2023 Aurora Awards

The 2023 Aurora Awards were handed out on August 13, 2022, in a live streaming ceremony. 

The Winners

  • Best Novel: The Embroidered Book, Kate Heartfield, HarperVoyager
  • Best Young Adult Novel: The Hollow Boys: The Dream Rider Saga, Book 1, Douglas Smith, Spiral Path Books
  • Best Novelette/Novella: The Jade Setter of Janloon, Fonda Lee, Subterranean Press
  • Best Short Story: “Broken Vow: The Adventures of Flick Gibson, Intergalactic Videographer”,
    Peter G. Reynolds, On Spec Magazine, Issue 120
  • Best Graphic Novel/Comic: It Never Rains, Kari Maaren, webcomic
  • Best Poem/Song: “Rapunzel in the Desert”, Melissa Yuan-Innes, On Spec Magazine, Issue 122
  • Best Related Work: [TIE] The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, edited by Shannon Allen and JR Campbell, Tyche Books and Nothing Without Us Too, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson, Renaissance
  • Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration: Arboreality, cover art, Rachel Yu Lobbenberg, Stelliform Press
  • Best Fan Writing and Publication: Polar Borealis Magazine, Issues: 21, 22, and 23, edited by R. Graeme Cameron
  • Best Fan Related Work: Can*Con, Marie Bilodeau and Derek Künsken, co-chairs, Ottawa

The Voting Statistics

Aurora Awards voting grid (PDF)

The Nominees

Best Novel

  • All the Seas of the World, Guy Gavriel Kay, Penguin Canada
  • The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Del Rey
  • The Embroidered Book, Kate Heartfield, HarperVoyager
  • Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
  • The Void Ascendant, Premee Mohamed, Solaris Books

Best Young Adult Novel

  • Black Hole Radio – Ka’Azula, Ann Birdgenaw, DartFrog Books
  • Ghostlight, Kenneth Oppel, Puffin Canada
  • The Hollow Boys: The Dream Rider Saga, Book 1, Douglas Smith, Spiral Path Books
  • Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove, Rati Mehrotra, Wednesday Books
  • Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, Xiran Jay Zhao, Margaret K. McElderry Books

Best Novelette/Novella

  • Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk, Tordotcom
  • High Times in the Low Parliament, Kelly Robson, Tordotcom
  • The Jade Setter of Janloon, Fonda Lee, Subterranean Press
  • “A Sky and a Heaven”, Eric Choi, Just Like Being There, Springer Nature
  • The Tiger Came to the Mountains Removed.  Not SF, Fantasy, or Horror

Best Short Story

  • “Big Trouble in Droidtown”, Hayden Trenholm, The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, Tyche Books
  • “Broken Vow: The Adventures of Flick Gibson, Intergalactic Videographer”, Peter G. Reynolds, On Spec Magazine, Issue 120
  • “Douen”, Suzan Palumbo, The Dark, Issue 82
  • “The Five Rules of Supernova Surfing, or A For Real Solution to the Fermi Paradox, Bro”, Geoffrey W. Cole, Clarkesworld, Issue 184
  • “Green Witch”, Elizabeth Whitton, Prairie Witch, Prairie Soul Press
  • “A New Brave World”, Eric Choi, Brave New Worlds, Zombies Need Brains
  • “Schrödinger’s Cats”, Wayne Cusack, Polar Borealis Magazine, Issue #22
  • “We Are the Thing That Lives on the Moon”, Gillian Secord, Fireside Magazine, Issue 101, March

Best Graphic Novel/Comic

  • Birds of Maine, Michael deForge, Drawn and Quarterly
  • Cupcake War Machine, Marika Kapogeorgakis, webcomic
  • Goblins, Ellipsis Hana Stephens, webcomic
  • It Never Rains, Kari Maaren, webcomic
  • Mistress of the Winds, Michèle Laframboise, Echofictions
  • Questionable Content, Jeph Jacques, webcomic
  • Wychwood, Ally Rom Colthoff, webcomic

Best Poem/Song

  • “After the Apocalypse”, Colleen Anderson, NewMyths, Vol 16, issue 61
  • “Ghost Stories”, James Grotkowski, Polar Starlight Magazine, Issue 6
  • “In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White”, Terese Mason Pierre, Uncanny Magazine, Issue Forty-Six
  • “Poltergeist”, Rhonda Parrish, Star*Line, Vol 45, Issue 2
  • “Rapunzel in the Desert”, Melissa Yuan-Innes, On Spec Magazine, Issue 122
  • “a sinkhole invites a street to consider its future”, Dominik Parisien, Uncanny Magazine, Issue Forty-Four
  • “Three Herons”, Geoffrey W. Cole, Polar Starlight Magazine, Issue 5
  • “The Wolf of Your Passions”, Lynne Sargent, Augur Magazine, Issue 5.2

Best Related Work

  • The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, edited by Shannon Allen and JR Campbell, Tyche Books
  • Nothing Without Us Too, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson, Renaissance
  • On Spec Magazine, Issues 119, 120, and 121, managing editor Diane Walton, The Copper Pig Writers’ Society
  • Prairie Witch, edited by Stacey Kondla, Prairie Soul Press
  • Strange Wars: Speculative Fiction of Coalitions in Conflict, edited by Don Miasek, TDotSpec

Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration

  • Arboreality, cover art, Rachel Yu Lobbenberg, Stelliform Press
  • The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, cover art, Kayla Kowalyk, Tyche Books
  • Birthday of the Unicorn, cover art, Marco Marin, TdotSpec
  • Weird Fishes, cover art, Julia Louise Pereira, Stelliform Press
  • The World We Left Behind, Swati Chavda, On Spec Magazine, Issue 119

Best Fan Writing and Publication

  • JenEric Movie Reviews, Éric Desmarais, JenEric Designs
  • Polar Borealis Magazine, Issues: 21, 22, and 23, edited by R. Graeme Cameron
  • Polar Starlight Magazine, Issues: 5, 6, and 7, edited by Rhea E. Rose 
  • The Travelling TARDIS, Jennifer Desmarais, JenEric Designs
  • Young People Read Old SFF, edited by James Davis Nicoll, online

Best Fan Related Work

  • Augurcon, Terese Mason Pierre and Kerry C. Byrne, co-directors, Toria Liao, operations director, online
  • Can*Con, Marie Bilodeau and Derek Künsken, co-chairs, Ottawa
  • ephemera Reading Series, KT Bryski and Jen R. Albert, co-chairs, online
  • When Words Collide, Randy McCharles, chair, online
  • The Worldshapers Podcast, Edward Willett, online