'Who Fears Death' receives 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel

The winners of this year’s slate of World Fantasy Awards were announced yesterday during the final day of the World Fantasy Convention 2011 in San Diego, Calif.

For those of you unfamiliar with the World Fantasy Awards, they are given annually for outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy. Along with the Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Awards are generally considered among the most prestigious awards in the fantasy and science fiction genres.

This year, awards were presented in nine categories – Lifetime Achievement, Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Short Fiction, Best Anthology, Best Collection, Best Artist, Best Special Award – Professional and Special Award – Non-Professional.

This year’s slate of winners and nominees in each category included:

Best Novel:
Winner - “Who Fears Death” by Nnedi Okorafor
- “Zoo City” by Lauren Beukes
- “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” by N.K. Jemisin
- “The Silent Land” by Graham Joyce
- “Under Heaven” by Guy Gavriel Kay
- “Redemption In Indigo” by Karen Lord

Best Novella:
Winner - “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s ‘Bellerophon’” by Elizabeth Hand
- “Bone and Jewel Creatures” by Elizabeth Bear
- “The Broken Man” by Michael Byers
- “The Thief of Broken Toys” by Tim Lebbon
- "The Mystery Knight" by George R.R. Martin
- "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window" by Rachel Swirsky

Best Short Story:
Winner - “Fossil-Figures” by Joyce Carol Oates
- "Beautiful Men" by Christopher Fowler
- "Booth's Ghost" by Karen Joy Fowler
- "Ponies" by Kij Johnson
- "Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us" by Mercurio D. Rivera

Best Anthology:
Winner - “My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me,” edited by Kate Bernheimer
- “The Way of the Wizard,” edited by John Joseph Adams
- “Haunted Legends,” edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas
- “Stories: All-New Tales,” edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio
- “Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror,” edited by S.T. Joshi
- “Swords & Dark Magic,” edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders

Best Collection:
Winner - “What I Didn’t See and Other Stories” by Karen Joy Fowler
- “The Ammonite Violin & Others” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
- “Holiday” by M. Rickert
- “Sourdough and Other Stories” by Angela Slatter
- “The Third Bear” by Jeff VanderMeer

Best Artist:
Winner - Kinuko Y. Craft
- Vincent Chong
- Richard A. Kirk
- John Picacio
- Shaun Tan

Special Award, Professional:
Winner – Marc Gascoigne (for Angry Robot)
- John Joseph Adams (for editing and anthologies)
- Lou Anders (for editing at Pyr)
- Stéphane Marsan and Alain Névant (for Bragelonne)
- Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi (for ChiZine Publications)

Special Award, Non-Professional:
Winner - Alisa Krasnostein (for Twelfth Planet Press)
- Stephen Jones, Michael Marshall Smith and Amanda Foubister (for Brighton Shock!: The Souvenir Book Of The World Horror Convention 2010)
- Matthew Kressel (for Sybil's Garage and Senses Five Press)
- Charles Tan (for Bibliophile Stalker)
- Lavie Tidhar (for The World SF Blog)

The Lifetime Achievement Awards are “presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field.” This year’s lifetime achievement awards went to Peter S. Beagle and Angelica Gorodischer.