2020 Australian Shadows Awards finalists announced!

The entries have been entered, the judges have read and judged. Great deliberations were made to decide who from Australasia had made the greatest contributions to dark fiction in the plague year of 2020. And now, decisions!

Firstly, enormous thanks to the judging panels for their tireless hard work in volunteering to judge. It’s a big task and every single one of them performed admirably. On behalf of the AHWA and all the entrants, thank you!

Congratulations to everyone shortlisted for this year’s Awards. A truly wonderful array of subject and author on display here. Horror is, indeed, very healthy.

The winners will be announced in an online Awards Ceremony on Friday June 11th, starting at 8.30pm AEST via the official AHWA Facebook page. Winners will also be announced simultaneously on Twitter (follow @AustHorror). Hopefully next year we’ll get to have an in-person awards ceremony again.

The 2020 Australian Shadows Awards finalists are:

POETRY

Deadway by KS Nikakis (Journey: Seeking the Sacred, Spirit and Soul in the Australian Wilderness, SOV Media)

This Soundless Murk by Hester J Rook (The Future Fire)

The King of Eyes by PS Cottier (Monstrous, Interactive Press)

Mouthing Off by PS Cottier (Monstrous, Interactive Press)

The Tongueless Dead by Leigh Blackmore (Spectral Realms 13)

NON-FICTION

Exploration of Menstruation in Horror and Dark Fiction by Tabatha Wood

Queer Vampires in Modern Cinema by Tabatha Wood

Cthulu in California by Emmet O’Cuana

What Makes Good Horror by Tim Hawken

Phantasmagoria and the Earliest Forms of Horror Storytelling by Maria Lewis

Sandalwood and Jade: The Weird and Fantastic Verse of Lin Carter by Leigh Blackmore

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Hellblazer: Rise and Fall, by Tom Taylor & Darick Robertson (DC Comics)

DCeased: Unkillables, by Tom Taylor & Karl Mostert (DC Comics)

The Mycelium Complex, by Daniel Reed

Redback Armageddon, by Nathan Grixti  (Self-published)

Undad Volume Three, by: Katie Walsh-Smith, Miranda Richardson, Big Tim Stiles, Ryan Lindsay, Shane W Smith / Illustrators: Mitchell Collins, Simon Robins (Self-published)

EDITED WORKS

Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, (ed. Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn, Omnium Gatherum)

Hadithi & the State of Black Speculative Fiction (ed. Eugen Bacon and Milton Davis, Luna Press Publishing)

Midnight Echo issue 15, (ed. Lee Murray, AHWA)

Black Dogs, Black Tales – Where the Dogs Don’t Die, (ed. Tabatha Wood and Cassie Hart, Things in the Well)

Trickster’s Treats 4 – Coming, Buried or Not! (ed. Louise Zedda-Sampson and Geneve Flynn, Things in The Well)

COLLECTED WORKS

The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners by Angela Slatter (PS Publishing)

Behind the Midnight Blinds by Marty Young (Things in the Well)

Red New Day by Angela Slatter (Brain Jar Press)

Bleak Precision by Greg Chapman (Self-published)

Grotesque by Lee Murray (Things in the Well)

SHORT FICTION

“Vision Thing” by Matthew R Davis (Black Dogs, Black Tales ed. Tabatha Wood & Cassie Hart, Things in the Well)

“Let Shadows Slip Through” by Kali Napier (New Gothic Review 2, pub. Ian McMahon)

“Brumation” by Anthony Ferguson (Midnight Echo Issue 15, ed. Lee Murray, AHWA)

“The Bone Fairy” by Martin Livings (Midnight Echo Issue 15, ed. Lee Murray, AHWA)

“Hideous Armature” by Joanne Anderton (Midnight Echo Issue 15, ed. Lee Murray, AHWA)

“Needles” by Kali Napier (The Dark #62, pub. Sean Wallace)

LONG FICTION

“New Wine” by Angela Slatter (Cursed, Titan Books)

“By Touch and By Glance” by Lisa L Hannett (Songs for Dark Seasons, Ticonderoga Publications)

The Attic Tragedy by Joseph Ashley-Smith (Meerkat Press)

“Barralang, pop. 63” by Deborah Sheldon (Dimension6 #19, Coeur De Lion Publishing)

“Kua Hinga Te Kauri” by Dan Rabarts (Outback Horrors Down Under, ed Steve Dillon, Things in the Well Press)

NOVEL

The Crying Forest by Venero Armanno (IFWG Publishing, Australia)

Gutterbreed by Marty Young (Eclectic Trio)

Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings (Picador)

Deception Pass by Matthew Tait (Dark Crib)

CONGRATULATIONS to all the finalists. Winners will be announced on Friday June 11th, starting at 8.30pm AEST via the official AHWA Facebook page, and simultaneously on Twitter via @AustHorror.