The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described by book critics such as The Guardian as a "prestigious fantasy prize", and one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and science fiction). The World Fantasy Award—Collection is given each year for collections of fantasy stories by a single author published in English. A collection can have any number of editors, and works in the collection may have been previously published; awards are also given out for anthologies of works by multiple authors in the Anthology category. The Collection category has been awarded annually since 1975, though from 1977 through 1987 anthologies were admissible as nominees. Anthologies were split into a separate category beginning in 1988; during the 10 years they were admissible they won the award 7 times and were 38 of the 56 nominations.

World Fantasy Award nominees and winners are decided by attendees and judges at the annual World Fantasy Convention. A ballot is posted in June for attendees of the current and previous two conferences to determine two of the finalists, and a panel of five judges adds three or more nominees before voting on the overall winner. The panel of judges is typically made up of fantasy authors and is chosen each year by the World Fantasy Awards Administration, which has the power to break ties. The final results are presented at the World Fantasy Convention at the end of October. Winners were presented with a statue in the form of a bust of H. P. Lovecraft through the 2015 awards; more recent winners receive a statuette of a tree.

During the 49 nomination years, 171 writers have had works nominated; 47 of them have won, including ties and co-authors. Only six writers or editors have won more than once. Jeffrey Ford has won the regular collection award three times out of six nominations, while Karen Joy Fowler, Lucius Shepard, and Gene Wolfe won the regular collection award twice, out of two, four, and two nominations, respectively. Charles L. Grant and Kirby McCauley won the award as editors of anthologies while those were eligible; Grant was nominated nine times as an editor and once for a collection, while McCauley won both times he was nominated for anthologies. Grant's ten nominations are the most of any writer or editor, followed by Ramsey Campbell, Harlan Ellison, and Charles de Lint at five, with two of Campbell's nominations coming for anthologies. Dennis Etchison, Stephen King, Fritz Leiber, Kelly Link, and Stuart David Schiff have had the most nominations without winning at four; one of Etchison's and all of Schiff's nominations were for anthologies.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the collection was first published. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature". Entries with a blue background and an asterisk (*) next to the author's name have won the award; those with a white background are the other nominees on the shortlist. If the work was an anthology rather than a collection, the editor's name is appended with (editor) to distinguish them from authors of collections.

