The British Fantasy Society is pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2012 British Fantasy Awards. Determined by the 952 recommendations from BFS members and FantasyCon attendees and overseen by the British Fantasy Awards Jury, the shortlist is:

Novel:
The Heroes; Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)
11.22.63; Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton)
Cyber Circus; Kim Lakin-Smith (NewCon Press)
A Dance with Dragons; George RR Martin (Harper Voyager)
The Ritual; Adam Nevill (Pan)
Among Others; Jo Walton (Tor Books)

There will be two awards in the best Novel category: The August Derleth Award for best horror novel and The Robert Holdstock Award for best fantasy novel.

Novella:
Terra Damnata; James Cooper (PS Publishing)
Ghosts with Teeth; Peter Crowther (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
Near Zennor; Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer; John Ajvide Lindqvist (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
Gorel and the Pot Bellied God; Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
Alice Through the Plastic Sheet; Robert Shearman (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)

Short Fiction:
Dermot; Simon Bestwick (Black Static)
Sad, Dark Thing; Michael Marshall Smith (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
Florrie; Adam Nevill (House of Fear, Solaris Books)
The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter; Angela Slatter (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
King Death; Paul Finch (Spectral Press)

Anthology:
A Book of Horrors; editor Stephen Jones (Jo Fletcher Books)
House of Fear; editor Jonathan Oliver (Solaris Books)
The Weird; editors Jeff and Ann Vandermeer (Corvus Books)
Gutshot; editor Conrad Williams (PS Publishing)

Collection:
Rumours of the Marvellous; Peter Atkins (Alchemy Press)
Mrs Midnight; Reggie Oliver (Tartarus Press)
Everyone’s Just So So Special; Robert Shearman (Big Finish)
A Glass of Shadow; Liz Williams (NewCon Press)

Screenplay:
Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen
Attack the Block by Joe Cornish
The Awakening by Stephen Volk and Nick Murphy
Melancholia by Lars Von Trier
Kill List by Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump

Magazine/Periodical:
Black Static; ed. Andy Cox  TTA Press
Interzone; ed. Andy Cox   TTA Press
SFX, ed. Dave Bradley    Future Publishing
The Horror Zine, ed. Jeani Rector

Comic/Graphic Novel:
Animal Man; Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman (DC Comics)
Batwoman; JH Williams III and W Haden Blackman (DC Comics)
Locke and Key; Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW Publishing)
The Unwritten; Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo)
The Walking Dead; Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard (Image)

As stated in the new rules of the BFAwards, the Judges can add a title they feel was an egregious omission from the initial recommendations. This year they added 2 titles to the novel category, 2 titles to the novella category, and 1 title to short fiction. If a category has 5 titles listed, this is due to a tie on number of votes and points.

The BFAward Judges, James Barclay, Hal Duncan, Maura McHugh, Esther Sherman, and Damien G. Walter, will now review the shortlist and enter into deliberations. The winners will be announced at FantasyCon in Brighton on 30 September 2012.

The Special Juries and shortlists for the following awards have also been announced:

The PS Publishing Independent Press Award:

Jurors:
Sandy Auden
Peter Crowther
Nicholas Royle
Peter Tennant
Darren Turpin

Shortlist:
Chomu Press; Quentin S Crisp
Gray Friar Press; Gary Fry
NewCon Press; Ian Whates
Spectral Press; Simon Marshall-Jones

The Artist Award:

Jurors:
Guy Adams
Anne Sudworth
Christopher Teague

Shortlist:
Ben Baldwin
Vincent Chong
Les Edwards
Daniele Serra

The Non-Fiction Award :

Jurors:
Djibril al-Ayad
Roz Kaveney
Adam Roberts

Shortlist:
Lest You Should Suffer Nightmares: A biography of Herbert Van Thal; Johnny Mains (Screaming Dreams)
Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero; Grant Morrison (Jonathan Cape)
Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen since the 1960s; Kim Newman (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Studies in Terror: Landmarks of Horror Cinema; Jonathan Rigby (Signum Books)
Case Notes; Peter Tennant (Black Static)

British Fantasy Society Chair Lee Harris says, “Our members have been consistent in recommending the best in horror and fantasy published in 2011, and we think we have an incredibly strong shortlist. Our judges have a hard job ahead of them and we’re sure the 2012 British Fantasy Awards will get people debating for the rest of the year.”

Find out more about our judges here. The full longlist of members’ recommendations will be available to view on the BFS website from next week.

AMENDMENT

There has been a slight amendment to the BFAwards shortlist as listed above.

King Death was mistakenly listed in the Best Novella category (instead of short story) and Alice Through the Plastic Sheet was listed in the Best Short Story category (instead of novella). Both stories continue to be eligible in their new homes. Apologies for any confusion, and many thanks to those of you who spotted the error.

The British Fantasy Society is delighted to announce that the 2012 British Fantasy Awards will be decided by a jury of five volunteers, a first in BFS history. The jury consists of:

James Barclay: James is the author of the two Raven trilogies: Chronicles of The Raven and Legends of The Raven, and the epic fantasy duology, The Ascendants of Estorea. He has written two novellas, Light Stealer and Vault of Deeds, and his latest book Elves: Once Walked With Gods is out now.

Hal Duncan: Hal’s debut Vellum was published in 2005, garnering nominations for the Crawford, Locus, BFS and World Fantasy Award, and winning the Gaylactic Spectrum, Kurd Lasswitz and Tähtivaeltaja. He’s since published the sequel Ink, the novella Escape from Hell!, various short stories, and a poetry collection.

Maura McHugh: Maura is a writer, freelance web designer and IT consultant. She’s currently writing two comic book series (Rķisín Dubh and Jennifer Wilde) for Atomic Diner in Ireland, and she also works for the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild as their webmaster, blogger and newsletter editor.

Esther Sherman: Esther is a medical underwriter, burlesque performer, voracious reader, computer games addict and geek culture fan. She is co-editor of Nasty Snips 2, a horror anthology from Pendragon Press due in Autumn 2012.

Damien G. Walter: Damien is a writer of weird and speculative fiction. In 2005 he was shortlisted for the Douglas Coupland short fiction contest, and more recently won a grant from Arts Council England to work on his first novel. He writes and reviews for The Guardian and IO9 among others.

The jury will deliberate on a shortlist of four nominations as determined by the members of the BFS. The jury shall also have powers to add nominations where it identifies an egregious omission.

The British Fantasy Awards 2012 will be presented during FantasyCon, to be held in Brighton in September.