The winners of this year’s Aurealis Awards were announced at a ceremony at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane, Australia, on Saturday 24 January 2009. The winners are:
Best Science Fiction Novel: Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait by K.A. Bedford (published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)
Best Fantasy Novel: The Two Pearls of Wisdom by Alison Goodman (HarperCollins)
Best Horror Novel: The Séance by John Harwood (Jonathan Cape)
Best Anthology: The Starry Rift edited by Jonathan Strahan (Viking Children’s Books)
Best Collection: Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams by Sean Williams, edited by Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications)
Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel: Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin)
Best Young Adult Novel: Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta (Viking Penguin)
Best Children’s Novel: The Wizard of Rondo by Emily Rodda (Omnibus Books)
Best Children’s Illustrated Work/Picture Book: The Wolf Kingdom Series: Escape!, Under Siege, Race to the Ruins, and The Heavy Crown by Richard Harland, illustrated by Laura Peterson (Omnibus Books)
Best Science Fiction Short Story: “The Empire” by Simon Brown (published in Dreaming Again)
Best Fantasy Short Story: “Sammarynda Deep” by Cat Sparks (Paper Cities)
Best Horror Short Story: “Painlessness” by Kirstyn McDermott (Greatest Uncommon Denominator)
Best Young Adult Short Story: “Cracks” by Trent Jamieson (Shiny)
Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence: Jack Dann
We published the full list of nominees in this article. The judges’ reports for each category (which include discussions of each of the nominees) are available as pdf files linked from this page.
The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 to “recognize the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers.” According to the awards’ descrpition, “it is the intention of the Aurealis Awards to complement the Ditmars and the Australian Children’s Book Council Awards. Neither of these awards distinguishes between the different categories of speculative fiction. It is our hope that the Aurealis Awards finalists and winners will increase the profile of Australian science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and will provide an essential reading list for anyone with an interest in these genres.”