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Here are the finalists for the 2023 Ignyte Awards

Andrew Liptak -

Earlier this week, the folks behind FIYAH, a magazine of Black speculative fiction, announced the finalists for this year's Ignyte Awards: a relatively recent set of awards that showcases the best publishing from BIPOC creators.

The finalists are put together by a jury, and one neat thing that's new this year is that the jury for the younger adult categories included a handful of judges aged 12-18. "This year, we’ve added a slate of judges aged 12-18 to help select the YA and Middle Grade finalists," the committee explained (via Locus Magazine). "The philosophy is that kidlit categories should heavily weigh the opinions of the people they’re written for." I love that move, especially as we're in a time and place where there are plenty of adults screaming at each other over what's appropriate for kids. Kids are smart, and they certainly know what makes for good books and storytelling.

I don't have a ton of thoughts on the list as a whole: I've only read a couple of items on it, like Babel and Even Though I Knew The End, but I enjoyed those quite a bit. (The Spear Cuts Through Water is one that I've started, but haven't gotten too far into.)

Here's the list of finalists. I've included links where you can find the works available online. Voting for the awards is now open.

Best Novel: Adult

  • Babel by R. F. Kuang
  • Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel
  • Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
  • The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport
  • The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Best Novel: Young Adult

  • Ballad & Dagger by Daniel José Older
  • Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn
  • Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye
  • Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore
  • The Kindred by Alechia Dow

Best in Middle Grade

  • Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion by K. Tempest Bradford
  • The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat
  • The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton
  • Witchlings by Claribel Ortega
  • You Only Live Once, David Bravo! by Mark Oshiro

Best Novella

  • Bishop's Opening  by R.S.A. Garcia
  • Empire of the Feast by Bendi Barrett
  • Even Though I Knew The End by C. L. Polk
  • Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum
  • Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Best Novelette

Best Short Story

Best in Speculative Poetry

Critics Award

  • Aigner Loren Wilson
  • Bogi Takács
  • Charles Payseur
  • Christina Orlando
  • Nerds of a Feather

Best Fiction Podcast

Best Artist

  • Aimee Campbell
  • Terri Chieyni
  • N’kai DeLauter
  • Taj Francis
  • Raymond Sebastien

Best Comics Team

  • Changa And The Jade Obelisk #2 by Matteo Illuminat, Loris Ravina, Massimiliano Veltri & Robert Jeffrey II
  • Squire by Nadia Shammas & Sara Alfageeh
  • Where Black Stars Rise by Marie Enger & Nadia Shammas

Best Anthology / Collected Works

  • Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
  • Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
  • Reclaim the Stars edited by Zoraida Córdova, ed.
  • The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer edited by David Pomerico and Kyle Dargan
  • Voodoonauts Presents (Re)Living Mythology by Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, H.D. Hunter & LP Kindred

Best Creative Nonfiction

The Ember Award

  • Afronauts Podcast
  • Alex Brown
  • Kate Elliott
  • Maurice Broaddus
  • Ruoxi Chen

The Community Award

  • Carl Brandon Society
  • Clarion West
  • dave ring
  • Flights of Foundry
  • Loyalty Bookstore’s Crowdcast