The World Fantasy, British Fantasy and David Gemmell Awards all took place in Brighton in the last few days.
Over the weekend the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton - look out for a write-up in SFX issue 243 - played host to a range of awards including the British Fantasy Awards and the David Gemmell Awards.
This celebration of the best in fantasy took place down by the sea in Brighton’s Hilton Metropole. The first evening gave us the David Gemmell Awards ceremony, with a reading and an auction both conducted by James Barclay . The winners? Brent Weeks nabbed Best Fantasy Novel for The Blinding Knife , the Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Debut went to John Gwynne for Malice and the Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art was given to Didier Graffet and Dave Senior for their art on Red Country by Joe Abercrombie.
On the Sunday night, immediately after the traditional banquet, the British Fantasy Awards and the World Fantasy Awards were merged into one swanky ceremony. For the British Fantasy Award, winners included Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce for Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award), Adam Nevill pocketed the Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award) for Last Days whilst Sean Phillips won Best Artist. Best Novella went to John Llewellyn Probert for The Nine Deaths of Dr Valentine and Ray Cluley won Best Short Story for Shark!Shark! Robert Shearman won the Best Collection Award for Remember Why You Fear Me and Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane won Best Anthology for Jonathan Oliver. Best Non-Fiction went to Pornokitsch by Anne C Perry and Jared Shurin whilst Best Magazine was given to Interzone - not SFX , which was shortlisted. We were gracious in defeat. Read the full list here .
World Fantasy credited the Lifetime Achievement award to legendary authors Susan Cooper and Tanith Lee. Facing competition from tough nominees, KJ Parker won Best Novella and Vincent Chong won Best Artist. Best Collection went to Where Furnaces Burn by Joel Lane whilst Lucia Graves picked up a Special Professional Award for her translation of The Prisoner of Heaven . Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson picked up Best Novel. Read the full list of winners here .
The next World Fantasy Convention will take place in Washington DC in 2014, while next year's British Fantasy Convention will be in York.
Report by Chloe Haynes
