Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Aug 7, 2026

Kitschies

The Kitschies were British literary prizes presented annually from 2009 to 2024 for "the year's most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic" published in the United Kingdom. The awards discontinued after November 2024 when the final winners were announced.

Last revised
Aug 7, 2026
Read time
≈ 16 min
Length
3,589 w
Citations
126
Source
Kitschies
Awarded forLiterary award
CountryUnited Kingdom
First award2009
Final award2024
Websitethekitschies.com

The Kitschies were British literary prizes presented annually from 2009 to 20241 for "the year's most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic" published in the United Kingdom.2 The awards discontinued after November 2024 when the final winners were announced.

Awards and criteria

The Kitschies were 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".3 The founders, Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin, said that they sought to bring attention to works with a fantastic or speculative element that were progressive in terms of content and composition.2

The award was a juried prize that selected the books which "best elevate the tone of genre literature." Qualifying books needed to contain "an element of the fantastic or speculative" and have been published in the UK.4 Winners received prize money and a textile tentacle trophy.2

The Kitschies were initially established in 2009 by the website pornokitsch.com. The Kraken Rum was the sponsor between 2010 and 2013. For 2014 and 2015, Fallen London (a creation of UK game developer Failbetter Games) was the sponsor. The award did not run in 2016.5 From 2017 the sponsor was Blackwell's Bookshop.6

For the last ten or eleven years of operation, the Kitschies were awarded in five 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)
  • Glentacle, awarded at the judges' discretion (since 2010, called "Black Tentacle" until 2020)

Organisation

The judging panel changes annually7 and the unpaid directors have changed due to workload or illness.8 The number of submissions increased from 70 in 2009 to 234 in 2013.9

For each year, the judges, directors, and the number of submissions for each year were as follows:

Year Literary Art Natively digital fiction Award Directors Submissions
2009 Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin N/A N/A Jared Shurin and Anne C. Perry 7010
2010 Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin N/A N/A Jared Shurin and Anne C. Perry 5011
2011 Anne C. Perry, Jared Shurin, Lauren Beukes, and Rebecca Levene Hayley Campbell, Craig Kennedy, Catherine Hemelryk, and Darren Banks N/A Jared Shurin 15012
2012 Jared Shurin, Rebecca Levene, and Patrick Ness Lauren O'Farrell, Gary Northfield, and Ed Warren N/A Jared Shurin 21113
2013 Nick Harkaway, Catherine Webb, Will Hill, Anab Jain, and Annabelle Wright Hazel Thompson, Sarah Anne Langton, Emma Vieceli, and Craig Kennedy N/A Glen Mehn 23414
2014 Catherine Webb, Adam Roberts, Kim Curran, Frances Hardinge, and Glen Mehn Ed Warren, Dapo Adeola, Jim Kay, and Siân Prime Laura Grace, James Wallis, Phil van Kemenade, and Clwere Reddington Glen Mehn 19815
201516 Sarah Lotz, James Smythe, Nazia Khatun, Nikesh Shukla and Glen Mehn Sarah McIntyre, Regan Warner, Dapo Adeola, and Lauren O'Farrell John Wallis, Emily Short, and Rebecca Levene Glen Mehn 17617
2016 No award
201718 Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Leila Abu El Hawa, Joshua Idehen, Alasdair Stuart, and Ewa Scibor-Rylska Dapo Adeola, Sharan Dhaliwal, Jet Purdie, and Stuart Taylor N/A Glen Mehn and Leila Abu El Hawa 14219
201820 Adam Roberts, Sharan Dhaliwal, Daniel Carpenter, Lucy Smee, and Matt Webb Dapo Adeola, Lily Ash Sakula, and Maeve Rutten N/A Glen Mehn and Leila Abu El Hawa 17821
201922 Catherine Webb, Kirsty Logan, Tasha Suri, Michaela Grey, and Alasdair Stuart Kim Curran, James Spackman, Kaiya Shang, and Sharan Matharu N/A Leila Abu El Hawa and Anne Perry 19623
202024 M. R. Carey, Clwere Rees, Mahvesh Murad, Kaiya Shang, and Daphne Lao Tong Paul Wiseall, Fleur Clarke, Claire Richardson, and Jeffrey Alan Love N/A Leila Abu El Hawa and Anne Perry 17725

Recipients

All award information, unless otherwise referenced, is from the Kitschies Award's blog and tumblr, or from the sponsor Blackwell's website.

