TheSunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is an annualliterary award given for aspeculative fiction novel or a book-length collection, first awarded in 2001. Ayoung adult category was created in 2008, to differentiate from adult works; and a short fiction award as well. The award was on hiatus between 2020 and 2024 and has returned for the 2025 award.[1]
The name of the award comes from the title of the first novel byPhyllis Gotlieb,Sunburst (1964).
The first award was given out in 2001. The award consists of a cash prize (CA$1,000 for novel length work, andCA$500 for short stories) and a medallion. The winner is selected by jury; a new jury is struck each year.
On 2 June 2020, the Sunburst Award Society announced the awards were going on a hiatus due to impacts related to COVID-19.[2]
In December 2024, the return of the award for 2025 was announced. The cash price was changed toCA$3,000 for a novel length work.[1]
Prior to 2008, the Sunburst Award was presented in a single category. In later years, it was broken down into two or three categories, including adult, young adult, and short story.
After the 2020-2024 hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the award seems to have returned to a single category.
| Year | Author | Result | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Sean Stewart | Galveston | Winner | |
| 2002 | Margaret Sweatman | When Alice Lay Down with Peter | Winner | |
| 2003 | Nalo Hopkinson | Skin Folk | Winner | |
| 2004 | Cory Doctorow | A Place So Foreign and 8 More | Winner | |
| 2005 | Geoff Ryman | Air | Winner | |
| 2006 | Holly Phillips | In the Palace of Repose | Winner | |
| 2007 | Mark Frutkin | Fabrizio's Return | Winner | |
| 2025 | Nalo Hopkinson | Blackheart Man | Winner | [3] |
| Frankie Barnet | Mood Swings | Finalist | [4] | |
| Sydney Hegele | Bird Suit | Finalist | [4] | |
| Canisia Lubrin | Code Noir | Finalist | [4] | |
| Clayton B. Smith | A Seal of Salvage | Finalist | [4] |
The Sunburst Award for Short Story was introduced in 2016.
| Year | Author | Result | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Catherine A. MacLeod | "Hide and Seek" (Playground of Lost Toys) | Winner | [20] |
| Charlotte Ashley | "La Héron" (F&SF 3-4/15) | Finalist | [20][21] | |
| Rebecca Campbell | "The Glad Hosts" (Lackington’s #7) | Finalist | [20][21] | |
| Mike Donoghue | "Stuck in the Past" (Abyss & Apex #54) | Finalist | [20][21] | |
| Kelly Robson | "Two-Year Man" (Asimov’s, August 2015) | Finalist | [20][21] | |
| Peter Wendt | "Get the Message" (Second Contacts) | Finalist | [20][21] | |
| 2017 | A. C. Wise | "The Sailing of the Henry Charles Morgan in Six Pieces of Scrimshaw (1841)" | Winner | [22][23] |
| K. T. Bryski | "La Corriveau" (Strange Horizons 10/3/16) | Finalist | [23][24] | |
| James Alan Gardner | "The Dog and the Sleepwalker" (Strangers Among Us) | Finalist | [23][24] | |
| Helen Marshall | "Caro in Carno" (The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu) | Finalist | [23][24] | |
| A. C. Wise | "The Men from Narrow Houses" (Liminal Stories Spring/Summer ’16) | Finalist | [23][24] | |
| 2018 | Sandra Kasturi | "The Beautiful Gears of Dying" | Winner | [25][26] |
| Rich Larson | "Spiked" (Abyss & Apex 6/17) | Finalist | [26][27] | |
| Karin Lowachee | "Meridian"(Where the Stars Rise) | Finalist | [26][27] | |
| Rati Mehrotra | "Hacker’s Faire" (Cast of Wonders 3/17) | Finalist | [26][27] | |
| Kate Story | "Animate" (Cli-fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change) | Finalist | [26][27] | |
| 2019 | Senaa Ahmad | "The Glow-in-the-Dark Girls" | Winner | [28][29] |
| Madeline Ashby | "Domestic Violence" (Future Tense 3/26/18) | Finalist | [29][30] | |
| Malon Edwards | "Candied Sweets, Cornbread, and Black-Eyed Peas" (Sword and Sonnet) | Finalist | [29][30] | |
| Rich Larson | "Meat And Salt And Sparks" (Tor.com 6/6/18) | Finalist | [29][30] | |
| A. C. Wise | "The Time Traveler’s Husband" (Shimmer 11/18) | Finalist | [29][30] | |
| 2020 | Rebecca Campbell | "The Fourth Trimester is the Strangest" | Winner | [31][32] |
| Amal El-Mohtar | "Florilegia" (The Mythic Dream) | Finalist | [32] | |
| Kate Heartfield | "The Inland Beacon" (Tesseracts Twenty-Two: Alchemy and Artifacts) | Finalist | [32] | |
| Catherine Kim | "The Hundred Gardens" (Nat. Brut Spring ’19) | Finalist | [32] | |
| Richard Van Camp | "Wheetago War II: Summoners" (Moccasin Square Gardens) | Finalist | [32] |
For a complete and up to date listing of current and past long-listed and short-listed works, please see theSunburst Award Website.
The Sunburst Award administration and juries use the broadest possible definition of speculative fiction for eligibility purposes: "science fiction,fantasy,magic realism,horror,surrealism,fantastique, fabulism,myth andlegend, fantastical storytelling, and any other writing beyond the strictlyrealistic". To be eligible for the award, a work must be published between January 1 and December 31 of the previous year. Only Canadiancitizens andlanded immigrants are eligible.
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