The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have been first published by an Australian citizen or permanent resident between 1 January and 31 December of the corresponding year; the presentation ceremony is held the following year. It has grown from a small function of around 20 people to a two-day event attended by over 200 people.
Since their creation in 1995, awards have been given in various categories of speculative fiction. Categories currently include science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative young adult fiction—with separate awards for novels and short fiction—collections, anthologies, illustrative works or graphic novels, children's fiction told primarily through words, children's fiction told primarily through pictures, and an award for excellence in speculative fiction. The awards have attracted the attention of publishers by setting down a benchmark in science fiction and fantasy. The continued sponsorship by publishers such as HarperCollins and Orbit has identified the award as an honour to be taken seriously.
The results are decided by a panel of judges from a list of submitted nominees; the long-list of nominees is reduced to a short-list of finalists. The judges are selected from a public application process by the Award's management team.
This article lists all the short-list nominees and winners in the best anthology category. The award for best anthology was first awarded in 2008 along with two other categories: best collection and best illustrated book or graphic novel. These replaced the discontinued Golden Aurealis Awards. Jonathan Strahan has since won the award seven times (7), while Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios have won it twice (2). Strahan holds the record for most nominations, having received 24 nominations. This is as of the 2021 awards, in which the winners were announced in late May 2022.
Winners and nominees In the following table, the years correspond to the year of the book's eligibility; the ceremonies are always held the following year. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature" article. Entries with a blue background have won the award; those with a white background are the nominees on the short-list.
Winners and joint winners Nominees on the shortlist
YearEditor(s)AnthologyPublisherRef * Viking Children’s Books & Michelle Marquardt Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Fourth Annual Volume MirrorDanse Books Dreaming Again HarperVoyager * Eclipse 3 Night Shade Books & Jonathan Strahan Harper Eos & Tehani Wessely New Ceres Nights Twelfth Planet Press X6 Coeur de Lion Publishing Eclipse 2 Night Shade Books * & Marianne S. Jablon* Wings of Fire Night Shade Books & Marty Young Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears Brimstone Press Sprawl Twelfth Planet Press & Pete Kempshall Scenes from the Second Storey Morrigan Books Godlike Machines SF Book Club * & Nick Gevers* Ghosts by Gaslight HarperVoyager & Talie Helene Ticonderoga Publications & K. V. Taylor Ishtar Gilgamesh Press Night Shade Books Life on Mars Viking Press * Night Shade Books & Talie Helene Ticonderoga Publications Bloodstones Ticonderoga Publications Under My Hat Random House Edge of Infinity Solaris Books * & Talie Helene* (tie) Ticonderoga Publications * (tie) One Small Step, An Anthology of Discoveries FableCroft Publishing Dreaming of Djinn Ticonderoga Publications Night Shade Books Focus 2012: Highlights of Australian Short Fiction FableCroft Publishing * & Julia Rios* Kaleidoscope Twelfth Planet Press Kisses by Clockwork Ticonderoga Publications Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction Solarwyrm Press Reach for Infinity Solaris Books Fearsome Magics Solaris Books Phantazein FableCroft Publishing * Bloodlines Ticonderoga Publications Hear Me Roar Ticonderoga Publications and Talie Helene Ticonderoga Publications Meeting Infinity Solaris Ticonderoga Publications Focus 2014: Highlights of Australian Short Fiction FableCroft Publishing * & Alisa Krasnostein* Year's Best YA Speculative Fiction Twelfth Planet Press Dreaming in the Dark PS Publishing & Holly Kench Defying Doomsday Twelfth Planet Press Solaris In Your Face FableCroft Publishing * Infinity Wars Solaris & Anthony Ferguson Midnight Echo 12 Australasian Horror Writers Association & Talie Helene Ticonderoga Publications Dimension6: Annual Collection 2017 coeur de lion publishing Solaris * Solaris , Rachael K. Jones & E. Catherine Tobler Sword and Sonnet Ate Bit Bear Aurum Ticonderoga Publications & Tansy Rayner Roberts Mother of Invention Twelfth Planet Press Infinity's End Solaris * Mission: Critical Solaris Books Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories Walker Books Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Was Not IFWG Publishing Solaris Books * (ed.)Rebuilding TomorrowTwelfth Planet Press (ed.)After AustraliaAffirm Press and Pamela JeffsCAT Press and Lyss Wickramasinghe (eds.)Unnatural OrderCSFG Publishing and Geneve Flynn (eds.)Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet WomenOmnium Gatherum (ed.)Made to Order: Robots and RevolutionSolaris* (ed.)Relics, Wrecks & RuinsCAT Press (ed.)Who Sleuthed It?Clan Destine (ed.)Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror TalesWakefield (ed.)Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and BabiesIFWG Publishing Australia2022 (ed.)This All Come Back NowUniversity of Queensland PressJulie Bozza (ed.)Queer Weird West TalesLIBRAtigerTehani Croft with Stephanie Lai (eds.)The Art of Being HumanFableCroft PublishingL. E. Daniels & Christa Carmen (eds.)We Are ProvidenceWeird House PressNarrelle M. Harris (ed.) Clamour and MischiefClan Destine PressRafeif Ismail and Ellen van Neerven (ed.)Unlimited FuturesFremantle Press2023 (ed.)The Book of Witches: An AnthologyVoyager (ed.)Strangely EnoughMidnightSun Publishing (ed.)Fremantle Press2024 (ed.)Far-FlungTiny Owl Workshop & Gene Rowe (eds.)Fission #4British Science Fiction Association & Gabino IglesiasFound 2: More Stories of Found Footage HorrorVermilion To One Press (ed.)Celestial BodiesTiny Owl Workshop & Kaaron Warren (eds.)Calvaria Fell: StoriesMeerkat Press (ed.)New Adventures in Space OperaTachyon Publications2025, Michaela Teschendorff & Ciar Fhearchair (eds.)AUSTRAL 2025Meridian AustralisCanberra Speculative Fiction Guild (ed.)Never Say DieCanberra Speculative Fiction Guild Publishing & Eugen Bacon (eds.)Fission #5: An Anthology of Stories from the British Science Fiction AssociationBritish Science Fiction Association (ed.)Midnight Echo 20Australasian Horror Writers Association
See also Ditmar Award, an Australian science fiction award established in 1969
References
External links Aurealis Awards official site