The Kitschies are proud to announce the finalists for the award for the year’s most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works of genre literature.

The shortlisted books for the Red Tentacle (for novel):
-The Enterprise of Death by Jesse Bullington (Orbit)
-Embassytown by China Miéville (Tor)
-A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd (Walker Books)
-The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers (Sandstone)
-Osama: A Novel by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)

The shortlisted books for the Golden Tentacle (for debut):
-Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick (Tor)
-God’s War by Kameron Hurley (Night Shade Books)
-The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Harvill Secker)
-Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Quirk)
-The Samaritan by Fred Venturini (Blank Slate Press)

The shortlisted books for the Inky Tentacle (for cover art):
-Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch; illustration by Stephen Walter, design by Patrick Knowles (TAG Fine Arts) (Gollancz)
-The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan; design by Peter Mendelsund (Canongate)
-The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco; design by Suzanne Dean, illustration by John Spencer (Harvill Secker)
-Equations of Life by Simon Morden; design by Lauren Panepinto (Orbit)
-A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd; illustration by Jim Kay (Walker Books)

The winning author of the Red Tentacle will receive a £750 prize; the winners of the Golden Tentacle and Inky Tentacles each receive £250. All three will also receive iconic, hand-made Tentacle trophies. All the finalists receive a bottle of The Kraken Rum.

These shortlisted titles were selected from a list of over 150 submissions received from 38 publishers and imprints. The winners will be announced on 3 February 2012 at an award ceremony to be held at the SFX Weekender 3.

The judging panel for the Red and Golden Tentacles comprises:
-Lauren Beukes (2010 Red Tentacle winner for Zoo City)
-Rebecca Levene
-Anne C. Perry
-Jared Shurin

The judging panel for the Inky Tentacle comprises:
-Darren Banks
-Hayley Campbell
-Catherine Hemelryk
-Craig Kennedy
-Anne C. Perry

The judges will be sharing their personal reviews of the finalists and inviting discussion online from 16 January to 27 January 2012 at the geek culture website Pornokitsch (www.pornokitsch.com).

The annual award is presented to the most “progressive, intelligent and entertaining novels that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic” published in the UK during the previous calendar year. This is The Kitschies third year and the first year of sponsorship by The Kraken Rum. The official award website is HERE