World Fantasy Awards 1994: Complete list of winners

The 1994 World Fantasy Awards proved that fantasy’s most powerful moments don’t always require epic scope or sprawling worlds. Lewis Shiner’s Glimpses, which took the Best Novel honor, exemplifies this perfectly—a work that finds the fantastic lurking within the everyday, exploring how music and mystery can reshape reality itself. The award, which has been recognizing excellence in imaginative fiction since 1975, continues to champion voices that push the genre beyond its traditional boundaries, honoring everything from intimate character studies to cutting-edge experimental work.

That same year’s novella and short fiction winners reinforced a trend toward psychological depth and unsettling atmosphere. Terry Lamsley’s “Under the Crust” claimed the Best Novella award with its claustrophobic dread, while Fred Chappell’s “The Lodger” won Best Short Fiction by transforming the domestic into something genuinely sinister. Together, these selections showcase how the World Fantasy Award (often searched as WFA or World Fantasy Award winners) has become a bellwether for stories that privilege mood, meaning, and the darker corners of human experience over spectacle alone.

The complete list of 1994’s honored works appears below:

Best Novel

• Glimpses by Lewis Shiner

Best Novella

• “Under the Crust” by Terry Lamsley

Best Short Fiction

• The Lodger by Fred Chappell