The Kitschies are British literary prizes presented annually for "the year's most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic" published in the United Kingdom.

Awards and criteria

The Kitschies are administered by a non-profit association with the stated mission of "encouraging and elevating the tone of the discussion of genre literature in its many forms". The founders, Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin, said that they sought to bring attention to works with a fantastic or speculative element that are progressive in terms of content and composition. The award is a juried prize that selects those books which "best elevate the tone of

genre literature Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre. A num ...

". Qualifying books must contain "an element of the fantastic or speculative" and have been published in the UK. Winners receive a sum of prize money and a textile tentacle trophy. The Kitschies are governed by an advisory board of members. They were initially established in 2009 by the website pornokitsch.com.

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was the sponsor between 2010 and 2013. For 2014 and 2015, Fallen London (a creation of UK game developer

Failbetter Games Failbetter Games is a British video game developer and interactive fiction studio based in London. History Founded in 2009 by Alexis Kennedy and Paul Arendt, Failbetter is chiefly known for its '' Fallen London'' Victorian Gothic franchise ...

), was the sponsor. The award did not run in 2016. From 2017 the sponsor is Blackwell's Bookshop. , the Kitschies are awarded in five categories: *Red Tentacle for the best novel (£1,000, since 2009) *Golden Tentacle for the best

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

(£500, since 2010) *Inky Tentacle for the best

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art), ...

(£500, since 2011) *Invisible Tentacle for the best natively digital fiction (since 2014) *Glentacle, awarded at the judges' discretion (since 2010, called "Black Tentacle" until 2020)

Organisation

The judging panels changes annually and the unpaid directors have changed due to workload or illness. The number of submissions has increased from 70 in 2009 to a record of 234 in 2013. For each year, the judges, directors, and the number of submissions for each year are as follows:

Recipients

All award information, unless otherwise referenced, is from the Kitschies Award'
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Red Tentacle (best novel)

Golden Tentacle (best debut novel)

Inky Tentacle (best cover art)

Invisible Tentacle (best natively digital fiction)

Glentacle (Discretionary award previously called the Black Tentacle)

This award was called "Black Tentacle" until 2020, when it was renamed in memory of Kitschies co-founder Glen Mehn.

References

External links

The Kitschies website
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