Shane Jiraiya Cummings, vice president of the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) announces the winners of this year’s Australian Shadows Awards, which recognize “the very best works of Australian dark fiction.” The winners (along with the judges comments on them) are:
Long Fiction: Slights by Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot). Judge Martin Livings describes the book as “a punch in the face, a kick in the testicles, a splash of cold liquid in the face, be it water or acid.… It’s an intimate portrait of an awful person, made all the more awful for being strangely sympathetic.”
Edited Publication: Grants Pass edited by Jennifer Brozek & Amanda Pillar (Morrigan Books). Judge James Doig calls it “a post-apocalypse anthology with an additional linking theme involving Grants Pass, an Oregon town that has become a symbol of hope to survivors… The concept is a strong one—it allows authors full rein to explore ideas, settings, and plots, but the connecting links are such that the overall effect is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Short Fiction: “Six Suicides” by Deborah Biancotti (A Book of Endings). Judge Bill Congreve calls it “a circular story told in vignettes of six troubled souls, all of whom are searching for some kind of redemption, but only one of whom has experienced true horror.”
We detailed the nominees in this article.