The ballot of nominees has been released for the 2021 Aurora Awards. The awards, celebrating Canadian work from 2020, are voted on by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. An online awards ceremony will be held Oct. 16 as part of the Ottawa literary sci-fi, fantasy, and horror conference Can-Con.

Best novel

• Beneath the Rising, Premee Mohamed (Solaris)
• A Connecticut Gumshoe in King Arthur’s Court, Randy McCharles (Tyche Books)
• Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Random House Publishing Group)
• The Oppenheimer Alternative, Robert J. Sawyer (Red Deer Press)
• A Stitch in Time, Kelley Armstrong (KLA Fricke)

Best young adult novel

• Return to Atlantis, J.M. Dover (Evil Alter Ego Press)
• Flights of Marigold, Susan Forest (Laksa Media Groups Inc.)
• The Gryphon’s Lair, Kelley Armstrong (Puffin Canada)
• Hollow, Rhonda Parrish (Tyche Books)
• Wall of Wishes, Suzy Vadori (Old Vines Press)

Best novelette/novella

• “Go Fish,” Ian Rogers, Tor.com
• “The Immolation of Kev Magee,” L.X. Beckett (a.k.a A.M. Dellamonica) (Clarkesworld, Issue 167, August)
• “An Important Failure,” Rebecca Campbell (Clarkesworld, Issue 167, August)
• “How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar,” Rich Larson, Tor.com
• “To Sail the Black,” A.C. Wise (Clarkesworld, Issue 170, November)
• “Tool Use by the Humans of Danzhai County,” Derek Künsken (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, July/August)

Best short story

• “All Cats Go to Valhalla,” Chadwick Ginther (Swashbuckling Cats: Nine Lives on the Seven Seas, Tyche Books)
• “The Bone-Stag Walks,” KT Bryski (Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 123, August)
• “Breathe,” Calvin D. Jim (Prairie Gothic, Prairie Soul Press)
• “Grass Gods,” Elizabeth Whitton (Prairie Gothic, Prairie Soul Press)
• “Night Folk,” Barb Galler-Smith (Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, Issue 47, November)
• “So You Want to be a Honeypot,” Kelly Robson (Uncanny Magazine, March/April)

Best graphic novel/comic

• Crash and Burn, Kate Larking and Finn Lucullan (Astres Press)
• Goblins, Ellipsis Hana Stephens (Goblins Comic)
• Gothic Tales of Haunted Futures, edited by S.M. Beiko (Renegade Arts Entertainment)
• It Never Rains, Kari Maaren (webcomic)
• Krampus is My Boyfriend!, S.M. Beiko (Webtoon)
• Northwest Resistance, Katherena Vermette, illustrated by Scott B. Henderson (Highwater Press)

Best poem/song

• “Arachnoid Cyst,” Dominik Parisien (This Magazine, March/April)
• “Back Story,” David Clink (Strange Horizons, Issue 21, September)
• “The Death of the Gods,” Leah Bobet (Uncanny Magazine #32)
• “Electra,” Y.M. Pang (Arsenika)
• “Hamilton Harbour,” Lynne Sargent (A Refuge of Tales, Renaissance Press)
• “he scores,” Beth Cato and Rhonda Parrish (Star*Line, Summer)
• “Masquerade,” Colleen Anderson (On Spec, Issue 115, vol. 31 no. 1)
• “Nidhog,” Jo Walton (The Book of Dragons, Harper Voyager)

Best related work

• Augur Magazine, Issues 3.1 and 3.2, published by Kerry C. Byrne, Alexander De Pompa, and Lawrence Stewen
• Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space, Amanda Leduc (Coach House Books)
• On Spec Magazine, Diane L. Walton, Managing Editor, The Copper Pig Writers Society
• PodCastle, edited by Jen R. Albert and Cherae Clark, host Setsu Uzumé, and producer Peter Adrian Behravesh (Escape Artists Inc.)
• Prairie Gothic, edited by Stacey Kondla (Prairie Soul Press)
• Swashbuckling Cats: Nine Lives on the Seven Seas, edited by Rhonda Parrish (Tyche Books)

Nominees for additional categories, including Best Visual Presentation and Best Artist, are listed on the Aurora Awards website.

---

Update, May 11: This post has been updated. “The Joy in Wounding” by Charlotte Ashley was published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 2019, and therefore has been disqualified from the Best novelette/novella category.

Update, May 12: This post has been updated. Dragon Assassin by Arthur Slade was first published as three novellas in 2019 before being published as a YA novel. It has been disqualified from the Best Young Adult novel category. It has been replaced by Return to Atlantis by J.M. Dover (Evil Alter Ego Press) on the list of finalists.