The Kitschies are British literary prizes presented annually for "the year’s most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic." Works that were published in the United Kingdom in the year of the award are eligible.
Awards and criteria
The Kitschies are administered by a non-profit association with the stated mission of "encouraging and elevating the tone of the discussion of genre literature in its many forms". The founders, Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin said that they sought to bring attention to works with a fantastic or speculative element that are progressive in terms of content and composition.
The award is a juried prize that selects those books which "best elevate the tone of genre literature". Qualifying books must contain "an element of the fantastic or speculative" and have been published in the UK. Winners receive a sum of prize money and a textile tentacle trophy.
The Kitschies are governed by an advisory board of members and an award director, Glen Mehn. The Kitschies were initially established in 2009 by the website pornokitsch.com. The Kraken Rum was the sponsor between 2010 and 2013. The current sponsor (since 2014) is Fallen London (a creation of UK game developer Failbetter Games).
As of 2015, the Kitschies are awarded in four categories:
Red Tentacle for the best novel (£1,000, since 2009)
Golden Tentacle for the best debut novel (£500, since 2010)
Inky Tentacle for the best cover art (£500, since 2011)
Invisible Tentacle for the best natively digital fiction (since 2014)
Black Tentacle; awarded at the judges' discretion (since 2010)
The judging panels change annually.
2011
Literary judges: Perry, Shurin, Lauren Beukes and Rebecca Levene
Art judges: Hayley Campbell, Craig Kennedy, Catherine Hemelryk and Darren Banks
2012
Literary judges: Shurin, Levene and Patrick Ness
Art judges: Lauren O'Farrell, Gary Northfield and Ed Warren
2013
Literary judges: Nick Harkaway, Kate Griffin, Will Hill, Anab Jain and Annabelle Wright
Art judges: Hazel Thompson, Sarah Anne Langton, Emma Vieceli and Craig Kennedy.
2014
Literary judges: Kate Griffin, Adam Roberts, Kim Curran, Frances Hardinge and Glen Mehn
Art judges: Ed Warren, Dapo Adeola, Jim Kay and Siân Prime
Invisible Tentacle judges: Laura Grace, James Wallis, Phil van Kemenade and Clare Reddington
2015
Literary judges: Sarah Lotz, James Smythe, Nazia Khatun, Nikesh Shukla and Glen Mehn
Art judges: Sarah McIntyre, Regan Warner, Dapo Adeola and Lauren O’Farrell
2015
Winner: The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
Finalists:
Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson
The Reflection by Hugo Wilcken
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts
2014
Winner:Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
Finalists:
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
The Peripheral by William Gibson
The Way Inn by Will Wiles
The Race by Nina Allan
2013
Winner: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Finalists:
Red Doc> by Anne Carson
Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon
More Than This by Patrick Ness
The Machine by James Smythe
2012
Winner: Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Finalists:
The Folly of the World by Jesse Bullington
A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge
Jack Glass by Adam Roberts
The Method by Juli Zeh
2011
Winner: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd
Finalists:
The Enterprise of Death by Jesse Bullington
Embassytown by China Miéville
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
Osama: A Novel by Lavie Tidhar
2010
Winner: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Shortlisted:
Children's Crusade by Scott Andrews
Kraken by China Miéville
The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker
Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat
2009
Winner: The City & the City by China Miéville
Shortlisted:
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen
2015
Winner: Making Wolf by Tade Thompson
Finalists:
The Shore by Sara Taylor
Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan
The Night Clock by Paul Meloy
2014
Winner: Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre
Finalists:
The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne
Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
2013
Winner:Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Finalists:
Stray by Monica Hesse
A Calculated Life by Anne Charnock
Nexus by Ramez Naam
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
2012
Winner: Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
Finalists:
vN by Madeline Ashby
Panopticon by Jenni Fagan
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
The City's Son by Tom Pollock
2011
Winner:God's War by Kameron Hurley
Finalists:
Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
The Samaritan by Fred Venturini
2010
King Maker by Maurice Broaddus
2014
Winner: Tigerman by Nick Harkaway, cover by Glenn O’Neill
Finalists:
The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin, design by Steve Marking
A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar, cover by Ben Summers
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, cover by Emily Carroll and Sonja Chaghatzbanian
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber, cover by Rafaela Romaya and Yehring Tong
2013
Winner: The Age Atomic by Adam Christopher; art by Will Staehle
Finalists:
Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill; design and illustration by Sinem Erkas
Homeland and Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow; design by Amazing15
Stray by Monica Hesse; art by Gianmarco Magnani
Apocalypse Now Now by Charlie Human; art by Joey Hi-Fi
2012
Winner: A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton; illustration by Dave Shelton
Finalists:
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman; design by La Boca
The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne; illustration by Oliver Jeffers
Costume Not Included by Matthew Hughes; illustration by Tom Gauld
Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus; design by Peter Mendelsund
2011
Winner:The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan; design by Peter Mendelsund
Finalists:
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch; illustration by Stephen Walter, design by Patrick Knowles
The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco; design by Suzanne Dean, illustration by John Spencer
Equations of Life by Simon Morden; design by Lauren Panepinto
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd; illustration by Jim Kay
2015
Winner: Life Is Strange, video game by Dontnod Entertainment
Finalists:
Arcadia, interactive novel by Iain Pears
Daniel Barker’s Birthday, Twitter fiction by @FrogCroakley
The Last Hours of Laura K by the BBC Writers Room
Bloodborne, video game by Hidetaka Miyazaki / FromSoftware
2014
Winner: Kentucky Route Zero Act III, video game by Cardboard Computer
Finalists:
@echovirus12, Twitter fiction by Jeff Noon and others
80 Days, video game by Inkle Studios
Sailor’s Dream, video game by Simogo
2015: The genre community, personified by Patrick Ness, for its response to the humanitarian refugee crisis. Ness began a fund that raised £690 million for Save the Children.
2014: Sarah McIntyre, author and illustrator
2013: Malorie Blackman, British writer, Children's Laureate for 2013, for "outstanding achievement in encouraging and elevating the conversation around genre literature"
2012: Lavie Tidhar for the World SF Blog, a website showcasing international speculative fiction
2011: SelfMadeHero, comics publisher
2010: Memory, novel by Donald Westlake
