World Fantasy Award

World Fantasy Award
Statuette used as award trophy since 2016
Awarded for	Best fantasy works of the previous year
Country	International
Presented by	World Fantasy Convention
First awarded	1975
Website	worldfantasy.org

The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous annual convention as the central focus of the event. They were first given in 1975, at the first World Fantasy Convention, and have been awarded annually since. Over the years that the award has been given, the categories presented have changed; currently World Fantasy Awards are given in five written categories, one category for artists, and four special categories for individuals to honor their general work in the field of fantasy.

The awards have been described by book critics such as The Guardian as a "prestigious fantasy prize",^[1] and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and science fiction). World Fantasy Award nominees and winners are decided by attendees of the convention and a panel of judges, typically made up of fantasy authors. Winners receive a small trophy; through the 2015 awards it was a bust of H. P. Lovecraft designed by cartoonist Gahan Wilson. The bust was retired following that year amid complaints about Lovecraft's history of racism; a new statuette designed by Vincent Villafranca depicting a tree in front of a full moon was released in 2017. The 2023 awards were presented at the 49th convention in Kansas City, Missouri on October 29, 2023, and the 2024 awards will be presented at the 50th convention in Niagara Falls, New York on October 20, 2024.