Aurealis Awards Finalists Announced!

I flew to Newcastle this morning to visit family, and look what wonderful news greeted me once I got off the plane: the finalists for the 2010 Aurealis Awards have been announced and Madigan Mine made the ballot for Best Horror Novel! I’m incredibly excited!

And just cast your eye over the full list of finalists across all categories. It’s tremendous to see so many works that I’ve read and loved this past year show up on the ballot. Congratulations to everyone!

2010 AUREALIS AWARDS FINALISTS

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)

• Grimsdon, Deborah Abela, Random House
• Ranger’s Apprentice #9: Halt’s Peril, John Flanagan, Random House
• The Vulture of Sommerset, Stephen M Giles, Pan Macmillan
• The Keepers, Lian Tanner, Allen & Unwin
• Haggis MacGregor and the Night of the Skull, Jen Storer & Gug Gordon, Aussie Nibbles (Penguin)

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)

• Night School, Isobelle Carmody (writer) & Anne Spudvilas (illustrator), Penguin Viking
• Magpie, Luke Davies (writer) & Inari Kiuru (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)
• The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator), Penguin Viking
• Precious Little, Julie Hunt & Sue Moss (writers) & Gaye Chapman (illustrator), Allen & Unwin
  
• The Cloudchasers, David Richardson (writer) & Steven Hunt (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)

YOUNG ADULT Short Story

• Inksucker, Aidan Doyle, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing
• One Story, No Refunds, Dirk Flinthart, Shiny #6, Twelfth Planet Press
• A Thousand Flowers, Margo Lanagan, Zombies Vs Unicorns, Allen & Unwin
• Nine Times, Kaia Landelius & Tansy Rayner Roberts, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing
• An Ordinary Boy, Jen White, The Tangled Bank, Tangled Bank Press

YOUNG ADULT Novel

• Merrow, Ananda Braxton-Smith, black dog books
• Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey, Allen & Unwin
• The Midnight Zoo, Sonya Hartnett, Penguin
• The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher, Doug MacLeod, Penguin
• Behemoth (Leviathan Trilogy Book Two), Scott Westerfeld, Penguin

BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK/ GRAPHIC NOVEL

• Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nicki Greenberg, Allen & Unwin
• EEEK!: Weird Australian Tales of Suspense, Jason Paulos et al, Black House Comics
• Changing Ways Book 1, Justin Randall, Gestalt Publishing
• Five Wounds: An Illustrated Novel, Jonathan Walker & Dan Hallett, Allen & Unwin
• Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators, Rocky Wood & Glenn Chadbourne, McFarlane & Co.

BEST COLLECTION

• The Library of Forgotten Books, Rjurik Davidson, PS Publishing
• Under Stones, Bob Franklin, Affirm Press Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter, Tartarus Press
• The Girl With No Hands, Angela Slatter, Ticonderoga Publications
• Dead Sea Fruit, Kaaron Warren, Ticonderoga Publications

BEST ANTHOLOGY

• Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis & Dr Marty Young, Brimstone Press
• Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein, Twelfth Planet Press
• Scenes from the Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall, Morrigan Books
• Godlike Machines, edited by Jonathan Strahan, SF Book Club
• Wings of Fire, edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon, Night Shade Books

HORROR Short Story

• Take the Free Tour, Bob Franklin, Under Stones, Affirm Press
• Her Gallant Needs, Paul Haines, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
• The Fear, Richard Harland, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press
• Wasting Matilda, Robert Hood, Zombie Apocalypse!, Constable & Robinson Ltd
• Lollo, Martin Livings, Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, Apex Publishing

HORROR Novel

• After the World: Gravesend, Jason Fischer, Black House Comics
• Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
• Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott, Pan Macmillan

FANTASY Short Story

• The Duke of Vertumn’s Fingerling, Elizabeth Carroll, Strange Horizons
• Yowie, Thoraiya Dyer, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
• The February Dragon, LL Hannett & Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications
• All the Clowns in Clowntown, Andrew McKiernan, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press
• Sister, Sister, Angela Slatter, Strange Tales III, Tartarus Press

FANTASY Novel

• The Silence of Medair, Andrea K Höst, self-published
• Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
• Stormlord Rising, Glenda Larke, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)
• Heart’s Blood, Juliet Marillier, Pan Macmillan
• Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)

SCIENCE FICTION Short Story

• The Heart of a Mouse, K.J. Bishop, Subterranean Online (Winter 2010)
• The Angaelian Apocalypse, Matthew Chrulew, The Company Articles Of Edward Teach/The Angaelian Apocalypse, Twelfth Planet Press
• Border Crossing, Penelope Love, Belong, Ticonderoga Publications
  Interloper, Ian McHugh, Asimovs (Jan 2011)
• Relentless Adaptations, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press

SCIENCE FICTION Novel

• Song of Scarabaeous, Sara Creasy, EOS Books
• Mirror Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)
• Transformation Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)

The winners will be announced on Saturday, 21st May 2011, at the Aurealis Awards Gala Ceremony in the Independent Theatre, North Sydney. Please visit the website for further details. The ceremony is open to the public, so grab yourself a ticket and come along. It’s going to be an awesome night!