World Fantasy Award—Collection
The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described by book critics such as The Guardian as a "prestigious fantasy prize", and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards. The World Fantasy Award—Collection is given each year for collections of fantasy stories by a single author published in English. A collection can have any number of editors, and works in the collection may have been previously published; awards are also given out for anthologies of works by multiple authors in the Anthology category. The Collection category has been awarded annually since 1975, though from 1977 through 1987 anthologies were admissible as nominees. Anthologies were split into a separate category beginning in 1988; during the 10 years they were admissible they won the award 7 times and were 38 of the 56 nominations.
World Fantasy Award nominees and winners are decided by attendees and judges at the annual World Fantasy Convention. A ballot is posted in June for attendees of the current and previous two conferences to determine two of the finalists, and a panel of five judges adds three or more nominees before voting on the overall winner. The panel of judges is typically made up of fantasy authors and is chosen each year by the World Fantasy Awards Administration, which has the power to break ties. The final results are presented at the World Fantasy Convention at the end of October. Winners were presented with a statue in the form of a bust of H. P. Lovecraft through the 2015 awards; more recent winners receive a statuette of a tree.
During the 45 nomination years, 156 writers have had works nominated; 43 of them have won, including ties and co-authors. Only six writers or editors have won more than once. Jeffrey Ford has won the regular collection award three times out of four nominations, while Karen Joy Fowler, Lucius Shepard, and Gene Wolfe won the regular collection award twice, out of two, four, and two nominations, respectively. Charles L. Grant and Kirby McCauley won the award as editors of anthologies while those were eligible; Grant was nominated nine times as an editor and once for a collection, while McCauley won both times he was nominated for anthologies. Grant's ten nominations are the most of any writer or editor, followed by Ramsey Campbell, Harlan Ellison, and Charles de Lint at five, with two of Campbell's nominations coming for anthologies. Dennis Etchison, Stephen King, Fritz Leiber, Kelly Link, and Stuart David Schiff have had the most nominations without winning at four; one of Etchison's and all of Schiff's nominations were for anthologies.
Winners and nominees
In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the collection was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". Entries with a blue background and an asterisk next to the author's name have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominees on the shortlist. If the work was an anthology rather than a collection, the editor's name is appended with to distinguish them from authors of collections.* Winners
| Year | Author/editor | Collection/anthology | Publisher | Ref. |
| * | Worse Things Waiting | Carcosa | ||
| From Evil's Pillow | Arkham House | |||
| * | Warner | |||
| Deathbird Stories | Harper & Row | |||
| Doubleday | ||||
| Far Lands, Other Days | Carcosa | |||
| * | Frights | St. Martin's Press | ||
| Cinnabar | Macmillan Publishers | |||
| ' | Dell Publishing | |||
| Arkham House | ||||
| Long After Midnight | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
| Superhorror | St. Martin's Press | |||
| * | Murgunstrumm and Others | Carcosa | ||
| Cold Chills | Doubleday | |||
| Swords and Ice Magic | Ace Books | |||
| ' | Doubleday | |||
| DAW Books | ||||
| * | ' | Doubleday | ||
| Heroes and Horrors | Whispers Press | |||
| Night Shift | Doubleday | |||
| Night Winds | Warner | |||
| Doubleday | ||||
| DAW Books | ||||
| * | Amazons! | DAW Books | ||
| Nightmares | Playboy Press | |||
| Shadows 2 | Doubleday | |||
| Thieves' World | Ace Books | |||
| ' | Doubleday | |||
| Berkley Books | ||||
| * | Dark Forces | Viking Press | ||
| Dragons of Light | Ace Books | |||
| Mummy! A Chrestomathy of Crypt-ology | Arbor House | |||
| New Terrors | Pan Books | |||
| Shadows 3 | Doubleday | |||
| Shatterday | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | |||
| * | Elsewhere | Ace Books | ||
| * | Elsewhere | Ace Books | ||
| Fantasy Annual IV | Timescape | |||
| Shadows 4 | Doubleday | |||
| Tales from the Nightside | Arkham House | |||
| ' | Doubleday | |||
| * | Nightmare Seasons | Doubleday | ||
