The

Aurealis Awards The Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Only Australians are eligible for the award. History The Aurealis Award was established in 1995 b ...

are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have been first published by an Australian citizen or permanent resident between 1 January and 31 December of the corresponding year; the presentation ceremony is held the following year. It has grown from a small function of around 20 people to a two-day event attended by over 200 people. Since their creation in 1995, awards have been given in various categories of speculative fiction. Categories currently include science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

—with separate awards for novels and

short fiction A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

—collections, anthologies, illustrative works or

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

s, children's books, and an award for excellence in speculative fiction. The awards have attracted the attention of publishers by setting down a benchmark in science fiction and fantasy. The continued sponsorship by publishers such as

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

and

Orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

has identified the award as an honour to be taken seriously. The results are decided by a panel of judges from a list of submitted nominees; the long-list of nominees is reduced to a short-list of finalists. Ties can occur if the panel decides both entries show equal merit, however they are encouraged to choose a single winner. The judges may declare a "no award" if there is unanimous agreement that none of the nominees are worthy. The judges are selected from a public application process by the Award's management team. This article lists all the short-list nominees and winners in the best children's fiction category which replaces the following two previous categories for children's fiction: * Aurealis Award for best children's fiction (told primarily through words) * Aurealis Award for best children's fiction (told primarily through pictures) In 2013, this award was known as the Aurealis Award for best children's book.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years correspond to the year of the work's eligibility; the ceremonies are always held the following year. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature" article. Entries with a blue background have won the award; those with a white background are the nominees on the short-list. If the work was originally published in a book with other stories rather than by itself or in a magazine, the book title is included after the publisher's name. As of the 2021 awards, which were presented in May 2022, the following have received the most nominations: * Lian Tanner (4) * Bren MacDibble (3) * Emily Rodda (3) *

Angelica Banks ''Angelica'' is a genus of about 60 species of tall biennial and perennial herbs in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, reaching as far north as Iceland, Lapland, and Greenland. They grow ...

(2) * Karen Foxlee (2) * Rebecca Lim (2) *

Meg McKinlay Meg McKinlay is a Western Australian writer. She has written a number of books for children and young adults, including ''How to Make a Bird'' and ''A Single Stone''. She has won two Prime Minister's Literary Awards and three Crystal Kite Awar ...

(2) *

Jaclyn Moriarty Jaclyn Moriarty (born 1968 in Perth) is an Australian novelist, most known for her young adult literature. She is a recipient of the Davitt Award and the Aurealis Award for best children's fiction. Biography Moriarty was raised in the north-west ...

(2) Winners and joint winners
Nominees on the shortlist

References

External links

Aurealis Awards official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aurealis Award For Best Children's Book Aurealis Awards Australian children's literary awards