The Thing Kitsch Self

Over the moon, over the veritable moon, to discover that The Thing Itself has been shortlisted for this year's Kitschies. Here are the shortlists:

The Red Tentacle (Novel), judged by Sarah Lotz, James Smythe, Nikesh Shukla, Nazia Khatun, and Glen Mehn:

The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood (Bloomsbury)

Europe at Midnight, by Dave Hutchinson (Solaris)

The Reflection, by Hugo Wilcken (Melville House)

The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit)

The Thing Itself, by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)

The Golden Tentacle (Debut), also judged by Sarah Lotz, James Smythe, Nikesh Shukla, Nazia Khatun, and Glen Mehn

The Shore, by Sara Taylor (William Heinemann)

Blackass, by A. Igoni Barrett (Chatto and Windus)

The Gracekeepers, by Kirsty Logan (Harvill Secker)

The Night Clock, by Paul Meloy (Solaris)

Making Wolf, by Tade Thompson (Rosarium)

The Inky Tentacle (Cover Art), judged by Sarah McIntyre, Dapo Adeola, Regan Warner, and Lauren O’Farrell:

The Vorrh, by Brian Catling, design by Pablo Declan (Coronet)

Monsters, by Emerald Fennell, art direction by Jet Purdie, illustration by Patrick Leger (Hot Key Books)

The Honours, by Tim Clare, design and illustration by Peter Adlington (Canongate)

The Door that Led to Where, by Sally Gardner, art direction and design by Jet Purdie, illustration by Dover Publications Inc & Shutterstock (Hot Key Books)

Get In Trouble, by Kelly Link, design by Alex Merto (Canongate)

The Invisible Tentacle (Natively Digital Fiction), judged by James Wallis, Rebecca Levene and Em Short:

Arcadia by Iain Pears, http://arcadiatheapp.com/ (Faber/Touchpress)

LIFE IS STRANGE http://www.lifeisstrange.com/ (Square Enix)

Daniel Barker’s Birthday, by Frog Croakley https://storify.com/FrogCroakley/the-... (@FrogCroakley)

The Last Hours of Laura K, http://thelasthoursoflaurak.com/ (BBC Writer’s Room)

Bloodborne http://www.fromsoftware.jp/pc_en/prod... (Hidetaka Miyazaki/FromSoftware)

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at The Star of Kings on 7th March, and receive a total of £2,500 in prize money, as well as one of the prize’s iconic Tentacle trophies.

I was one of the Kitschies judges last year, so I have some sense how this award works, and that sense only makes me feel more chuffed at having been shortlisted today. So for instance I know that, because it puts no obstacles in the way of submissions (no entry fee, happy to take self-published titles and so on) this prize gets a lot of submissions, many more than comparable genre awards: 176 titles this year, apparently, which is not far from what we got last year. Some of those titles won't be much cop, but a lot of them will be excellent novels, and selecting two brief shortlists is really really hard. The judges, listed above, are to a woman and man estimable, principled and marvelous people: they will have agonised over this impossible whittling down, as we did last year, and for all the authors who have reached this penultimate stage it is an amazing honour.

Roll on the 7th March!