| "Night's Swift Dragons" | Nightmare Seasons (Doubleday) | |||
| "Black Air" | ||||
| "" | Omni | |||
| "" | Heroic Visions (Ace Books) | |||
| "Nunc Dimittis" | (Dodd, Mead and Company) | |||
| Cheap Street | ||||
| "" | Interzone | |||
| "" | ||||
| "In the Sumerian Marshes" | Amazing Stories | |||
| "Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament" | Clive Barker's Books of Blood, Vol. II (Sphere Books) | |||
| "" | ||||
| "Nadelman's God" | Dark Gods (Viking Press) | |||
| "Dead Image" | Night Visions 2 (Dark Harvest) | |||
| "Do I Dare to Eat a Peach?" | Shadows 8 (Doubleday) | |||
| "Flight" | Imaginary Lands (Ace Books) | |||
| "" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Hatrack River" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Chance" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Night Visions 3 (Dark Harvest) | |||
| Axolotl Press | ||||
| "" | Night Cry | |||
| "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Best Friends" | Night Visions 4 (Dark Harvest) | |||
| "" | Masques II (Maclay & Associates) | |||
| "" | Liavek: Wizard's Row (Ace Books) | |||
| "Nesting Instinct" | (Arbor House) | |||
| "" | Omni | |||
| "Shades" | In the Field of Fire (Tor Books) | |||
| "" | Night Visions 5 (Dark Harvest) | |||
| "" | Viking Kestrel | |||
| "" | Night Visions 6 (Dark Harvest) | |||
| "" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Great Work of Time" | Novelty (Doubleday) | |||
| Axolotl Press | ||||
| Mark V. Ziesing | ||||
| "" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks" | Book of the Dead (Bantam Books) | |||
| "Bones" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Lovecraft's Legacy (Tor Books) | |||
| Legend Press | ||||
| "" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "" | (William Morrow and Company) | |||
| Axolotl Press | ||||
| "Gwydion and the Dragon" | Once Upon a Time (Legend Press) | |||
| Axolotl Press | ||||
| "" | Cold Shocks (Avon) | |||
| "To Become a Sorcerer" | Weird Tales | |||
| "" | MetaHorror (Abyss) | |||
| "Paperjack" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Uh-Oh City" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| Axolotl Press | ||||
| "Under the Crust" | Under the Crust (Wendigo) | |||
| "" | Full Spectrum 4 (Bantam Spectra) | |||
| Mark V. Ziesing | ||||
| "" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Wall, Stone, Craft" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Last Summer at Mars Hill" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Fee" | Borderlands 4 (Borderlands Press) | |||
| "" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Little Deaths (Millennium) | |||
| "Out of the Night, When the Full Moon Is Bright..." | (Carroll & Graf Publishers) | |||
| "" | Love In Vein (HarperPrism) | |||
| "Radio Waves" | Omni | |||
| "Ether OR" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Home for Christmas" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Full Spectrum 5 (Bantam Spectra) | |||
| "More Tomorrow" | Dark Terrors (Victor Gollancz) | |||
| Charnel House | ||||
| Viking Ariel | ||||
| "Beauty and the Opéra or The Phantom Beast" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Blood of the Dragon" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "GI Jesus" | Starlight 1 (Tor Books) | |||
| "Hell Hath Enlarged Herself" | Dark Terrors 2 (Victor Gollancz) | |||
| "Streetcar Dreams" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Coppola's Dracula" | (Robinson Publishing) | |||
| "" | Love In Vein II (HarperPrism) | |||
| "" | Bending the Landscape: Fantasy (White Wolf Publishing) | |||
| "" | Dark of the Night (Pumpkin Books) | |||
| "" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "Cold" | Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice (Chatto & Windus) | |||
| "Dragonfly" | Legends (Voyager Books) | |||
| "" | Legends (Voyager Books) | |||
| "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff" | Murder for Revenge (Delacorte Press) | |||
| "Sky Eyes" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Palace Corbie Eight (Merrimack Books) | |||
| "Crocodile Rock" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Scarlet and Gold" | Weird Tales | |||
| "" | Asimov's Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| American Fantasy Press | ||||
| "Blue Kansas Sky" | Blue Kansas Sky (Golden Gryphon Press) | |||
| "Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol" | Sci Fiction | |||
| "Mr. Dark's Carnival" | Shadows and Silence (Ash-Tree Press) | |||
| "Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower" | Black Heart, Ivory Bones (Avon Publications) | |||
| "Pelican Cay" | Dark Terrors 5 (Victor Gollancz) | |||
| "Seventy-Two Letters" | Vanishing Acts (Tor Books) | |||