Red Tentacle (best novel)

Red Tentacle winners and finalists
Year Author Nominated work Result Ref
2009 China Miéville The City & the City Won 26
Joe Abercrombie Best Served Cold Nominated 26
Jane Austen (posth.) and Seth Grahame-Smith Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Lev Grossman The Magicians
Reif Larsen The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet
2010 Lauren Beukes Zoo City Won 27
Scott K. Andrews Children's Crusade Nominated 27
China Miéville Kraken
K. J. Parker The Folding Knife
Jean-Christophe Valtat Aurorarama
2011 Siobhan Dowd and Patrick Ness A Monster Calls Won 28
Jesse Bullington The Enterprise of Death Nominated 28
China Miéville Embassytown
Jane Rogers The Testament of Jessie Lamb
Lavie Tidhar Osama
2012 Nick Harkaway Angelmaker Won 29
Jesse Bullington The Folly of the World Nominated 29
Frances Hardinge A Face Like Glass
Adam Roberts Jack Glass
Juli Zeh The Method
2013 Ruth Ozeki A Tale for the Time Being Won 30
Anne Carson Red Doc Nominated 30
Patrick Ness More Than This
Thomas Pynchon Bleeding Edge
James Smythe The Machine
2014 Andrew Smith Grasshopper Jungle Won 31
Nina Allan The Race Nominated 31
William Gibson The Peripheral
Nnedi Okorafor Lagoon
Will Wiles The Way Inn
2015 Margaret Atwood The Heart Goes Last Won 32
Dave Hutchinson Europe at Midnight Nominated 32
N. K. Jemisin The Fifth Season
Adam Roberts The Thing Itself
Hugo Wilcken The Reflection
2016 No awards held 33
2017 Nina Allan The Rift Won 34
Deon Meyer, translated by L. Seegers Fever Nominated 34
Jess Richards City of Circles
William Sutcliffe We See Everything
Michelle Tea Black Wave
2018 Madeline Miller Circe Won 35
Becky Chambers Record of a Spaceborn Few Nominated 35
Simon Ings The Smoke
Tade Thompson Rosewater
Lavie Tidhar Unholy Land
2019 Jan Carson The Fire Starters Won 36
Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone This Is How You Lose the Time War Nominated 36
Vicki Jarrett Always North
Yōko Ogawa The Memory Police
Jane Rawson From the Wreck
2020 Susanna Clarke Piranesi Won 37
Curdella Forbes A Tall History of Sugar Nominated 37
N. K. Jemisin The City We Became
Natasha Pulley The Lost Future of Pepperharrow
Kim Stanley Robinson The Ministry for the Future
2021 No awards held
2022 Becky Chambers The Galaxy, and the Ground Within Won 38
Zen Cho Black Water Sister Nominated 38
Un-su Kim, trans. by Sean Lin Halbert The Cabinet
Adrian Tchaikovsky Bear Head
Catriona Ward The Last House on Needless Street
2023 W. P. Wiles The Last Blade Priest Won 39
Paul McAuley Beyond the Burn Line Nominated 39
E. J. Swift The Coral Bones
Mariana Enriquez translated by Megan McDowell Our Share of Night
Emily McGovern Twelve Percent Dread
2024 Sandra Newman Julia Won 40
Martin MacInnes In Ascension Nominated 40
M. R. Carey Infinity Gate
Julianne Pachico Jungle House
Banana Yoshimoto The Premonition

Golden Tentacle (best debut novel)

