Monday, December 31, 1990

1990 World Fantasy Award Nominees

Location: World Fantasy Convention, Schaumburg, Illinois.

Comments: In 1990, The Year's Best Fantasy: Second Annual Collection, edited by the formidable team of Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling, won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. This win was surely deserved, but I have always been somewhat less than enthusiastic when such types of anthologies win awards. The World Fantasy award for Best Anthology has never been dominated by a single "Best of" series in the same way that the Locus Award Best Anthology award has been dominated by Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction series, but it almost seems anticlimactic when collections like this win. Aren't they supposed to be a compilation of the best genre fiction of the year? Given that the guiding principle of other anthologies is usually something other than "compile all of the best stories from this year into one volume", it almost seems unfair for them to be competing with these "Best of" anthologies. On the other hand, these volumes do usually represent the best genre fiction of the year, so excluding or handicapping them also seems unfair. So we're left with what seems to me to be an ultimately unsatisfying situation that has no real solution. The other anthologies at least get the benefit of a nomination, which is something.

Best Novel

Winner:
Lyonesse: Madouc by Jack Vance

Other Nominees:
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll
In a Dark Dream by Charles L. Grant
Soldier of Arete by Gene Wolfe
The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers

Best Novella

Winner:
Great Work of Time by John Crowley

Other Nominees:
Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana by Michael Bishop
A Dozen Tough Jobs by Howard Waldrop
The Father of Stones by Lucius Shepard
On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks by Joe R. Lansdale

Best Short Fiction

Winner:
The Illusionist by Steven Millhauser

Other Nominees:
The Edge of the World by Michael Swanwick
Mr. Fiddlehead by Jonathan Carroll
A Sad Last Love at the Diner of the Damned by Edward Bryant
Varicose Worms by Scott Baker
Yore Skin's Jes's Soft 'n Purty . . . He Said. by Chet Williamson

Best Anthology

Winner:
The Year's Best Fantasy: Second Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Other Nominees:
Blood Is Not Enough edited by Ellen Datlow
Book of the Dead edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector
Razored Saddles edited by Joe R. Lansdale and Pat LoBrutto

Best Collection

Winner:
Richard Matheson: Collected Stories by Richard Matheson

Other Nominees:
Blue World and Other Stories by Robert R. McCammon
By Bizarre Hands by Joe R. Lansdale
Harlan Ellison's Watching by Harlan Ellison
Novelty by John Crowley

Lifetime Achievement

Winner:
R.A. Lafferty

Other Nominees:
None

Best Artist

Winner:
Thomas Canty

Other Nominees:
James Christensen
Don Maitz
J.K. Potter

Special Award, Professional

Winner:
Mark V. Ziesing

Other Nominees:
Ellen Datlow
Paul Mikol and Scot Stadalsky
Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller

Special Award, Non-Professional

Winner:
Peggy Nadramia

Other Nominees:
Richard T. Chizmar
David B. Silva
Joe Stefko and Tracy Cocoman

Go to previous year's nominees: 1989
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1991

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