World Fantasy Awards 2004: Complete list of winners

The 2004 World Fantasy Awards proved that fantasy literature was flourishing with distinctive voices and inventive storytelling. Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw took home Best Novel, a work that reimagined dragon society with the sensibilities of a Victorian novel—a clever premise executed with both wit and emotional depth. The award, now in its third decade of recognizing excellence in the fantasy genre, continued to shine a spotlight on works that pushed beyond conventional genre boundaries and challenged readers’ expectations of what fantasy could achieve.

That year’s winners across the shorter categories reinforced a trend toward literary sophistication. Greer Gilman’s novella “A Crowd of Bone” and Bruce Holland Rogers’s short story “Don Ysidro” both demonstrated the kind of linguistic and thematic complexity that the World Fantasy Awards have long championed—prose that lingered in readers’ minds long after the final page. The World Fantasy Award selections matter to the community because they validate writers and stories that might otherwise fly under the radar, and the 2004 ceremony was no exception, celebrating work that balanced imagination with genuine narrative craft.

Here’s a complete look at the major winners from that year’s World Fantasy Awards:

Best Novel

• Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

Best Novella

• “A Crowd of Bone” by Greer Gilman

Best Short Fiction

• “Don Ysidro” by Bruce Holland Rogers