Year Author Nominated work Result Ref
2009 Not awarded 26
2010 Maurice Broaddus King Maker Won 27
2011 Kameron Hurley God's War Won 28
Douglas Hulick Among Thieves Nominated 28
Erin Morgenstern The Night Circus
Ransom Riggs Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Fred Venturini The Samaritan
2012 Karen Lord Redemption in Indigo Won 29
Madeline Ashby vN Nominated 29
Jenni Fagan Panopticon
Rachel Hartman Seraphina
Tom Pollock The City's Son
2013 Ann Leckie Ancillary Justice Won 30
Anne Charnock A Calculated Life Nominated 30
Monica Hesse Stray
Ramez Naam Nexus
Robin Sloan Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
2014 Hermione Eyre Viper Wine Won 31
Monica Byrne The Girl in the Road Nominated 31
Becky Chambers The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Emmi Itäranta Memory of Water
Hanya Yanagihara The People in the Trees
2015 Tade Thompson Making Wolf Won 32
A. Igoni Barrett Blackass Nominated 32
Kirsty Logan The Gracekeepers
Paul Meloy The Night Clock
Sara Taylor The Shore
2016 No awards held
2017 Alex Wells Hunger Makes the Wolf Won 34
RJ Barker Age of Assassins Nominated 34
Carmen Marcus How Saints Die
JY Yang The Black Tides of Heaven
Liz Ziemska Mandelbrot the Magnificent
2018 Ahmed Saadawi Frankenstein in Baghdad Won 35
Tomi Adeyemi Children Of Blood and Bone Nominated 35
Sue Burke Semiosis
R. F. Kuang The Poppy War
Rebecca Ley Sweet Fruit, Sour Land
2019 Clare Rees Jelly Won 36
Katie Hale My Name Is Monster Nominated 36
Wayétu Moore She Would Be King
Alix E. Harrow The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Rory Power Wilder Girls
2020 Micaiah Johnson The Space Between Worlds Won 37
Kawai Strong Washburn Sharks in the Time of Saviours Nominated 37
Laura Jean McKay The Animals in That Country
Deepa Anappara Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line
Jordan Ifueko Raybearer
2021 No awards held
2022 Hilary Leichter Temporary Won 38
Caroline Hardaker Composite Creatures Nominated 38
Calvin Kasulke Several People Are Typing
Everina Maxwell Winter's Orbit
Xiran Jay Zhao Iron Widow
2023 Julia Armfield Our Wives Under the Sea Won 39
Zain Khalid Brother Alive Nominated 39
Vauhini Vara The Immortal King Rao
Ray Nayler The Mountain in the Sea
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo When We Were Birds
2024 Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi The Centre Won 40
Aubrey Wood Bang Bang Bodhisattva Nominated 40
Katy Hays The Cloisters
Emily Habeck Shark Heart
Deena Mohamed Your Wish Is My Command

Inky Tentacle (best cover art)

