World Fantasy Awards 1999: Complete list of winners

The 1999 World Fantasy Awards celebrated a year of exceptional storytelling across fantasy’s most prestigious categories, with Louise Erdrich’s The Antelope Wife claiming the Best Novel prize and solidifying the award’s reputation for honoring literary sophistication alongside imaginative world-building. Erdrich’s win was particularly striking—a novel that weaves Indigenous Ojibwe heritage and magical realism into a multigenerational saga proved that the World Fantasy Awards, often abbreviated as the WFA, remained committed to recognizing boundary-pushing narratives that refused easy categorization. The 1999 awards also introduced or elevated several voices who would become defining figures in speculative fiction over the following decades.

Ian R. MacLeod’s “The Summer Isles” earned Best Novella honors with its haunting exploration of alternate history and loss, while Kelly Link’s “The Specialist’s Hat” took Short Fiction, announcing her arrival as a major talent capable of blending genre playfulness with genuine emotional depth. Link’s victory was particularly noteworthy for readers and writers who appreciated speculative fiction that operated on unexpected registers—surreal, funny, and deeply human all at once. These wins across the World Fantasy Awards’ major categories that year revealed a voter base eager to reward innovation and literary ambition, qualities that continue to define the award’s legacy.

The complete list of 1999 World Fantasy Awards winners follows below, along with details about each honoree:

Best Novel

• The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich

Best Novella

• “The Summer Isles” by Ian R. MacLeod

Best Short Fiction

• “The Specialist’s Hat” by Kelly Link