| "" | (Leisure Books) | |||
| "Cleopatra Brimstone" | Redshift (Roc Books) | |||
| "Eternity and Afterward" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Tales from Earthsea (Harcourt) | |||
| "Karuna, Inc." | Fantastic Stories of the Imagination | |||
| "Struwwelpeter" | Sci Fiction | |||
| "" | Leviathan 3 (The Ministry of Whimsy Press) | |||
| HarperCollins | ||||
| "" | Conjunctions | |||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| PS Publishing | ||||
| "" | Trampoline (Small Beer Press) | |||
| "Dancing Men" | (Tor Books) | |||
| "" | Sci Fiction | |||
| "Exorcising Angels" | Exorcising Angels (Earthling Publications) | |||
| "" | (Tor Books) | |||
| "" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Golden City Far" | Flights (Roc Books) | |||
| PS Publishing | ||||
| "Soho Golem" | Sci Fiction | |||
| Prime Books | ||||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| Telos Publishing | ||||
| "" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "In the Machine" | Specimen Days (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) | |||
| "Magic for Beginners" | Magic for Beginners (Small Beer Press) | |||
| "UOUS" | (Science Fiction Book Club) | |||
| "Botch Town" | (Golden Gryphon Press) | |||
| Cemetery Dance Publications | ||||
| "" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "" | (MonkeyBrain Books) | |||
| "Map of Dreams" | Map of Dreams (Golden Gryphon Press) | |||
| PS Publishing | ||||
| "Cold Snap" | (MonkeyBrain Books) | |||
| "" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| PS Publishing | ||||
| "Stars Seen through Stone" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "If Angels Fight" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Good Boy" | Filter House (Aqueduct Press) | |||
| Bloomsbury Publishing | ||||
| "" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel" | Strange Roads (DreamHaven Books) | |||
| "Sea-Hearts" | X 6 (Coeur de Lion Publishing) | |||
| "Everland" | Everland and Other Stories (PS Publishing) | |||
| "I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Cern Zoo (Megazanthus Press) | |||
| PS Publishing | ||||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| "" | Stories (William Morrow and Company) | |||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| PS Publishing | ||||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| "" | Warriors (Tor Books) | |||
| ChiZine Publications | ||||
| "" | Subterranean Magazine | |||
| "Near Zennor" | (Jo Fletcher Books) | |||
| "Alice Through the Plastic Sheet" | (Jo Fletcher Books) | |||
| "Rose Street Attractors" | Ghosts by Gaslight (Harper Voyager) | |||
| "Silently and Very Fast" | Clarkesworld Magazine | |||
| "Let Maps to Others" | Subterranean Magazine | |||
| "Hand of Glory" | (Night Shade Books) | |||
| Tachyon Publications | ||||
| "" | (Subterranean Press) | |||
| "Sky" | Through Splintered Walls (Twelfth Planet Press) | |||
| "Wakulla Springs" | Tor.com | |||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| "" | Subterranean Magazine | |||
| "Burning Girls" | Tor.com | |||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| 2015 | Tachyon Publications | |||
| "" | Tor.com | |||
| "Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" | Subterranean Magazine | |||
| "Hollywood North" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "" | Tor.com | |||
| "Where the Trains Turn" | Tor.com | |||
| 2016 | PS Publishing | |||
| "Farewell Blues" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| "Guignol" | Horrorology (Jo Fletcher Books) | |||
| Tor.com | ||||
| "Waters of Versailles" | Tor.com | |||
| 2017 | Tor.com Publishing | |||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| "Bloodybones" | Whispered Echoes (Cemetery Dance Publications) | |||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| 2018 | Tor.com Publishing | |||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| Tachyon Publications | ||||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| TTA Press | ||||
| 2019 | "" | Clarkesworld Magazine | ||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| 2020 | Tor.com Publishing | |||
| Wounds (Saga Press) | ||||
| Saga Press | ||||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| 2021 | Tor.com Publishing | |||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| Tachyon Publications | ||||
| Tor.com Publishing | ||||
| "Stepsister" | Fantasy & Science Fiction | |||
| 2022 | Neon Hemlock Press | |||
| Never Have I Ever (Small Beer Press) | ||||
| Vernacular Books | ||||
| "For Sale by Owner" | When Things Get Dark (Penguin Random House) | |||
| Nightfire Books | ||||
| 2023 | Absinthe Books | |||
| Tachyon Publications | ||||
| Tordotcom | ||||
| Undertow Publications | ||||
| Stelliform Press |