Year Work Author Artist(s) Result Ref
2009 Not awarded 26
2010 Not awarded 27
2011 The Last Werewolf Glen Duncan Peter Mendelsund (designer) Won 28
Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch Stephen Walter (illus.) and Patrick Knowles (design) Nominated 28
The Prague Cemetery Umberto Eco Suzanne Dean (design) and John Spencer (illus.)
Equations of Life Simon Morden Lauren Panepinto (design)
A Monster Calls Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd Jim Kay (illus.)
2012 A Boy and a Bear in a Boat Dave Shelton Dave Shelton (illus.) Won 29
The Teleportation Accident Ned Beauman La Boca (design) Nominated 29
The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket John Boyne Oliver Jeffers (illus.)
Costume Not Included Matthew Hughes Tom Gauld (illus.)
Flame Alphabet Ben Marcus Peter Mendelsund (design)
2013 The Age Atomic Adam Christopher Will Staehle (art) Won 30
Dreams and Shadows C. Robert Cargill Sinem Erkas (design and illus.) Nominated 30
Homeland and Pirate Cinema Cory Doctorow Amazing15 (design)
Stray Monica Hesse Gianmarco Magnani (art)
Apocalypse Now Now Charlie Human Joey Hi-Fi (art)
2014 Tigerman Nick Harkaway Glenn O'Neill (cover) Won 31
The Ghost of the Mary Celeste Valerie Martin Steve Marking (design) Nominated 31
A Man Lies Dreaming Lavie Tidhar Ben Summers (cover)
Through the Woods Emily Carroll Emily Carroll and Sonja Chaghatzbanian (cover)
The Book of Strange New Things Michel Faber Rafaela Romaya and Yehring Tong (cover)
2015 The Door That Led to Where Sally Gardner Jet Purdie (art direction and design) Won 32
The Vorrh Brian Catling Pablo Declan (design) Nominated 32
Monsters Emerald Fennell Jet Purdie (art design) and Patrick Leger (illus.)
The Honours Tim Clare Peter Adlington (design and illus.)
Get in Trouble Kelly Link Alex Merto
2016 No awards held
2017 The History of Bees Maja Lunde Jack Smyth and the Simon & Schuster Art Department (cover) Won 34
The Land of Neverendings Kate Saunders David Dean (illus.) Nominated 34
Black Wave Michelle Tea Rose Stafford (illus.) and Hannah Naughton (design)
The Real-Town Murders Adam Roberts Black Sheep (illus. and jacket design)
Our Memory like Dust Gavin Chait Richard Shailer (design)
2018 Killing Commendatore Haruki Murakami Suzanne Dean (cover) Won 35
The Book of Joan Lidia Yuknavitch Rafaela Romaya (design) Nominated 35
The Smoke Simon Ings James Nunn (design)
Squwere Eyes Anna Mill and Luke Jones Anna Mill and Luke Jones (design)
Slender Man Anonymous Mike Topping (design)
2019 The Memory Police Yoko Ogawa Tyler Comrie (cover) Won 36
Across The Void S. K. Vaughan Ceara Elliot (cover) Nominated 36
The Heavens Sandra Newman Leo Nickolls (cover)
Zed Joanna Kavenna Faber & Faber (cover)
This Is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Greg Stadnyk (cover)
2020 The Arrest Jonathan Lethem Allison Saltzman (cover) and Dexter Maurer (illus.) Won 37
Little Eyes Samantha Schweblin Ben Summers (cover) Nominated 37
Monstrous Heart Clair McKenna Andrew Davis (cover)
The Harpy Megan Hunter Lucy Scholes (cover) and Amy Judd (illus.)
The City We Became N. K. Jemisin Lauren Panepinto (cover)
2021 No awards held
2022 The Seep Chana Porter Julia Lloyd (art and design) Won 38
Nightbitch Rachel Yoder Suzanne Dean Nominated 38
Velvet Was the Night Silvia Moreno-Garcia Tim Green
A Desolation Called Peace Arkady Martine Jaime Jones
Iron Widow Xiran Jay Zhao Ashley Mackenzie
2023 Paper Crusade Michelle Penn Klara Smith Won 39
Celestial M. D. Lachlan Nick Shah, Tomas Almeida, Joanna Ridley & Helen Ewing Nominated 39
Motherthing Ainslie Hogarth Mark Abrams
Poster Girl Veronica Roth Lydia Blagden
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida Shehan Karunatilaka Peter Dyer
2024 Out There Screaming Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams Janay Nachel Frazier, Stuart Wilson & Arnold J. Kemp Won 40
Julia Sandra Newman Luke Bird Nominated 40
Lioness [[Emily Perkins (novelist)|Emily Perkins]] Greg Heinimann Design
Remember, Mr Sharma A. P. Firdaus Nathan Burton
The Vegan Andrew Lipstein Cecilia R. Zhang

Invisible Tentacle (best natively digital fiction)

Year Author / Developer Nominated work Form of Media Result Ref
2014 Cardboard Computer written by Jake Elliott Kentucky Route Zero Act III video game Won 31
Jeff Noon and others @echovirus12 Twitter fiction Nominated 31
Inkle Studios written by Meg Jayanth and Jon Ingold, directed by Joseph Humfrey and Jon Ingold 80 Days video game
Simogo Sailor’s Dream video game
2015 Dontnod Entertainment Life Is Strange video game Won 32
Iain Pears Arcadia interactive novel Nominated 32
@FrogCroakley Daniel Barker’s Birthday Twitter fiction
BBC Writers Room The Last Hours of Laura K
Hidetaka Miyazaki / FromSoftware Bloodborne video game

Glentacle (Discretionary award previously called the Black Tentacle)

This award was called "Black Tentacle" until 2020, when it was renamed in memory of Kitschies co-founder Glen Mehn.418

References

References

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External links