World Fantasy Awards 1975: Complete list of winners

The 1975 World Fantasy Awards marked a pivotal moment for the genre, honoring works that pushed fantasy into exciting new territory. Patricia A. McKillip took home Best Novel for The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, a lush, intricate tale that showcased her gift for weaving complex magic systems with deeply human emotional stakes. The award recognized McKillip’s arrival as a major force in fantasy literature, and the novel remains a touchstone for readers who appreciate character-driven worldbuilding and prose that sings.

Robert Aickman’s win in Best Short Fiction for “Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal” demonstrated the World Fantasy Awards’ appreciation for darker, more unsettling visions of the fantastic. Aickman, already known for his master-class approach to weird fiction and ghostly narratives, brought his characteristic unease to the category, reminding the field that fantasy needn’t be escapist to be extraordinary. Together, these winners showed an awards body willing to celebrate both the lush romanticism of McKillip’s epic fantasy and the psychological complexity of Aickman’s shorter form work.

The 1975 World Fantasy Awards honored these standout achievements during a particularly fertile period for the genre. Here are the year’s major winners:

Best Novel

• The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

Best Short Fiction

• “Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal” by Robert Aickman