The shortlists for the 2018 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic in adult, YA, and short-story fiction have been announced. The awards recognize the best in Canadian speculative fiction published in 2017.

The winners of the adult and YA fiction categories will each receive $1,000 and the winner of the short-story prize will receive $500. In the story category, Rati Mehrotra’s “Hacker’s Faire” holds the unique distinction of having been first published on the YA podcast Cast of Wonders.

The awards will be presented this fall.

The shortlisted works are:

Adult

• Ÿ The Bone Mother, David Demchuk (ChiZine Publications)
• Ÿ American War, Omar El Akkad (Penguin Random House Canada)
• Ÿ Sputnik’s Children, Terri Favro (ECW Press)
• Ÿ Jade City, Fonda Lee (Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group Canada)
•  Son of a Trickster, Eden Robinson (PRHC)

Young Adult

• Ÿ The Painting, Charis Cotter (PRHC)
• Ÿ The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline (Dancing Cat Books/Cormorant Books)
• Ÿ Exo, Fonda Lee (Scholastic Canada)
• Ÿ Weave a Circle Round, Kari Maaren (Tor/Forge/Raincoast Books)
•  Dragonfly Song, Wendy Orr (Pajama Press)

Short-Story Fiction

• Ÿ “The Beautiful Gears of Dying,” The Sum of Us, Sandra Kasturi (Laksa Media)
• Ÿ “Spiked,” Abyss & Apex, Rich Larson (Wendy S. Delmater)
• Ÿ “Meridian,” Where the Stars Rise, Karin Lowachee (Laksa Media)
• Ÿ “Hacker’s Faire,” Cast of Wonders, Rati Mehrotra (Escape Artists)
• Ÿ “Animate,” Cli Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, Kate Story (Exile)