Locus Awards 2026

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The top ten awards finalists in each category are:

SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS

FANTASY NOVELS

  • The Devils, Joe Abercrombie (Tor; Gollancz) amazon / bookshop
  • The Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison (Tor; Solaris UK) amazon / bookshop
  • Lessons in Magic and Disaster, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan UK) amazon / bookshop
  • A Drop of Corruption, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape) amazon / bookshop
  • The Everlasting, Alix E. Harrow (Tor; Tor UK) amazon / bookshop
  • The Raven Scholar, Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape) amazon / bookshop
  • Hemlock & Silver, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Tor UK) amazon / bookshop
  • Katabasis, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager; Harper Voyager UK) amazon / bookshop
  • The Incandescent, Emily Tesh (Tor; Orbit UK) amazon / bookshop
  • Queen Demon, Martha Wells (Tor) amazon / bookshop

HORROR NOVELS

  • The Possession of Alba Díaz, Isabel Cañas (Berkley; Solaris UK) amazon / bookshop
  • Spread Me, Sarah Gailey (Nightfire) amazon / bookshop
  • King Sorrow, Joe Hill (Morrow; Headline UK) amazon / bookshop
  • The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan UK) amazon / bookshop
  • The Library at Hellebore, Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire; Titan UK) amazon / bookshop
  • Never Flinch, Stephen King (Scribner, Hodder & Stoughton UK) amazon / bookshop
  • The Bewitching, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Arcadia UK) amazon / bookshop
  • It Was Her House First, Cherie Priest (Poisoned Pen) amazon / bookshop
  • The Crimson Road, A.G. Slatter (Titan US & UK) amazon / bookshop
  • The Staircase in the Woods, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Del Rey UK) amazon / bookshop

YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

  • The Singular Life of Aria Patel, Samira Ahmed (Little, Brown; Atom UK) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • Make Me a Monster, Kalynn Bayron (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK) [H] amazon / bookshop
  • Costumes for Time Travelers, A.R. Capetta (Candlewick; Walker UK) [F] amazon / bookshop
  • The Executioners Three, Susan Dennard (Tor Teen; Daphne UK) [H] amazon / bookshop
  • The Underwood Tapes, Amanda DeWitt (Peachtree Teen) [H] amazon / bookshop
  • Among Ghosts, Rachel Hartman (Random House) [F] amazon / bookshop
  • Sky on Fire, E.K. Johnston (Dutton) [F] amazon / bookshop
  • Starstrike, Yoon Ha Lee (Delacorte; Solaris UK) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • I Am Not Jessica Chen, Ann Liang (Harper) [F] amazon / bookshop
  • They Bloom at Night, Trang Thanh Tran (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK) [H] amazon / bookshop

FIRST NOVELS

  • A Song of Legends Lost, M.H. Ayinde (Orbit UK; Saga) [F] amazon / bookshop
  • Red Rabbit Ghost, Jen Julian (Run For It) [H] amazon / bookshop
  • When Devils Sing, Xan Kaur (Holt; First Ink UK) [H] amazon / bookshop
  • Awake in the Floating City, Susanna Kwan (Pantheon; Simon & Schuster UK) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • Luminous, Silvia Park (Simon & Schuster; Magpie) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • Archive of Unknown Universes, Ruben Reyes Jr. (Mariner; Footnote UK) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • North Sun, Or The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther, Ethan Rutherford (A Strange Object) [H] amazon / bookshop
  • Blob, Maggie Su (Harper; Sceptre UK) [F] amazon / bookshop
  • Song of Spores, Bogi Takács (Broken Eye) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • Sour Cherry, Natalia Theodoridou (Tin House; Wildfire UK) [F] amazon / bookshop

TRANSLATED NOVEL

  • On the Calculation of Volume III, Solvej Balle, tr. Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell (New Directions; Faber & Faber) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • The Unworthy, Agustina Bazterrica, tr. Sarah Moses (Scribner; Pushkin UK) [H] amazon / bookshop
  • The Midnight Shift, Cheon Seon-Ran, tr. Gene Png (Bloomsbury UK; Bloomsbury US) [H] amazon / bookshop
  • Red Sword, Bora Chung, tr. Anton Hur (Honford Star) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • The Midnight Timetable, Bora Chung, tr. Anton Hur (Algonquin) [H] amazon / bookshop
  • Ice, Jacek Dukaj, tr. Ursula Phillips (Head of Zeus) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • Blood for the Undying Throne, Sung-il Kim, tr. Anton Hur (Tor) [F] amazon / bookshop
  • Vanishing World, Sayaka Murata, tr. Ginny Tapley Takemori (Grove; Granta UK) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • Dengue Boy, Michel Nieva, tr. Rahul Bery (Astra House; Serpent’s Tail) [SF] amazon / bookshop
  • The Wax Child, Olga Ravn, tr. Martin Aitken (New Directions; Viking UK) [F] amazon / bookshop

