William L. Crawford (1911–1984) was an American publisher and editor who produced the first full-size book issued by a publisher that specialized in science fiction. Mars Mountain, published in 1935, is a collection of science fiction short stories by Eugene George Key. Crawford created several publishing companies, including the Fantasy Publishing Company (FPCI), and edited several magazine series including Spaceway, Fantasy Book and Marvel Tales.
The IAFA Crawford Award each year recognizes an outstanding new writer whose first fantasy book was published during the previous calendar year. It is not specifically a first novel award. The award was established with the support of the late Andre Norton, who also helped establish the criteria and who continued to support the award over the years.
Crawford honorees have gone on to win a dozen World Fantasy Awards (including a Life Achievement Award for Charles de Lint), five Shirley Jackson Awards, five Locus Awards, four Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, and 27 other awards of various kinds. Two Crawford-winning novels have been adapted as feature films, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni’s Mistress of Spices in 2005 and Christopher Barzak’s One for Sorrow in 2014 (under the title Jamie Marks is Dead). While the majority of honorees have been residents of the United States, the international dimension of the award is reflected by winners from Canada, the U.K., Sweden, Barbados, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia. In terms of gender balance, 26 of the 38 awards (as of this writing) have been won by women.
Judges for the 2024 award are: Niall Harrison, Cheryl Morgan, Mimi Mondal, Candas Jane Dorsey, Brian Attebery, Graham Sleight.
The Administrator is Farah Mendlesohn.
Past judges of the Crawford Award include:
Amelia Beamer | Kathleen Massie-Ferch |
Jedediah Berry | Farah Mendlesohn |
Liz Bourke | Mimi Mondal |
Karen Burnham | Cheryl Morgan |
John Clute | Sofia Samatar |
Candas Jane Dorsey | Graham Sleight |
Daryl Gregory | Jonathan Strahan |
Niall Harrison | Liza Groen Trombi |
Ellen Klages | Genevieve Valentine |
Kelly Link | Paul Witcover |
Adrienne Martini |
The submission period for the Crawford Award runs from 30th March to 31st December each year, for titles published during the year.
Publishers and authors are invited to submit their books to the jury via this website. Self-published work is permitted.
A title must be the author’s first fantasy book; it is permissible for an author active in a different genre to be submitted, as long as this is their first fantasy book. Children’s fiction and YA are eligible, as are poetry and short story collections.
Please be prepared to upload the work in as many of these formats as you can, "the more the merrier": PDF, Mobi and EPub.
To propose a new writer for consideration for the award for next year, fill out this form: https://form.jotform.com/233517232455049.
Year | Author | Work |
2023 | Simon Jimenez | The Spear Cuts Through Water |
2022 |
Usman T. Malik | Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan |
2021 |
Nghi Vo | The Empress of Salt and Fortune |
2020 |
Tamsyn Muir | Gideon the Ninth |
2019 | R.F Kuang | The Poppy War |
2018 | Carmen Maria Machado | Her Body and Other Parties |
2017 | Charlie Jane Anders | All the Birds in the Sky |
2016 | Kai Ashante Wilson | The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps |
2015 | Stephanie Feldman | The Angel of Losses |
2014 | Sofia Samatar | A Stranger in Olandria |
2013 | Karin Tidbeck | Jagganath |
2012 | Genevieve Valentine | Mechanique |
2011 | Karen Lord | Redemption in Indigo |
2010 | Jedediah Berry | The Manual of Detection |
2009 | Daryl Gregory | Pandemonium |
2008 | Christopher Barzak | One for Sorrow |
2007 | Mary Rickert | Map of Dreams |
2006 | Joe Hill | Twentieth Century Ghosts |
2005 | Steph Swainston | The Year of Our War |
2004 | K. J. Bishop | The Etched City |
2003 | Alexander C. Irvine | A Scattering of Jades |
2002 | Jasper Fforde | The Eyre Affair |
2001 | Kij Johnson | The Fox Woman |
2000 | Anne Bishop | Black Jewels trilogy |
1999 | David B. Coe | Lon Tobyn Chronicles |
1998 | Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni | Mistress of Spices |
1997 | Candas Jane Dorsey | Black Wine |
1996 | Sharon Shinn | Archangel |
1995 | Jonathan Lethem | Gun,With Occasional Music |
1994 | Judith Katz | Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound |
1993 | Susan Palwick | Flying in Place |
1992 | Greer Gilman | Moonwise |
1991 | Michael Scott Rohan | Winter of the World trilogy |
1990 | Jeanne Larsen | The Silk Road |
1989 | Michaela Roessner | Walkabout Woman |
1988 | Elizabeth Marshall Thomas | Reindeer Moon |
1987 | Judith Tarr | The Hound and the Falcon trilogy |
1986 | Nancy Willard | Things Invisible to See |
1985 | Charles de Lint | Moonheart |