| Scream/Press | ||||
| Different Seasons | Viking Press | |||
| Hecate's Cauldron | DAW Books | |||
| Perpetual Light | Warner | |||
| Shadows 5 | Doubleday | |||
| * | High Spirits | Penguin | ||
| Dodd, Mead and Company | ||||
| Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer | DAW Books | |||
| Shadows 6 | Doubleday | |||
| Tales of Wonder | Schocken Books | |||
| * | Books of Blood, Vols. I-III | Sphere Books | ||
| Doubleday | ||||
| Masques | Maclay & Associates | |||
| Night Visions 1 | Dark Harvest | |||
| Victor Gollancz | ||||
| Viriconium Nights | Ace Books | |||
| * | Imaginary Lands | Ace Books | ||
| Black Venus | Hogarth Press | |||
| Books of Blood, Vols. IV-VI | Sphere Books | |||
| Dragonfield and Other Stories | Ace Books | |||
| Faery! | Ace Books | |||
| Night Visions 2 | Dark Harvest | |||
| Skeleton Crew | Putnam Publishing Group | |||
| ' | Doubleday | |||
| * | Tales of the Quintana Roo | Arkham House | ||
| Black Wine | Dark Harvest | |||
| Cutting Edge | Doubleday | |||
| ' | Arkham House | |||
| Liavek: The Players of Luck | Ace Books | |||
| Liavek: The Players of Luck | Ace Books | |||
| Merlin's Booke | Ace Books | |||
| Night Visions 3 | Dark Harvest | |||
| * | Arkham House | |||
| Night's Sorceries | DAW Books | |||
| Polyphemus | Arkham House | |||
| ' | Scream/Press | |||
| Why Not You and I? | Tor Books | |||
| * | Angry Candy | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | ||
| * | Storeys from the Old Hotel | Kerosina Books | ||
| Scream/Press | ||||
| Cabal | Poseidon Press | |||
| Charles Beaumont: Selected Stories | Dark Harvest | |||
| William Morrow and Company | ||||
| * | Richard Matheson: Collected Stories | Scream/Press | ||
| Blue World and Other Stories | Grafton | |||
| By Bizarre Hands | Mark V. Ziesing | |||
| Harlan Ellison's Watching | Underwood–Miller | |||
| Novelty | Doubleday | |||
| * | The Women's Press | |||
| Scream/Press | ||||
| Houses Without Doors | Grafton | |||
| Dark Harvest | ||||
| Prayers to Broken Stones | Dark Harvest | |||
| * | Arkham House | |||
| Grafton | ||||
| Grimscribe: His Lives and Works | Carroll & Graf Publishers | |||
| Lafferty In Orbit | Broken Mirrors Press | |||
| More Shapes Than One | St. Martin's Press | |||
| Night of the Cooters: More Neat Stories | Mark V. Ziesing | |||
| * | Broken Moon Press | |||
| Bear's Fantasies | Wildside Press | |||
| Lord Kelvin's Machine | Arkham House | |||
| Meeting in Infinity | Arkham House | |||
| Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales | Roadkill Press | |||
| Spiritwalk | Tor Books | |||
| * | Alone with the Horrors | Arkham House | ||
| Angels and Visitations | DreamHaven Books | |||
| Antiquities | Incunabula | |||
| Dreams Underfoot | Tor Books | |||
| Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands | Edgewood Press | |||
| Transients and Other Disquieting Stories | W. Paul Ganley | |||
| Under the Crust | Wendigo | |||
| * | Wildside Press | |||
| Fedogan & Bremer | ||||
| Egerton Press | ||||
| Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque | Dutton Penguin | |||
| Travellers In Magic | Tor Books | |||
| * | Seven Tales and a Fable | Edgewood Press | ||
| Death Stalks the Night | Fedogan & Bremer | |||
| Tor Books | ||||
| HarperCollins UK | ||||
| HarperCollins UK | ||||
| * | Harcourt Brace | |||
| Bad Intentions | Subterranean Press | |||
| Bible Stories for Adults | Harcourt Brace | |||
| Conference with the Dead | Ash-Tree Press | |||
| Midnight Promises | Gauntlet Publications | |||
| Carroll & Graf Publishers | ||||
| Victor Gollancz | ||||
| * | Terminal Fright Press | |||
| Driving Blind | Avon Publications | |||
| Fractal Paisleys | Four Walls Eight Windows | |||
| Tigereyes Press | ||||
| Giant Bones | Roc Books | |||
| * | Black Glass | Henry Holt and Company | ||
| Tor Books | ||||
| Last Summer at Mars Hill | HarperPrism | |||
| Manitou Man: The Worlds of Graham Masterton | British Fantasy Society | |||
| DreamHaven Books | ||||
| * | Moonlight and Vines | Tor Books | ||
| * | Reave the Just and Other Tales | HarperCollins Voyager | ||
| Deep Into That Darkness Peering | Terminal Fright Press | |||
| Hearts in Atlantis | Charles Scribner's Sons | |||
| ' | Wildside Press | |||
| * | Beluthahatchie and Other Stories | Golden Gryphon Press | ||
| Blackwater Days | Eidolon Publications | |||
| Magic Terror: Seven Tales | Random House | |||
| Perpetuity Blues and Other Stories | Golden Gryphon Press | |||
| Tor Books | ||||
| Travel Arrangements | Victor Gollancz | |||
| * | Skin Folk | Warner Aspect | ||
| Dark Universe: Stories 1951-2001 | Stealth Press | |||
| Morpheus International | ||||
