News: Locus Magazine Award 2020 Winners Announced

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the winners in each category of the 2020 Locus Awards. Winners were announced June 27, 2020 at the virtual Locus Awards Weekend; Connie Willis MC’ed the awards ceremony, available online, with co-presenter Daryl Gregory. Additional weekend events included readings and panels with leading authors.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

WINNER: The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan)

The Testaments, Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese; Chatto & Windus)
Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
Empress of Forever, Max Gladstone (Tor)
The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
Luna: Moon Rising, Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)
The Future of Another Timeline, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)
Fleet of Knives, Gareth L. Powell (Titan US & UK)
The Rosewater Insurrection/The Rosewater Redemption, Tade Thompson (Orbit US & UK)
Wanderers, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Solaris)

FANTASY NOVEL

WINNER: Middlegame, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)

Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; Gollancz)
A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Berkley; Viking Canada; Hodder & Stoughton)
The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie (Orbit US & UK)
Jade War, Fonda Lee (Orbit US & UK)
Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday; Harvill Secker)
Storm of Locusts, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
The Iron Dragon’s Mother, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
Dead Astronauts, Jeff VanderMeer (MCD; Fourth Estate)

HORROR NOVEL

WINNER: Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James (Riverhead; Hamish Hamilton)

Imaginary Friend, Stephen Chbosky (Grand Central; Orion)
Prisoner of Midnight, Barbara Hambly (Severn House)
Curious Toys, Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland)
The Grand Dark, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager US & UK)
The Institute, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
The Twisted Ones, T. Kingfisher (Saga)
Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju, Kim Newman (Titan US & UK)
The Pursuit of William Abbey, Claire North (Orbit US & UK)
The Toll, Cherie Priest (Tor)

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

WINNER: Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion)

King of Scars, Leigh Bardugo (Imprint; Orion)
The Wicked King, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key)
Pet, Akwaeke Emezi (Make Me a World; Faber & Faber)
Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (TorTeen)
Destroy All Monsters, Sam J. Miller (Harper Teen)
Angel Mage, Garth Nix (Katherine Tegen; Allen & Unwin; Gollancz)
War Girls, Tochi Onyebuchi (Razorbill)
The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman (Knopf; Penguin UK & David Fickling)
Shadow Captain, Alastair Reynolds (Orbit US; Gollancz)

FIRST NOVEL

WINNER: Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)

The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)
Magic for Liars, Sarah Gailey (Tor)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor)
Infinite Detail, Tim Maughan (MCD x FSG Originals)
Finder, Suzanne Palmer (DAW)
A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley)
Waste Tide, Chen Qiufan (Tor; Head of Zeus)
The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling (Harper Voyager)

NOVELLA

WINNER: This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga)

“A Time to Reap“, Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 12/19)
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
Desdemona and the Deep, C.S.E. Cooney (Tor.com Publishing)
The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, Saad Z. Hossain (Tor.com Publishing)
Permafrost, Alastair Reynolds (Tor.com Publishing)
The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)
The Ascent to Godhood, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

NOVELETTE

WINNER: “Omphalos”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)

“Erase, Erase, Erase”, Elizabeth Bear (F&SF 9-10/19)
“For He Can Creep“, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19)
“A Country Called Winter”, Theodora Goss (Snow White Learns Witchcraft)
“Late Returns”, Joe Hill (Full Throttle)
“Emergency Skin”, N.K. Jemisin (Forward)
“The Justified”, Ann Leckie (The Mythic Dream)
“Phantoms of the Midway”, Seanan McGuire (The Mythic Dream)
“Binti: Sacred Fire”, Nnedi Okorafor (Binti: The Complete Trilogy)
“The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye“, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19)

SHORT STORY

WINNER: “The Bookstore at the End of America”, Charlie Jane Anders (A People’s Future of the United States)

“Lest We Forget“, Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 5-6/19)
“The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex”, Tobias S. Buckell (New Suns)
“It’s 2059, and the Rich Kids Are Still Winning“, Ted Chiang (New York Times 5/27/19)
“Fisher-Bird”, T. Kingfisher (The Mythic Dream)
“I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we’re getting married“, Fonda Lee (MIT Technology Review 12/27/19)
“The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear“, Kelly Link (Tin House ’19)
“Thoughts and Prayers“, Ken Liu (Future Tense 1/26/19)
“A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”, Rebecca Roanhorse (The Mythic Dream)
“A Catalog of Storms“, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19)