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CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS YEAR’S FINALISTS!

Public voting for the 2026 awards is now open thru August 16. Links are included wherever available in the hope that you will engage with the listed works to inform your vote. No pressure.

Go Vote

OUTSTANDING NOVEL: ADULT

for novel-length work (40k words) Works intended for an adult audience

OUTSTANDING NOVEL: YOUNG ADULT

for novel-length (40k+ words) works intended for the young adult audience

OUTSTANDING MIDDLE GRADE

for works intended for the middle grade audience

OUTSTANDING NOVELLA

for speculative works ranging from 17,500-39,999 words

OUTSTANDING NOVELETTE

for speculative works ranging from 7,500-17,499 words

OUTSTANDING SHORT STORY

for speculative works ranging from 2,000-7,499 words

OUTSTANDING SPECULATIVE POETRY

CRITICS AWARD

for reviews and analysis of the field of speculative literature

  • Alex Brown
  • Gabino Iglesias
  • Maria Haskins
  • The Skiffy and Fanty Show: Shaun Duke, Daniel Haeusser, Paul Weimer, Trish Matson, Stephen Geigen-Miller, and Cam Coulter
  • Vanessa Fogg

OUTSTANDING FICTION PODCAST

for excellence in audio performance and production for speculative fiction

  • Beneath Ceaseless Skies: Scott H. Andrews, Editor-in-Chief/Producer
  • Escape Pod: Mur Lafferty, Valerie Valdes, Kevin Wabaunsee, Phoebe Barton, Tina Connolly, Alasdair Stuart, Summer Brooks, Adam Pracht, Marcus Tsong, Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko, Ewen Ma, Christine Amsden, Rick Danforth, Michael A. Pepin, EA Crawley, Abhijeet, Sarah Loch, Phoenix Alexander and Casey Lawrence
  • khōréō Magazine
  • Lightspeed Magazine: John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Alison Belle Bews, Alex Barton
  • Nightmare Magazine: Wendy N. Wagner, John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Terence Taylor, Alison Belle Bews

OUTSTANDING ANTHOLOGY/COLLECTED WORKS

  • Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity: ED. Lee Mandelo . CONTRIBUTORS: Esther Alter, Bendi Barrett, Ta-wei Chi translated by Ariel Chu, Colin Dean, Maya Deane, Dominique Dickey, Katharine Duckett, Meg Elison, Paul Evanby, Aysha U. Farah, Sarah Gailey, Ash Huang, Margaret Killjoy, Wen-yi Lee, Ewen Ma, Jamie McGhee, Sam J. Miller, Aiki Mira, translated by CD Covington, Sunny Moraine, Nat X Ray, Neon Yang, Ramez Yoakeim (Erewhon Books)
  • As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories: ED. Terese Mason Pierre . CONTRIBUTORS: Chimedum Ohaegbu, Chinelo Onwualu, Terese Mason Pierre, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, francesca ekwuyasi, Trynne Delaney, Lue Palmer, Whitney French, Zalika Reid-Benta, Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga (Spiderline)
  • Call and Response – Christopher Caldwell (Neon Hemlock)
  • The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories: ED. André M. Carrington . CONTRIBUTORS: Nalo Hopkinson, An Owomoyela, Thaddeus Howze, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Jennifer Marie Brissett, Sofia Samatar, Kiini Ibura Salaam, Violet Allen, P. Djèlí Clark, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, N.K. Jemisin, Alex Smith, Justina Ireland, Rion Amilcar Scott, Tochi Onyebuchi, Craig Laurance Gidney, Tara Campbell, Victor LaValle, Maurice Broaddus, Stacey Robinson (Library of America)
  • We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope: EDs. Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, Malka Older . CONTRIBUTORS: Charlie Jane Anders, Samit Basu, Tobias S. Buckell, Reo Eveleth, Jaymee Goh, Nicola Griffith, Alejandro Heredia, Vida James, N.K. Jemisin, R.B. Lemberg, Sam J. Miller, Abdulla Moaswes, Laia Asieo Odo, Kelly Robson, Nisi Shawl, Ursula Vernon, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Izzy Wasserstein. Interviewees: adrienne maree brown, Andrea Dehlendorf, Walidah Imarisha, L.A. Kauffman, Scott Gabriel Knowles, Kendra Pierre-Louis (Saga Press)

OUTSTANDING CREATIVE NONFICTION

for works related to the field of speculative fiction

THE EMBER AWARD

for unsung contributions to genre

  • Arley Sorg
  • dave ring
  • Karen Lord
  • Martha Wells
  • Maurice Broaddus

THE COMMUNITY AWARD

for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre

Go Vote

Voting for the 2026 awards opens June 8th – August 16th, 2026 at 11:59PM EDT.

Whenever possible, we will provide the purchase or read links for finalist titles in the hopes that you will engage the works before voting. We will generally provide links to listings on bookshop.org or links to purchase or read directly on publisher or author website. Amazon links are only provided if no other links are available. We also maintain a list of the small presses responsible for publishing the current year’s finalists in the hopes that you will support their work.

The short list is derived from 20 BIPOC+ voters made up of SFF community members and previous award winners, of varying genders, sexualities, cultures, disabilities, and locations throughout the world. They are referred to as the Ignyte Awards Committee. The kidlit categories (Young Adult and Middle Grade) each had an additional 3 judges from the age demographics ideally targeted by each of those categories. We thank those kids and their guardians for participation in this process. No active staff members of FIYAH Literary Magazine work with or administer the Ignyte Awards.

The Committee was not limited to selections authored or otherwise created by BIPOC. Public voting on the shortlist does not permit write-in nominations. Each year, we ask winners to be part of the subsequent year’s committee to ensure fresh perspectives and to help prevent repeated nominations of the same popular authors as recognized in many other genre awards.