Announcing the 2024 Ignyte Awards Shortlist

The Ignyte Awards Committee is thrilled to announce the finalists for the 2024 Igynte Awards. The Awards seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscape of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts towards inclusivity within the genre. To that effect, the committee feels that these creators, creations, entities and perspectives from 2023 present the brightest lights in speculative fiction’s future. We encourage you to seek out the nominees unfamiliar to you on this ballot. Engage with their works of fiction or acts of community, and use those experiences to inform your vote.

OUTSTANDING NOVEL: ADULT

for novel-length work (40k words) Works intended for an Adult audience

• Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon – Wole Talabi (DAW Books)
• The Water Outlaws – S.L. Huang (Tordotcom)
• WINNER The Saint of Bright Doors – Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
• To Shape a Dragon’s Breath – Moniquill Blackgoose (Del Rey)
• We are the Crisis – Cadwell Turnbull (Blackstone Publishing)

OUTSTANDING NOVEL: YOUNG ADULT

for novel-length (40k+ words) works intended for the young adult audience

• WINNER I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me – Jamison Shae (Henry Holt & Co.) 
• That Self-Same Metal – Brittany N. Williams (Harry N. Abrams)
• Funeral Songs for Dying Girls – Cherie Dimaline (Tundra Books)
• Beholder – Ryan La Sala (PUSH)
• Sing Me to Sleep – Gabi Burton (Bloomsbury YA)

OUTSTANDING MIDDLE GRADE

for works intended for the middle grade audience

• WINNER Abeni’s Song – P. Djèlí Clark (Starscape) 
• Just a Pinch of Magic – Alechia Dow ‎(Feiwel & Friends)
• Keynan Masters and the Peerless Magic Crew – DaVaun Sanders (Inkyard Press)
• Lei and the Fire Goddess – Malia Maunakea (Penguin Workshop)
• The Sun and the Star – Mark Oshiro, Rick Riordan (Disney Hyperion)

OUTSTANDING NOVELLA

for speculative works ranging from 17,500-39,999 words

• Off-Time Jive – A.Z. Louise (Neon Hemlock Press)
• Green Fuse Burning – Tiffany Morris (Stelliform Press)
• WINNER The Lies of the Ajungo – Moses Ose Utomi (Tordotcom)
• The Mimicking of Known Successes – Malka Older (Tordotcom)
• Sordidez – E.G. Condé (Stelliform Press)

OUTSTANDING NOVELETTE

for speculative works ranging from 7,500-17,499 words

• A Short Biography of a Conscious Chair – Renan Bernardo (Samovar)
• Ivy, Angelica, Bay – C L Polk (Reactor)
• Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down the Moon – Angela Liu (Clarkesworld)
• WINNER Spell for Grief and Longing – Eboni J. Dunbar (FIYAH)
• Zhuangzi’s Dream – Cao Baiyu, translated by Stella Jiayue Zhu (Clarkesworld) 

OUTSTANDING SHORT STORY

for speculative works ranging from 2,000-7,499 words

• Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200 – R.S.A. Garcia (Uncanny)
• Window Boy – Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld)
• WINNER A Witch’s Transition In The City Of Ghosts – Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
• Lips Like Sugar – Cynthia Gómez (Luna Station Quarterly)
• Thin Ice – Kemi Ashing-Giwa (Clarkesworld)

OUTSTANDING SPECULATIVE POETRY

• Helen after Helen – Rasha Abdulhadi (Apparition Lit Magazine)
• Imported Entry Into An Android Cosmos – Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan (FIYAH)
• Aborteras del Viejo Mundo | Aborting the Old World – Claudia Vaca, translated by Brittany Hause (Samovar) 
• Alternate Rooms – Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan (Nightmare)
• WINNER My Mother, she ate me – Akua Lezli Hope (FIYAH)

CRITICS AWARD

for reviews and analysis of the field of speculative literature

• Aigner Loren Wilson
• WINNER Alex Brown
• Archita Mittra
• Bookbaddiebri
• The Blerd Library

OUTSTANDING FICTION PODCAST

for excellence in audio performance and production for speculative fiction

• PodCastle – The Podcastle Team
• Old Gods of Appalachia – Steve Shell and Cam Collins
• Cast of Wonders – The CoW Team
• Simultaneous Times Podcast (Space Cowboy Books)
• WINNER Levar Burton Reads

OUTSTANDING ARTIST

for contributions in visual speculative storytelling

• WINNER Rovina Cai
• Cathy Kwan
• Paul Lewin
• Godwin Akpan
• Dante Luiz

OUTSTANDING COMICS TEAM

for comics, graphic novels, and sequential storytelling

• Whisper of the Woods – Ennun Ana Iurov (Mad Cave)
• Brooms – Jasmine Walls, Teo DuVall, Bex Glendining, Ariana Maher (Levine Querido)
• Mage and the Endless Unknown – S.J. Miller (Iron Circus Comics)
• WINNER Kill Your Darlings – Ethan S. Parker, Griffin Sheridan, Bob Quinn (Image Comics)
• Suee and the Strange White Light – Ginger Ly and Molly Park (Abrams Fanfare)

OUTSTANDING ANTHOLOGY/COLLECTED WORKS

• Never Whistle at Night – Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (Vintage)
• Night of the Living Queers – Shelly Page and Alex Brown (Wednesday Books)
• WINNER No One Will Come Back for Us – Premee Mohamed (Undertow Publications)
• Out There Screaming – Jordan Peele, John Joseph Adams (Random House)
• Who Lost, I Found – Eden Royce (Broken Eye Books)

OUTSTANDING CREATIVE NONFICTION

for works related to the field of speculative fiction

• The H Word: The Fear Horror of Change – L. Marie Wood (Nightmare Magazine)
• WINNER The Magic is in the Roots: Cultural Reconnection Through Magical Realism – Lysz Flo (FIYAH)
• Symmetry, Horror, and Identity -Tania Chen (Apparition Lit)
• To Every Other Jobu Tupaki After Jamie Lee Curtis’s Oscar Win – Maya Gittelman (Reactor)
• The Substitute – Yi Izzy Yu (Unquiet Spirits)

THE EMBER AWARD

for unsung contributions to genre

• WINNER Sheree Renée Thomas
• DaVaun Sanders
• Kate Elliott
• Kwame Mbalia
• A.C. Wise

THE COMMUNITY AWARD

for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre

• WINNER Khōréō – The Khōréō Team
• Voodoonauts Summer Fellowship – Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, LP Kindred, Hugh “H.D” Hunter
• Stone Soup: Personal Canons Cookbook – Sarah Gailey
• Samovar Magazine – Laura Friis, Sarah Dodd and Greg West
• Awesome Black – Awesome Black Team

The short list is derived from 20 BIPOC+ voters made up of FIYAHCON Staff and previous award winners, of varying genders, sexualities, cultures, disabilities, and locations throughout the world. This year's awards also sourced 15 judges ages 12-18 for the Middle Grade and Young Adult categories. The collected judges are referred to as the Ignyte Awards Committee. The Committee was not limited to selections authored or otherwise created by BIPOC. Public voting on the shortlist does not permit write-in nominations. Each year, we ask winners to be part of the subsequent year’s committee to ensure fresh perspectives and to help prevent repeated nominations of the same popular authors as recognized in many other genre awards.