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—Anthology is given each year for anthologies of fantasy stories by multiple authors published in English. An anthology can have any number of editors, and works in the anthology may have been previously published; awards are also given out for collections of works by a single author in the Collection category. The Anthology category has been awarded annually since 1988, though from 1977 through 1987 anthologies were admissible as nominees in the Collection category. During the ten years they were admissible for that category they won the award seven times and represented 38 of the 56 nominations.
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 39 nomination years, 145 editors have had works nominated; 42 of them have won, including co-editors. Only six editors have won more than once. Ellen Datlow has won 8 times out of 40 nominations, the most of any editor; Terri Windling has won 6 times out of 18 nominations, all of the nominations as a co-editor with Datlow; Jeff VanderMeer has two wins each out of seven nominations, with both wins and five nominations shared with Ann VanderMeer; Jack Dann has won twice out of five nominations; Sheree Thomas and Dennis Etchison have won twice out of three nominations, and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki was won both of his nominations. After Datlow and Windling, the editors with the most nominations are Stephen Jones, who has won once out of fifteen nominations, Gardner Dozois, who has won once out of seven nominations, Jonathan Strahan, who has won once out of six nominations, and John Joseph Adams, David Sutton, and Martin H. Greenberg, who each have been nominated six times without winning.
Winners and nominees In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the anthology was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". Entries with a yellow background and an asterisk (*) next to the editor's name have won the award; the other entries are the other nominees on the shortlist.
* Winners + YearEditorAnthologyPublisherRef. * Arbor House * Tor Books In the Field of Fire Tor Books Masques II Maclay & Associates Anonymous Night Visions 4 Dark Harvest Other Edens Allen & Unwin DAW Books * St. Martin's Press * Anonymous Night Visions 6 Dark Harvest Prime Evil New American Library Silver Scream Dark Harvest * St. Martin's Press * Blood Is Not Enough William Morrow and Company Book of the Dead Bantam Books Razored Saddles Dark Harvest * Best New Horror Constable & Robinson, Carroll & Graf Publishers * Alien Sex Dutton Penguin Borderlands Maclay & Associates, Avon Publications Dark Voices 2: The Pan Book of Horror Pan Books Walls of Fear William Morrow and Company St. Martin's Press * St. Martin's Press * After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien Tor Books Famous Fantastic Mysteries Gramercy Books Final Shadows Doubleday Foundation When the Music's Over Bantam Spectra William Morrow and Company * MetaHorror Dell Abyss Freak Show Pocket Books Grails: Quests, Visitations and Other Occurrences Unnameable Press Narrow Houses Little, Brown and Company Mosaic Press * Full Spectrum 4 Bantam Spectra * * Christmas Forever Tor Books Oxford University Press Sinistre Horror's Head Press Snow White, Blood Red Morrow AvoNova St. Martin's Press * Little Deaths Millennium Black Thorn, White Rose Morrow AvoNova Love in Vein HarperPrism Shadows Over Innsmouth Fedogan & Bremer * Viking Press * Dark Love Roc Books Victor Gollancz High Fantastic Ocean View Books She's Fantastical Sybylla Feminist Press * Starlight 1 Tor Books Dark Terrors 2 Victor Gollancz HarperPrism St. Martin's Press * Bending the Landscape: Fantasy White Wolf Publishing * Dark Terrors 3 Victor Gollancz Modern Classics of Fantasy St. Martin's Press Northern Frights 4 Mosaic Press Revelations HarperPrism * Dreaming Down-Under HarperCollins Voyager * Tor Books Dark Terrors 4 Victor Gollancz Legends Tor Books Starlight 2 Tor Books * Silver Birch, Blood Moon Avon Publications * 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense Avon Publications Dark Detectives: Adventures of the Supernatural Sleuths Fedogan & Bremer Northern Frights 5 Mosaic Press St. Martin's Press * Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora Warner Aspect Dark Terrors 5 Victor Gollancz Shadows and Silence Ash-Tree Press Vanishing Acts Tor Books Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction Invisible Cities Press St. Martin's Press * Leisure Books Constable & Robinson, Carroll & Graf Publishers Constable & Robinson, Carroll & Graf Publishers Stigmata Cocytus Press St. Martin's Press * Viking Press * Leviathan, Volume Three Tor Books Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists Bard College St. Martin's Press * Strange Tales Tartarus Press