Living Canon

World Fantasy Awards 2010: Complete list of winners

The 2010 World Fantasy Awards celebrated some of the most inventive and haunting fantasy fiction of the year, with China Miéville’s The City & the City taking home the top prize for Best Novel. Miéville’s genre-bending work—which treats the coexistence of two cities occupying the same physical space as both political thriller and metaphysical mystery—demonstrated the award’s commitment to recognizing boundary-pushing fantasy that challenges readers’ expectations. The World Fantasy Awards, one of the most prestigious honors in speculative fiction, has long championed works that expand what fantasy can be, and this year’s selections were no exception.

The novella and short fiction categories showcased the depth of the field that year. Margo Lanagan’s “Sea-Hearts” wove maritime folklore and transformation into a deeply atmospheric tale, while Karen Joy Fowler’s “The Pelican Bar” brought her signature wit and emotional precision to a darkly fantastical premise. These selections highlighted a trend among the 2010 World Fantasy Award judges toward stories that grounded the fantastic in character and consequence, finding magic not in spectacle but in the spaces where the ordinary and impossible collide.

Here’s a complete breakdown of the major 2010 World Fantasy Awards winners:

Best Novel

Best Novella

Best Short Fiction

  • “The Pelican Bar” by Karen Joy Fowler