2026 Ditmar Awards

The Ditmar awards are a fan voted award for works of SF by Australian residents. The award candidates were nominated by members of the Continuum, Conflux or Swancon conventions from 2022-2026. Congratulations to the winners and nominees.

Best New Talent

Winner Jeff Clulow
Nominees
KA Burgess, Fionn MacPherson, Scott Steensma, Greg Foyster
Meg Wright / Red Wallflower, Emmi Khor, Adam Richard, Roanne Lau

Short Story
Winner ‘Bitter Skin’, Kaaron Warren (Night and Day, Saga)
Nominees
‘A Shortcut via the New Tunnel, M-ate’, CH Pearce, (Never Say Die, CSFG)
‘Phantom Loop’, S L Johnson [with Gio Clairval] (Tales from the Crosstimbers, Crosstimbers Publications LLC)
‘Scorpion Girl’, Janeen Webb (Scorpion Girl, PS Publishing)
‘The Girlfriend Experience’, CZ Tacks (Lightspeed Magazine)
‘Through These Moments, Darkly’, Samantha Murray, (Clarkesworld)

Novella/Novelette
Winner ‘The Hidden God’, Tim Napper (Asimov’s March/April)
Nominees
‘Cinder House’, Freya Marske
‘The Cold House’, AG Slatter
‘A Second Coming’, Janeen Webb
‘Drowning in the Dark’, Matt Tighe

Novel
Winner. Honeyeater, Kathleen Jennings (Pan Macmillan)
Nominees
The Crimson Road, AG Slatter (Titan Books)
Veil, Jeff Clulow, (Third Eye Press)
Upon a Starlit Tide, Kell Woods (Harper Collins)
When Dark Waters Burn, Zena Shapter (Midnight Sun Publishing)

Collected Work
Winner This Dark Architect and Other Grim Tales, Pamela Jeffs (Four Ink Press)

Nominees
Drowning in the Dark and Other Stories, Matt Tighe (IFWG)
Songs of Shadow, Words of Woe, Matthew R Davis (JournalStone)
The Leper’s Garden and Other Contagions, Jeff Clulow (Third Eye Press)
Scorpion Girl and Other Stories, Janeen Webb (PS Publishing)

Professional Artwork
Winner Honeyeater internal art, Kathleen Jennings

Nominees
Never Say Die cover, Maddison Lee
The Ship’s Big Steaming Log: the Book of Bladderwrack, Adam Browne
Rebels & Rainbows cover, C.H. Pearce

Fan Art
Winner Brave New Wardrobe, Conflux 19 art show, Kaaron Warren
Nominees
Gideon the Ninth fan art, Annalise Jensen
Instagram art, Elise Miller

FaN Writer
Winner Ian Mond reviews, Substack

Nominees
Leigh Edmonds, Ornithopter
Jan MacNally reviews, Ethel the Aardvark fanzine (MSFC)
Rob Masters, writings on aus.social
Claire Fitzpatrick, ‘Frankenstein in Pop-Culture’ (Aurealis)

Fan Publication
Winner Aurealis Awards: Behind the Curtain podcast, Alexandra Pierce
Nominees
Prose podcast, A.D. Ellicott and C.Z. Tacks
Recent Reads book reviews blog, Leanbh Pearson
The Narratives Library, Karena Wynn-Moylan
Terry Talks Movies, Youtube, Terry Frost

The William Atheling Jr Award

Winner Story Thinking and the Real-world Applications of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing by Helen Marshall, Kim Wilkins & Lisa Bennett

Nominees
Eugen Bacon, ‘Spec Fic and the Politics of Identity: Finding the Self in Other’, Strange Horizons
Ian Mond for review in Locus
‘The Horror of Australian Literary Censorship’, Louise Zedda Sampson, in Midnight Echo #20
‘When ‘EAT THE RICH’ Is Not Enough: Horror Meets Late-Stage Capitalism’, Kirstyn McDermott, Ruadán Books
‘Almost a Witch’, Freyja Stokes, Speculative Insight
Stephen Herczeg, ‘The Lost World: its influence on modern science fiction’, Steel True Blade Straight 2025/26, Belanger Books
Stephen Herczeg, ‘August Derleth and the rise of the Cthulhu Mythos’, The Pontine Dossier Millenium Edition 2025, Belanger Books
Russell Blackford, ‘Mass Appeal: Stephen Dedman’s Genre Alchemy’, Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature, issue 57
Russell Blackford, ‘Remembering Damien Broderick: A starlit mind in the cosmos of ideas’, SF Commentary 120