Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)

• A Song of Legends Lost, M.H. Ayinde (Orbit)
• The Outcast Mage, Annabel Campbell (Orbit)
• Magic, Maps, and Mischief, David Green (self-published)
• Daughters of Nicnevin, Shona Kinsella (Flame Tree)
• Grave Empire, Richard Swan (Orbit)
• Upon a Starlit Tide, Kell Woods (Tor US; Titan UK)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)

• Hungerstone, Kat Dunn (Zando US; Manilla UK)
• Black Flame, Gretchen Felker-Martin (Tor Nightfire US; Titan UK)
• The Needfire, MK Hardy (Solaris)
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Grady Hendrix (Berkley US; Tor Nightfire UK)
• Lionhearts, Dan Howarth (Northern Republic UK)
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga US; Titan UK)

Best Novella

• The Nga’phandileh Whisperer: A Sauútiverse Novella, Eugen Bacon (Stars and Sabers)
• Fate’s Bane, C.L. Clark (Tordotcom)
• The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom US; Arcadia UK)
• “Walking A Wounded Land”, Andrew Knighton (Wiz Duos 3)

Best Short Fiction

• “Down Street”, James Bennett (Blood in the Bricks)
• “Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike”, E.M. Faulds, narrated by Eliza Chan (PodCastle 7/29/25)
• “Shadow Jack”, CL Hellisen (GigaNotoSaurus 5/1/25)
• “No One Knows the Old Ways Anymore and It Will Be the End of Everything”, LJ McMenemy (Hiding Under the Leaves)

Best Collection

• Call and Response, Christopher Caldwell (Neon Hemlock)
• Wolf’s Path, Joyce Chng (Atthis Arts)
• Dark Crescent, Lyndsey Croal (Luna Press Publishing)
• Who Will You Save, Gareth L. Powell (Titan)
• Into Wrack and Ruin, Benjamin Kurt Unsworth (Phantasmagoria)

Best Anthology

• Lesbians In Space: Where No Man Has Gone Before, J.S. Fields, Heather Tracy & William C. Tracy, eds. (Space Wizard Science Fantasy)
• This Way Lies Madness, Dave Jeffery & Lee Murray, eds. (Flame Tree)
• Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror From the Asian Diaspora, Kristy Park Kulski, ed. (Bad Hand)
• Blood in the Bricks, Neil Williamson, ed. (NewCon)

Best Independent Press

• Black Shuck
• Flame Tree
• Luna Press Publishing
• NewCon

Best Non-Fiction

• “Spec Fic and the Politics of Identity: Finding the Self in Other”, Eugen Bacon (Strange Horizons 3/24/25)
• Nigerian Speculative Fiction: The Evolution, Chukwunonso Ezeiyoke (Routledge India)
• Writing The Magic: Essays on Crafting Fantasy Fiction, Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst (Dead Ink)
• The Ecological Imaginary in Literature and Other Media: The Nature of Fantasy, Kevan Manwaring (Routledge)
• Britain’s Folklore Year: A seasonal journey through our customs, celebrations and rituals, Mark Norman (National Trust)
• The Full Lid, Alasdair Stuart, edited by Marguerite Kenner

Best Magazine / Periodical

• Ginger Nuts of Horror
• Mythaxis
• Phantasmagoria
• Remains
• Strange Horizons

Best Artist

• Ben Baldwin
• Kelly Chong
• Vincent Chong
• Jenni Coutts
• Mina Ikemoto Ghosh

Best Audio (Fiction)

• The Shape of Monsters, CL Hellisen, narrated by Omari Douglas (Audible Originals)
• PodCastle
• PseudoPod
• The Tiny Bookcase

Best Audio (Non-Fiction)

• Breaking The Glass Slipper
• Fantasy Book Swap
• The Folklore Podcast
• Uncanny

Best Newcomer

• M.H. Ayinde for A Song of Legends Lost (Orbit)
• Annabel Campbell for The Outcast Mage (Orbit)
• MK Hardy for The Needfire (Solaris)
• Ana Sun for Futures to Live By (NewCon)

• King of Ashes, S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• All This Could Be Yours, Hank Phillippi Ryan (Minotaur)

Best First Novel

• Mask of the Deer Woman, Laurie L. Dove (Berkley)

Best Juvenile/YA Novel

• Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, Chris Chan (Level Best)
• Miles in Time, Lee Matthew Goldberg (Wise Wolf)
• The Scammer, Tiffany D. Jackson (Quill Tree)
• Death in the Cards, Mia P. Manansala (Delacorte)

Best Short Story

• “Six-Armed Robbery”, Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (Donna Andrews Presents Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Humorous)
• “Hollywood Prometheus”, Christa Faust (Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons)
• “The Skies Are Red”, Richie Narvaez (On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology)

Best Anthology or Collection

• Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons,
  John Copenhaver & Salem West, eds. (Bywater)
• On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology,
  Curtis Ippolito et al. (Rock and a Hard Place)

Critical/Non-Fiction

• The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, Pagan
  Kennedy (Vintage)

Other awards categories include Best Paperback Original/E-Book/ Audiobook Original Novel. Winners will be announced during Bouchercon, to be held October 21-25, 2026 in Calgary, Canada. For more information, including complete lists of nominees, see the Bouchercon website.

