The longlist for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic has been announced. The shortlist will be announced in July with winners announced in September. Winners in the adult and young adult categories will receive $1,000 and the winner of the short-story category will receive $500.

The 2020 jury includes Peter Darbyshire, Kristyn Dunnion, Omar El Akkad, Michelle Butler Hallett,  John Jantunen, Michael Johnstone, Ursula Pflug, and Sarah Tolmie.

Adult Fiction

• Days by Moonlight, André Alexis (Coach House Books)
• Gamechanger, L.X. Beckett (Tor Books)
• The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution, Lisa de Nikolits (Inanna Publications)
• Even That Wildest Hope, Seyward Goodhand (Invisible Publishing)
• The Weight of Snow, Christian Guay-Poliquin, translated by David Homel (Talonbooks)
• Shout Kill Revel Repeat, Scott R. Jones (Trepidatio Publishing)
• The Migration, Helen Marshall (Random House Canada)
• Crow Winter, Karen McBride (HarperAvenue)
• Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
• Island, Johanna Skibsrud (Hamish Hamilton)
• Moccasin Square Gardens, Richard Van Camp (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Lent, Jo Walton (Tor Books)

Young Adult Fiction

• The Candle and the Flame, Nafiza Azad (Scholastic Inc.)
• Nevers, Sara Cassidy (Orca Book Publishers)
• Summerwood/Winterwood, E. L. Chen (ChiZine Publications)
• Rat Rule 79, Rivka Galchen (Yonder)
• Those Who Dwell Below, Aviaq Johnston (Inhabit Media)
• Nikki Tesla and the Ferret-Proof Death Ray, Jess Keating (Scholastic Inc.)
• The Changeling of Fenlen Forest, Katherine Magyarody (Great Plains Publications)
• Shantallow, Cara Martin (DCB)
• The Ghost Collector, Allison Mills (Annick Press)
• The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim: Demon, Shane Peacock (Penguin Teen)
• Master of the World, Edward Willett (Daw)

Short Story

• “Cleaning House in Ithaca,” Leslie Brown (Tesseracts Twenty-Two Alchemy and Artifacts, July 2019)
• “When the White Bird Sings,” K.T. Bryski (Augur Magazine, Issue 2.2)
• “The Fourth Trimester is the Strangest,” Rebecca Campbell (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2019)
• “Roots and Shoots,” Laura DeHaan (Augur Magazine, Issue 2.1)
• “Florilegia,” Amal El-Mohtar (The Mythic Dream, Gallery/Saga Press)
• “Cheating the Devil at Solitaire,” Chadwick Ginther (On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic, Issue 112, Dec 2019)
• “Katabasis,” Catherine George (Augur Magazine, Issue 2.3)
• “The Brightest Lights of Heaven,” Maria Haskins (Fireside Magazine, Issue 69, July 2019)
• “Lake of Dreams,” Brent Hayward (Broken Sun, Broken Moon, ChiZine Publications)
• “The Inland Beacon,” Kate Heartfield (Tesseracts Twenty-Two Alchemy and Artifacts, July 2019)
• “Revenge,” Thomas Anguti Johnston (Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories, Inhabit Media)
• “The Hundred Gardens,” Catherine Kim (Nat. Brut, Issue 12, Spring 2019)
• “The Stone Alphabet,” Catherine MacLeod (Earth: Giants, Golems, and Gargoyles, Tyche Books)
• “Wheetago War II: Summoners,” Richard Van Camp (Moccasin Square Gardens, Douglas & McIntyre)
• “How the Trick is Done,” A.C. Wise (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 29, July/August 2019)