Kitschies
Entry updated 26 June 2023. Tagged: Award.
Jury-selected genre Awards presented annually from 2010, not specifically for sf but for "the year's most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic". The name reflects that of the Pornokitsch "geek culture" blog run by Anne C Perry and Jared Shurin, who launched the Kitschies; the "tentacle" names for categories are a nod to the initial award sponsor The Kraken Rum. These categories are Red Tentacle for best novel; Golden (added 2011) for best debut novel; Inky (added 2012) for cover art; Black (added 2011) as a catchall category for special and "judges' discretion" awards for extraordinary service to the sf field, not necessarily presented each year; and Invisible (added 2015 but so far only twice presented) for "Natively Digital Fiction". In 2022 the Black category was renamed the "Glentacle" in honour of the awards' former director Glen Mehn.
Presentations are made in the year following the year of eligibility, which is that of first publication in Great Britain (hence the 2013 debut-novel award to a 2010 title). Winners to date are listed below. No awards were presented in 2017, when a new sponsor was being sought. The current sponsor is the bookshop chain Blackwell's. [DRL]
Red Tentacle: Novel
- 2010: China Miéville, The City & the City (2009)
- 2011: Lauren Beukes, Zoo City (2010)
- 2012: Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd, A Monster Calls (2011)
- 2013: Nick Harkaway, Angelmaker (2012)
- 2014: Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being (2013)
- 2015: Andrew Smith, Grasshopper Jungle (2014)
- 2016: Margaret Atwood, The Heart Goes Last (2015)
- 2017: not awarded
- 2018: Nina Allan, The Rift (2017)
- 2019: Madeline Miller, Circe (2018)
- 2020: Jan Carson, The Fire Starters (2019)
- 2021: Susanna Clarke, Piranesi (2020)
- 2022: Becky Chambers, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (2021)
- 2023: Will Wiles, The Last Blade Priest (2022) as W P Wiles
Golden Tentacle: Debut Novel
- 2011: Maurice Broaddus, King Maker (2010)
- 2012: Kameron Hurley, God's War (2011)
- 2013: Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo (2010)
- 2014: Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice (2013)
- 2015: Hermione Eyre, Viper Wine (2014)
- 2016: Tade Thompson, Making Wolf (2015)
- 2017: not awarded
- 2018: Alex "Acks" Wells, Hunger Makes the Wolf (2017)
- 2019: Ahmed Saadawi, Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013; trans 2018)
- 2020: Clare Rees, Jelly (2019)
- 2021: Micaiah Johnson, The Space Between Worlds (2020)
- 2022: Hilary Leichter, Temporary (2021)
- 2023: Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea (2022)
Inky Tentacle: Cover Art
- 2012: Peter Mendelsund for The Last Werewolf (2011) by Glen Duncan
- 2013: Dave Shelton for his own A Boy and a Bear in a Boat (2012)
- 2014: Will Staehle for The Age Atomic (2013) by Adam Christopher
- 2015: Glenn O'Neill for Tigerman
- 2016: Jet Purdie for The Door That Led to Where (2015) by Sally Gardner
- 2017: not awarded
- 2018: Jack Smyth for The History of Bees (2017) by Maja Lunde
- 2019: Suzanne Dean for Killing Commendatore (2018) by Haruki Murakami
- 2020: Tyler Comrie for The Memory Police (2019) by Yoko Ogawa
- 2021: Allison Saltzman (designer) and Dexter Maurer (illustrator) for The Arrest (2020) by Jonathan Lethem
- 2022: Julia Lloyd for The Seep (2020) by Chana Porter, 2021 Titan Books edition
- 2023: Klara Smith for Paper Crusade (2022) by Michelle Penn
Black Tentacle: Special/Judges' Discretion
Renamed the "Glentacle" in 2022.
- 2011: Donald Westlake, Memory (2010)
- 2012: Selfmadehero (Comics and Graphic Novels publisher)
- 2013: The World SF Blog
- 2014: Malorie Blackman, OBE, as UK Children's Laureate
- 2015: not awarded
- 2016: Patrick Ness's refugee-crisis Save the Children fundraiser (phrased "for the genre community, personified by Ness, for the response to the humanitarian refugee crisis")
- 2017: not awarded
- 2018: not awarded
- 2019: not awarded
- 2020: not awarded
- 2021: not awarded
- 2022: Comma Press, for anthology series
- 2023: Bisha K Ali, for her work as head writer for the Disney+ show Ms. Marvel
Invisible Tentacle: Natively Digital Fiction
- 2015: Cardboard Computer: Kentucky Route Zero, Act III
- 2016: Life Is Strange
- 2017: not awarded
- 2018: not awarded
- 2019: not awarded
- 2020: not awarded
- 2021: not awarded
- 2022: not awarded
- 2023: not awarded
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