Tor Books Gathering the Bones HarperCollins Voyager Night Shade Books Trampoline: An Anthology Small Beer Press * Acquainted with the Night Ash-Tree Press * Dark Matter: Reading the Bones Warner Aspect Viking Press Tor Books Wheatland Press * Science Fiction Book Club Adventure, Vol. 1 MonkeyBrain Books Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction Crescent Books Wheatland Press Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth Fedogan & Bremer * Salon Fantastique Thunder's Mouth Press * Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard MonkeyBrain Books Firebirds Rising Firebird Books Retro-Pulp Tales Subterranean Press Twenty Epics All-Star Stories * Inferno Tor Books Viking Press Five Strokes to Midnight Haunted Pelican Press Logorrhea Bantam Spectra Wizards Berkley Books * Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy Senses Five Press Del Rey Books Night Shade Books Steampunk Tachyon Publications St. Martin's Press * American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps/from the 1940s to Now Library of America Eclipse Three Night Shade Books Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations Ash-Tree Press Poe Solaris Books Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance Subterranean Press, HarperCollins Voyager Tachyon Publications * My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me Penguin Books Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror PS Publishing Haunted Legends Tor Books Stories: All-New Tales William Morrow and Company, Headline Review Swords & Dark Magic Eos Prime Books * Corvus, Tor Books * Blood and Other Cravings Tor Books Jo Fletcher Books Gutshot PS Publishing Harper Voyager * Postscripts #28/#29: Exotic Gothic 4 PS Publishing Epic: Legends of Fantasy Tachyon Publications Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane Solaris Books Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic Small Beer Press Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron Random House * Dangerous Women Tor Books, Voyager * End of the Road Solaris Books Fearsome Journeys: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy Solaris Books Flotsam Fantastique: The Souvenir Book of World Fantasy Convention 2013 Smith & Jones, PS Publishing Queen Victoria's Book of Spells Tor Books xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths Penguin Books 2015 * Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales Candlewick Press * Fearful Symmetries ChiZine Publications Rogues Bantam Books Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History Crossed Genres Shadows & Tall Trees Undertow Publications 2016 * She Walks in Shadows Innsmouth Free Press * Aickman's Heirs Undertow Publications Black Wings IV PS Publishing Cassilda's Song Chaosium Tor Books 2017 * Dreaming in the Dark PS Australia Mariner Books Children of Lovecraft Dark Horse Comics Clockwork Phoenix 5 Mythic Delirium Saga Press 2018 * Tachyon Publications * Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales Pegasus Books Bantam Books Solaris Books Subterranean Press 2019 * Worlds Seen in Passing Tor.com Publishing Best New Horror 28 Drugstore Indian Bantam Books Robots vs Fairies Saga Press Sword and Sonnet Ate Bit Bear 2020 * New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color Solaris Books Vintage Books Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories Saga Press Saga Press Solaris Books 2021 * Vintage Books * Harper Voyager Edited By Subterranean Press Shadows & Tall Trees 8 Undertow Publications Valancourt Books 2022 * Jembefola Press Professor Charlatan Bardot's Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World (2021 Edition) Dark Moon Books Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology Mad Creek Books When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson Titan Books Pyr 2023 * Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction Tordotcom * * Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror Nightfire Books Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology William Morrow and Company Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous Nightfire Books Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue Third Man Books 2024 * Harper Voyager Mariner Books Christmas and Other Horrors Titan UK Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror Random House/Picador Ansible Press 2025* Heartwood Drugstore IndianDiscontinue If Death EnsuesFlame Tree Publishing Northern Nights Undertow Publications PS Publishing Neon Hemlock 2026 Night & Day Saga PressStoryteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute AnthologyEssential Dreams Undertow Publications Ansible Press Bog People: A Working-Class Anthology of Folk Horror Chatto & Windus
References
External links World Fantasy Convention official site