IFWG aims to publish, above all other traits, quality books. While we don’t obsessively seek awards and shortlisting in awards, garnering them is a type of validation that we are heading in the right direction.

We attended GeyserCon (Rotorua NZ) last week (31 May to 2 June 2019) and just flitted through Continuum 15 (Melbourne, Australia) (7 – 10 June 2019 – which this year was also the National Awards convention for the Ditmars and several other important industry prizes). The Sir Julius Vogel Awards were announced on the 2nd of June and the Shadows and Ditmar Awards were announced on the 8th – a concentration of accolades over a week.

We were ecstatic to be shortlisted for many categories in all three pertinent Awards (SJVs, Ditmars and Shadows), which in itself is no mean feat and a strong validation of where we are headed in terms of quality of publishing, and we also had two authors who actually won in their categories. The following IFWG titles achieved shortlisting and/or awards (and due to the size of lists, we will leave out non-IFWG short listed titles and winners but convey our heart-felt congratulations to them all!).

Sir Julius Vogel Awards

Best Novel category: The Kingfisher’s Debt by Kura Carpenter (finalist)
Best Short Story category: ‘Dead End Town’ by Lee Murray (Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 2, eds Proposch, Sequeira, Stevens) (finalist)
Best Collected Work category: Cthulhu: Land of the Long White Cloud (eds Proposch, Sequeira, Stevens) (finalist)
Best New Talent category: Kura Carpenter (winner)

Australian Shadows Awards

Best Novel category: Contrition by Deborah Sheldon (finalist)
Best Short Fiction category: ‘The Ward of Tindalos’ by Debbie Cowens & Matt Cowens (Cthulhu: Land of the Long White Cloud, eds Proposch, Sequeira, Stevens) (finalist)
and ‘Slither’ by Jason Nahrung ((Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 2, eds Proposch, Sequeira, Stevens) (finalist)
Best Collected Work category: Shadows on the Wall by Steven Paulsen (winner)
Best Edited Work category: Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 2 and Cthulhu: Land of the Long White Cloud (eds Proposch, Sequeira, Stevens) (both finalists)

Ditmar Awards

Best Novel category: Faerie Apocalypse by Jason Franks (finalist)

That’s 12 finalists, of which 2 were winners. We consider this a special week.