Aurealis Award 2025 winners announced

The winners of the 2025 Aurealis Awards for science fiction, fantasy and horror writing have been announced at GenreCon in Brisbane.

Winning titles in each category, chosen from shortlists announced earlier this month, are:

Best children’s fiction

• Little Bones (Sandy Bigna, UQP)

Best graphic novel / illustrated work

• Higher Ground (Tull Swannakit, New Frontier)

Best young adult short story

• “Crown Tourney” (Tansy Rayner Roberts, from Crown Tourney: Ten Tales of Deadly Damsels, Cursed Castles and Edged Weapons, self-published)

Best horror short story

• “It Will Only Hurt If I Want It To” (Kirstyn McDermott, Midnight Echo #20, AHWA)

Best horror novella

• “Walpurgis” (Ron Schroer, Strange Legacy 2025: Creature Feature, Thorncroft Legacy)

Best fantasy short story

• “Dying Mountain” (Baden M Chant, Aurealis Magazine #177)

Best fantasy novella

• Cinder House (Freya Marske, Tor)

Best science fiction short story

• “Do Motorcycle Centaurs Dream of Five Stars and a Tip?” (Corey Jae White & Maddison Stoff, Interzone, MYY Press)

Best science fiction novella

• “The Hidden God” (TR Napper, Asimov’s Science Fiction, March/April 2025)

Best collection

• The Leper’s Garden and Other Contagions (Jeff Clulow, Third Eye Press)

Best anthology

• AUSTRAL 2025 (eds Matt Richardson, Michaela Teschendorff & Ciar Fhearchair, Meridian Australis)

Best young adult novel

• The Serpent Called Mercy (Roanne Lau, New Dawn)

Best horror novel

• Orpheus Nine (Chris Flynn, Hachette)

Best fantasy novel

• Upon a Starlit Tide (Kell Woods, Voyager)

Best science fiction novel

• Wastelands (Samira Lloyd, Arianhrod Press)

Convenors’ award for excellence

• Story Thinking and the Real-world Applications of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing (Helen Marshall, Kim Wilkins & Lisa Bennett, Bloomsbury).

More information about the awards and the 2025 judges is available on the Aurealis Awards website.

Category: Awards Local news