Hey folks, the shortlists are announced for the Australian Shadows Awards and it’s a stellar lineup.
I don’t have anything shortlisted, I didn’t enter this year because I’m on the judging panel 😀 And I’ve had a seriously amazing time reading some of the best Australasian horror short stories produced in 2018.
It was an incredibly difficult decision to get to the final five in the short fiction category and it was heartbreaking to drop some truly brilliant stories in favour of others for the final shortlist. But we had to narrow it down to five short story finalists and only one winner, and after much panel discussion, debate and agreements, that we did. And we think we found the greatest five horror stories published in 2018 – each of them is exceptional.
Winners are announced at the Shadows Awards ceremony, held at Continuum in June. I’ll post more on that later.
But for now… Congrats to all the finalists in all the categories!
2018 SHORTLISTED WORKS:
- Best Collected Work: Bones by Andrew Cull, The Dalziel Files by Brian Craddock, Exploring Dark Fiction #2 A Primer to Kaaron Warren, Shadows on the Wall by Steven Paulsen, Beneath the Ferny Tree by David Schembri.
- Best Edited Work: Cthulhu Land of the Long White Cloud & Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume II – eds. Steve Proposch, Christopher Sequeira, Bryce Stevens, Hellhole An Anthology of Subterranean Horror – ed. Lee Murray, Behind the Mask – ed. Steve Dillon
- Best Graphic Novel: The judges of the Graphic Novel category unanimously agreed on a winner but shortlist will provided this year.
- Best Novel: Devouring Dark by Alan Baxter, Contrition by Deborah Sheldon, Tide of Stone by Kaaron Warren, Teeth of the Wolf by Dan Rabarts & Lee Murray
- Best Poetry: Your Mortician Knows by Bee Nielsen, Matinee by Hester J. Rock, Polarity by Jay Caselberg, Revenants of the Antipodes by Kyla Lee Ward, The Middle of the Night by Rebecca Fraser.
- The Rocky Wood Award for Non-Fiction and Criticism: Several of the non-fiction entries received were excellent short form pieces, with great writing, quality research, and bravery shown in addressing the various subject matter. The judges felt that none were of sufficient depth or length to qualify for the Rock Wood Award.
- Short Fiction: Planned and Expected by Piper Mejia, Slither by Jason Nahrung, The Ward of Tindalos by Debbie & Matt Cowens, The House of jack’s Girls by Lee Battersby, Riptideby Dan Rabarts.
- The Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction: Time and Tide by Robert Hood, Love Thee Better by Kaaron Warren, The Black Sea by Chris Mason, Thylacines by Deborah Sheldon.