NOVELLAS

NOVELETTES

SHORT STORIES

ANTHOLOGY

  • The Black Fantastic, andré m. carrington, ed. (Library of America) amazon / bookshop
  • Night & Day, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Saga) amazon / bookshop
  • Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology, Julie C. Day, Carina Bissett & Craig Laurance Gidney, eds. (Essential Dreams) amazon / bookshop
  • The End of the World As We Know It, Christopher Golden & Brian Keene, eds. (Gallery) amazon / bookshop
  • We Will Rise Again, Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz & Malka Older, eds. (Saga) amazon / bookshop
  • Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity, Lee Mandelo, ed. (Erewhon) amazon / bookshop
  • The Best Weird Fiction of the Year: Volume 1, Michael Kelly, ed. (Undertow) amazon / bookshop
  • Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Three, Stephen Kotowych, ed. (Ansible) amazon 
  • The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025, Nnedi Okorafor & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner) amazon / bookshop
  • As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories, Terese Mason Pierre, ed. (Spiderline)amazon / bookshop

COLLECTION

  • Call and Response, Christopher Caldwell (Neon Hemlock) amazon / bookshop
  • Moon Songs, Carol Emshwiller (Third Man) amazon / bookshop
  • Letters from an Imaginary Country, Theodora Goss (Tachyon) amazon / bookshop
  • Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Thomas Ha (Undertow) amazon / bookshop
  • Bright Dead Star, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean) amazon / bookshop
  • The Essential Patricia A. McKillip, Patricia A. McKillip (Tachyon) amazon / bookshop
  • One Message Remains, Premee Mohamed (Psychopomp) amazon / bookshop
  • The Revelation Space Collection Volumes 1 & 2, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz) amazon / bookshop
  • Crows and Silences, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean) amazon / bookshop
  • A Catalog of Storms, Fran Wilde (Fairwood) amazon / bookshop

MAGAZINE

  • Asimov’s
  • Beneath Ceaseless Skies
  • Clarkesworld
  • F&SF
  • Fiyah
  • khōréō
  • Lightspeed
  • Reactor
  • Strange Horizons
  • Uncanny Magazine

PUBLISHER (Tor Publishing Group & Subterranean Press have recused themselves from this category. Tor UK is an imprint of Pan Macmillan, not TPG.)

  • Angry Robot
  • DAW
  • Del Rey
  • Gollancz
  • Neon Hemlock
  • Orbit
  • Pan Macmillan/Tor UK
  • Saga
  • Solaris
  • Tachyon

EDITOR

  • John Joseph Adams
  • Scott H. Andrews
  • Neil Clarke
  • Ellen Datlow
  • dave ring
  • Jonathan Strahan
  • Bogi Takács
  • Wendy N. Wagner
  • Fran Wilde & Julian Yap
  • Sheila Williams

ARTIST

  • Brom
  • Rovina Cai
  • Galen Dara
  • Bob Eggleton
  • Kathleen Jennings
  • Alan Lee
  • John Picacio
  • Shaun Tan
  • Charles Vess
  • Michael Whelan

ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOKS

  • The Invisible Parade, Leigh Bardugo & John Picacio (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) amazon / bookshop
  • Frank Frazetta: Fine Lines, Sara Frazetta & Arnie Fenner, eds., art by Frank Frazetta (Frazetta Girls) amazon 
  • Starling House, Alix E. Harrow, art by Rovina Cai (Subterranean) amazon / bookshop
  • Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, Paul Kidby (Harper; Doubleday UK) amazon / bookshop
  • Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, art by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (Beehive) amazon
  • The Space Cat, Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford (First Second) amazon / bookshop
  • Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene Volumes 1-3, adapted by Rebecca K. Reynolds, art by Justin Gerard (Sky Turtle) amazon 
  • Sunset at Zero Point, Simon Stålenhag (as Swedish Machines Free League Sweden; Saga US) amazon / bookshop
  • Faraway Dreaming, Ulla Thynell (Atthis Arts)
  • Icons of the Fantastic: Illustrations of Imaginative Literature from the Korshak Collection, Amanda T. Zehnder & David M. Brinley, eds. (University of Delaware Press) amazon / bookshop

NON-FICTION

  • The Outspoken and the Incendiary, Terry Bisson (PM) amazon / bookshop
  • Enshittification, Cory Doctorow (MCD) amazon / bookshop
  • Colourfields, Paul Kincaid (Briardene) amazon 
  • Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling, Henry Lien (Norton) amazon / bookshop
  • Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler, Susana M. Morris (Amistad) amazon / bookshop
  • Black Apocalypse: Afrofuturism at the End of the World, Tavia Nyong’o (University of California Press) amazon / bookshop
  • Racebook: A Personal History of the Internet, Tochi Onyebuchi (Roxane Gay) amazon / bookshop
  • Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature, Becky Siegel Spratford, ed. (Saga) amazon / bookshop
  • Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!: Interviews with Science Fiction Legends, Richard Wolinsky, ed. (Tachyon) amazon / bookshop
  • Octavia E. Butler: H is for Horse, Chi-ming Yang (Oxford University Press) amazon / bookshop