The winner of the 2016 Crawford Award, presented annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for a first book of fantasy fiction, is Kai Ashante Wilson for The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps (Tor). The judges cited the novel’s “fresh and powerful voice,” “gorgeous language, great characters, and wonderfully imagined setting.”
The other books included on this year’s Crawford shortlist include
Natasha Pulley, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Bloomsbury); Ken Liu, The Grace of Kings (Saga Press); Indra Das, The Devourers (Penguin India); Seth Dickinson, The Traitor Baru Cormorant (Tor); and Adrienne Celt, The Daughters (Liveright).
Participating at various stages of this year’s nomination and selection process were previous Crawford winners Sofia Samatar, Jedediah Berry, and Candas Jane Dorsey, as well as Cheryl Morgan, Niall Harrison, Farah Mendlesohn, Ellen Klages, Graham Sleight, Karen Burnham, Jonathan Strahan, Liza Groen Trombi, and Stacie Hanes. The award will be presented on March 19 during the 37th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida.
Also at the conference, the IAFA’s Distinguished Scholarship Award will be presented to Cristina Bacchilega, and the Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for a work of scholarship written in a language other than English will go to Natacha Vas-Deyres and Patrick Bergeron. The Walter James Miller Memorial Award, for a student paper on a work or works of the fantastic originally created in a language other than English, will be presented to Kristy Eager. The IAFA’s general award for an outstanding student paper, formerly called the Graduate Student Award, has been rechristened the David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award, in tribute to editor and long-time IAFA Board member and book room manager David Hartwell. The winner will be announced at a later date.