| Stranger Things Happen | Small Beer Press | |||
| Talking in the Dark | Stealth Press | |||
| * | Golden Gryphon Press | |||
| City of Saints and Madmen | Prime Books | |||
| Figures in Rain | Ash-Tree Press | |||
| Obscura Press | ||||
| Waifs and Strays | Viking Press | |||
| Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits | Putnam Publishing Group | |||
| Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits | Putnam Publishing Group | |||
| * | Bibliomancy | PS Publishing | ||
| Ghosts of Yesterday | Night Shade Books | |||
| ' | Subterranean Press | |||
| More Tomorrow & Other Stories | Earthling Publications | |||
| Carroll & Graf Publishers | ||||
| * | Black Juice | Allen & Unwin Australia | ||
| Breathmoss and Other Exhalations | Golden Gryphon Press | |||
| Heat of Fusion and Other Stories | Tor Books | |||
| Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories | Subterranean Press | |||
| Songs of Leaving | Subterranean Press | |||
| Stable Strategies and Others | Tachyon Publications | |||
| Trujillo and Other Stories | PS Publishing | |||
| * | Wheatland Press | |||
| 20th Century Ghosts | PS Publishing | |||
| In the Palace of Repose | Prime Books | |||
| Magic for Beginners | Small Beer Press | |||
| To Charles Fort, with Love | Subterranean Press | |||
| * | Map of Dreams | Golden Gryphon Press | ||
| American Morons | Earthling Publications | |||
| Golden Gryphon Press | ||||
| Bloomsbury | ||||
| Red Spikes | Allen & Unwin Australia | |||
| * | Tiny Deaths | Comma Press | ||
| Dagger Key and Other Stories | PS Publishing | |||
| Hart & Boot & Other Stories | Night Shade Books | |||
| Plots and Misadventures | Subterranean Press | |||
| Portable Childhoods | Tachyon Publications | |||
| MonkeyBrain Books | ||||
| * | Harper Perennial | |||
| Filter House | Aqueduct Press | |||
| Pretty Monsters | Viking Press | |||
| Strange Roads | DreamHaven Books | |||
| Tales from Outer Suburbia | Allen & Unwin | |||
| * | Penguin | |||
| * | PS Publishing | |||
| Everland and Other Stories | PS Publishing | |||
| Fugue State | Coffee House Press | |||
| Northwest Passages | Prime Books | |||
| We Never Talk About My Brother | Tachyon Publications | |||
| * | What I Didn't See and Other Stories | Small Beer Press | ||
| Subterranean Press | ||||
| Holiday | Golden Gryphon Press | |||
| Sourdough and Other Stories | Tartarus Press | |||
| Tachyon Publications | ||||
| * | Tachyon Publications | |||
| Bluegrass Symphony | Ticonderoga Publications | |||
| Two Worlds and In Between | Subterranean Press | |||
| After the Apocalypse | Small Beer Press | |||
| Mrs Midnight and Other Stories | Tartarus Press | |||
| * | Where Furnaces Burn | PS Publishing | ||
| At the Mouth of the River of Bees | Small Beer Press | |||
| Small Beer Press | ||||
| Remember Why You Fear Me | ChiZine Publications | |||
| Jagannath | Cheeky Frawg Books | |||
| * | Subterranean Press | |||
| North American Lake Monsters: Stories | Small Beer Press | |||
| Night Shade Books | ||||
| Flowers of the Sea | Tartarus Press | |||
| How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future | Subterranean Press | |||
| 2015 | * | The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings | Tartarus Press | |
| 2015 | * | Gifts for the One Who Comes After | ChiZine Publications | |
| 2015 | Mercy and Other Stories | Tartarus Press | ||
| 2015 | They Do the Same Things Different There | ChiZine Publications | ||
| 2015 | Death at the Blue Elephant | Ticonderoga Publications | ||
| 2016 | * | Bone Swans | Mythic Delirium | |
| 2016 | Get in Trouble | Random House | ||
| 2016 | Leena Krohn: The Collected Fiction | Cheeky Frawg Books | ||
| 2016 | Reality by Other Means: The Best Short Fiction of James Morrow | Wesleyan University Press | ||
| 2016 | Skein and Bone | Undertow Publications | ||
| 2016 | You Have Never Been Here | Small Beer Press | ||
| 2017 | * | Small Beer Press | ||
| 2017 | On the Eyeball Floor and Other Stories | Fairwood Press | ||
| 2017 | Saga Press | |||
| 2017 | Sharp Ends | Orbit Books | ||
| 2017 | Vacui Magia | Traversing Z Press | ||
| 2018 | * | Tachyon Publications | ||
| 2018 | Wicked Wonders | Tachyon Publications | ||
| 2018 | Her Body and Other Parties | Graywolf Press | ||
| 2018 | Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers | Baen Books | ||
| 2018 | Tender | Small Beer Press | ||
| 2019 | * | Saga Press | ||
| 2019 | * | Saga Press | ||
| 2019 | Small Beer Press | |||
| 2019 | How Long 'til Black Future Month? | Orbit Books | ||
| 2019 | Phantom Limbs | PS Publishing | ||
| 2019 | Still So Strange | ChiZine Publications |