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For the first time in its 30-year history, the William L. Crawford Fantasy Award, presented annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for an outstanding first fantasy book, has resulted in a tie. The winners for 2015, each of whom will receive the full award, are Zen Cho for her story collection Spirits Abroad (Buku Fixi) and Stephanie Feldman for her novel The Angel of Losses (Ecco).

According to award administrator Gary K. Wolfe, both books won broad support from the nominating committee, which felt both were deserving of the award. The other books included on this year’s Crawford shortlist are Ghalib Islam, Fire in the Unnameable Country  (Hamish Hamilton); Sarah Tolmie, The Stone Boatmen (Aqueduct); Greg Bechtel, Boundary Problems (Freehand Books); and

Jessie Burton, The Miniaturist  (Ecco).

 

Participating in this year’s nomination and selection process were Farah Mendlesohn, Ellen Klages, Graham Sleight, Karen Burnham, Candas Jane Dorsey, Jedediah Berry, Niall Harrison, and last year’s winner Sofia Samatar.  The award will be presented on March 21 during the 36th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida. The IAFA’s Distinguished Scholarship Award will be presented to Colin Milburn, and the Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for a work of scholarship written in a language other than English will go to Fernando Ángel Moreno, Mikel Peregrina, and Steven Bermúdez Antúnez. Awards for student scholarship will be announced later.