French Novel

• WINNER: Aatea, Anouck Faure (Argyll)

• Festin de larmes, Morgane Caussarieu & Vincent Tassy (ActuSF)
• Tovaangar, Céline Minard (Rivages)
• Sintonia, Audrey Pleynet (Le Bélial’)
• Une vie de saint, Christophie Siébert (Au Diable Vauvert)

Foreign Novel

• WINNER: Le Livre des passages [Crossings], Alex Landragin, tr. Caroline Nicolas (Le Cherche-Midi)

• Le Chant des noms [The Naming Song], Jedediah Berry, tr. Jonathan Baillehache (Hachette Heroes)
• Sur toutes les vagues de la mer [All the Seas of the World], Guy Gavriel Kay, tr. Mikael Cabon (L’Atalante)
• Les Sœurs de la Muée [The Tiger Flu], Larissa Lai, tr. Sylvie Bérard & Suzanne Grenier (Le Quartanier)
• Le Cœur des Nagas [The Heart of the Nhaga], Young-Do Lee, tr. Marion Gilbert (Hachette Heroes)
• La Reine sirène [Siren Queen], Nghi Vo, tr. Mikael Cabon (L’Atalante)

French Short Fiction

• WINNER: “L’Âge des tempêtes”, Thomas Day (Bifrost 117)

• “Fiancées du silence”, Sabrina Calvo (Soleil·s: 12 fictions héliotopiques)
• “Les Noueurs”, Chloé Chevalier (Utopiales 2025)
• Épicènes, Thierry Crouzet (À la flamme)
• “La Femme inachevée”, Claude Ecken (Bifrost 120)

Foreign Short Fiction

• WINNER: La Migration annuelle des nuages [The Annual Migration of Clouds] et Ce qui se dit par la montagne [We Speak Through the Mountain], Premee Mohamed, tr. Marie Surgers (L’Atalante)

• Un lieu ensoleillé pour personnes sombres [A Sunny Place for Shady People], Mariana Enriquez, tr. Anne Plantagenet (Le Sous-Sol)
• La Vie secrète des robots [The Secret Life of Bots], Suzanne Palmer, tr. Pierre-Paul Durastanti (Le Bélial’)
• Hard Mary, Sofia Samatar, tr. Patrick Dechesne (Argyll)

French YA Novel

• WINNER: Station Symbiose, Noëmie Lemos (Critic)

• Les Âmes de l’ouest, Elie S. Green (Gulf Stream)
• L’énigme de Camford, Ariel Holzl (Slalom)
• L’Institut du nouveau lendemain, Chloé Vollmer-Lo (Nathan)

Foreign YA Novel

• WINNER: Le Voleur [The Thief] et La reine d’Attolie [The Queen of Attolia], Megan Whalen Turner, tr. Yoko Lacour (Monsieur Toussaint Louverture)

• Le Miroir sombre [The Dark Mirror], Samantha Shannon, tr. Benjamin Kuntzer (De Saxus)

Jacques Chambon Translation Prize

• WINNER: Les Sœurs de la Muée [The Tiger Flu], Larissa Lai, tr. Sylvie Bérard & Suzanne Grenier (Le Quartanier)

• Petit, Grand ou Le parlement des fées [Little, Big: or, The Fairies’ Parliament], John Crowley, tr. Patrick Couton (L’Atalante)
• Le Livre des passages [Passages], Alex Landragin, tr. Caroline Nicolas (Le Cherche-Midi)
• House of windows [House of Windows], John Langan, tr. Thibaud Eliroff (J’ai Lu)

Wojtek Siudmak Award for Art

• WINNER: Yvan Belikov for the art of the five-book The Bone Season series, Samantha Shannon (De Saxus)

• Nicolas Caminade for the cover art of the French editions of several books by J.R.R. Tolkien (Pocket)
• Morgane Caussarieu for the cover and interior art of Festin de larmes, Caussarieu & Vincent Tassy (ActuSF)
• Thibault Daumain for the cover and interior art of Petit, Grand ou Le parlement des fées [Little, Big: or, The Fairies’ Parliament], John Crowley, tr. Patrick Couton (L’Atalante)
• Anouck Faure for the cover art of Hard Mary, Sofia Samatar, tr. Patrick Dechesne (Argyll)

Non-Fiction

• WINNER: Petites histoires de la science-fiction française, Alain Grousset (ActuSF)

• L’Encyclopédie H.P. Lovecraft, S.T. Joshi & David E. Schultz (Bragelonne)

Prix Spécial

• WINNER: Demain commence hier, George W. Barlow (Flatland)

• Derrière le grillage 1, Guillaume Chamanadjian, Sébastien Juillard & luvan (Scylla)