  *   Winners

Winners and nominees

Year	Author/editor	Collection/anthology	Publisher	Ref.
1975	Manly Wade Wellman*	Worse Things Waiting	Carcosa
	Basil Copper	From Evil's Pillow	Arkham House
1976	Avram Davidson*	The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy	Warner
	Harlan Ellison	Deathbird Stories	Harper & Row
	Frank Belknap Long	The Early Long	Doubleday
	E. Hoffmann Price	Far Lands, Other Days	Carcosa
1977	Kirby McCauley* (editor)	Frights	St. Martin's Press
	Edward Bryant	Cinnabar	Macmillan Publishers
	Lin Carter (editor)	Flashing Swords! 3: Warriors and Wizards	Dell Publishing
	Ramsey Campbell	The Height of the Scream	Arkham House
	Ray Bradbury	Long After Midnight	Alfred A. Knopf
	Ramsey Campbell (editor)	Superhorror	St. Martin's Press
1978	Hugh B. Cave*	Murgunstrumm and Others	Carcosa
	Robert Bloch	Cold Chills	Doubleday
	Fritz Leiber	Swords and Ice Magic	Ace Books
	Stuart David Schiff (editor)	Whispers	Doubleday
	Gerald W. Page (editor)	The Year's Best Horror Stories V	DAW Books
1979	Charles L. Grant* (editor)	Shadows	Doubleday
	Fritz Leiber	Heroes and Horrors	Whispers Press
	Stephen King	Night Shift	Doubleday
	Karl Edward Wagner	Night Winds	Warner
	Avram Davidson	The Redward Edward Papers	Doubleday
	Gerald W. Page (editor)	The Year's Best Horror Stories VI	DAW Books
1980	Jessica Amanda Salmonson* (editor)	Amazons!	DAW Books
	Charles L. Grant (editor)	Nightmares	Playboy Press
	Charles L. Grant (editor)	Shadows 2	Doubleday
	Robert Asprin (editor)	Thieves' World	Ace Books
	Stuart David Schiff (editor)	Whispers II	Doubleday
	Terry Carr (editor)	The Year's Finest Fantasy, Volume 2	Berkley Books
1981	Kirby McCauley* (editor)	Dark Forces	Viking Press
	Orson Scott Card (editor)	Dragons of Light	Ace Books
	Bill Pronzini (editor)	Mummy! A Chrestomathy of Crypt-ology	Arbor House
	Ramsey Campbell (editor)	New Terrors	Pan Books
	Charles L. Grant (editor)	Shadows 3	Doubleday
	Harlan Ellison	Shatterday	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
1982	Terri Windling* (editor)	Elsewhere	Ace Books
	Mark Alan Arnold* (editor)
	Terry Carr (editor)	Fantasy Annual IV	Timescape
	Charles L. Grant (editor)	Shadows 4	Doubleday
	Charles L. Grant	Tales from the Nightside	Arkham House
	Stuart David Schiff (editor)	Whispers III	Doubleday
1983	Charles L. Grant* (editor)	Nightmare Seasons	Doubleday
	Dennis Etchison	The Dark Country	Scream/Press
	Stephen King	Different Seasons	Viking Press
	Susan Shwartz (editor)	Hecate's Cauldron	DAW Books
	Alan Ryan (editor)	Perpetual Light	Warner
	Charles L. Grant (editor)	Shadows 5	Doubleday
1984	Robertson Davies*	High Spirits	Penguin
	Charles L. Grant (editor)	The Dodd, Mead Gallery of Horror	Dodd, Mead and Company
	Tanith Lee	Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer	DAW Books
	Charles L. Grant (editor)	Shadows 6	Doubleday
	Jane Yolen	Tales of Wonder	Schocken Books
1985	Clive Barker*	Books of Blood, Vols. I-III	Sphere Books
	Parke Godwin	The Fire When It Comes	Doubleday
	J. N. Williamson (editor)	Masques	Maclay & Associates
	Alan Ryan (editor)	Night Visions 1	Dark Harvest
	Garry Kilworth	The Songbirds of Pain	Victor Gollancz
	M. John Harrison	Viriconium Nights	Ace Books
1986	Robin McKinley* (editor)	Imaginary Lands	Ace Books
	Angela Carter	Black Venus	Hogarth Press
	Clive Barker	Books of Blood, Vols. IV-VI	Sphere Books
	Jane Yolen	Dragonfield and Other Stories	Ace Books
	Terri Windling (editor)	Faery!	Ace Books
	Charles L. Grant (editor)	Night Visions 2	Dark Harvest
	Stephen King	Skeleton Crew	Putnam Publishing Group
	Stuart David Schiff (editor)	Whispers V	Doubleday
1987	James Tiptree Jr.*	Tales of the Quintana Roo	Arkham House
	Douglas E. Winter (editor)	Black Wine	Dark Harvest
	Dennis Etchison (editor)	Cutting Edge	Doubleday
	Tanith Lee	Dreams of Dark and Light	Arkham House
	Emma Bull (editor)	Liavek: The Players of Luck	Ace Books
	Will Shetterly (editor)
	Jane Yolen	Merlin's Booke	Ace Books
	George R. R. Martin (editor)	Night Visions 3	Dark Harvest
1988	Lucius Shepard*	The Jaguar Hunter	Arkham House
	Tanith Lee	Night's Sorceries	DAW Books
	Michael Shea	Polyphemus	Arkham House
	Ramsey Campbell	Scared Stiff: Tales of Sex and Death	Scream/Press
	Karl Edward Wagner	Why Not You and I?	Tor Books
1989	Harlan Ellison*	Angry Candy	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
	Gene Wolfe*	Storeys from the Old Hotel	Kerosina Books
	Dennis Etchison	The Blood Kiss	Scream/Press
	Clive Barker	Cabal	Poseidon Press
	Charles Beaumont	Charles Beaumont: Selected Stories	Dark Harvest
	Fritz Leiber	The Knight and Knave of Swords	William Morrow and Company
1990	Richard Matheson*	Richard Matheson: Collected Stories	Scream/Press
	Robert R. McCammon	Blue World and Other Stories	Grafton
	Joe R. Lansdale	By Bizarre Hands	Mark V. Ziesing
	Harlan Ellison	Harlan Ellison's Watching	Underwood–Miller
	John Crowley	Novelty	Doubleday
1991	Carol Emshwiller*	The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories	The Women's Press
	Michael Blumlein	The Brains of Rats	Scream/Press
	Peter Straub	Houses Without Doors	Grafton
	Fritz Leiber	The Leiber Chronicles	Dark Harvest
	Dan Simmons	Prayers to Broken Stones	Dark Harvest
1992	Lucius Shepard*	The Ends of the Earth	Arkham House
	Robert Holdstock	The Bone Forest	Grafton
	Thomas Ligotti	Grimscribe: His Lives and Works	Carroll & Graf Publishers
	R. A. Lafferty	Lafferty In Orbit	Broken Mirrors Press
	Fred Chappell	More Shapes Than One	St. Martin's Press
	Howard Waldrop	Night of the Cooters: More Neat Stories	Mark V. Ziesing
1993	Jack Cady*	The Sons of Noah & Other Stories	Broken Moon Press
	Greg Bear	Bear's Fantasies	Wildside Press
	James Blaylock	Lord Kelvin's Machine	Arkham House
	John Kessel	Meeting in Infinity	Arkham House
	Norman Partridge	Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales	Roadkill Press
	Charles de Lint	Spiritwalk	Tor Books
1994	Ramsey Campbell*	Alone with the Horrors	Arkham House
	Neil Gaiman	Angels and Visitations	DreamHaven Books
	John Crowley	Antiquities	Incunabula
	Charles de Lint	Dreams Underfoot	Tor Books
	Garry Kilworth	Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands	Edgewood Press
	Darrell Schweitzer	Transients and Other Disquieting Stories	W. Paul Ganley
	Terry Lamsley	Under the Crust	Wendigo
1995	Bradley Denton*	The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians and A Conflagration Artist	Wildside Press
	Robert Bloch	The Early Fears	Fedogan & Bremer
	Joel Lane	The Earth Wire & Other Stories	Egerton Press
	Joyce Carol Oates	Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque	Dutton Penguin
	Lisa Goldstein	Travellers In Magic	Tor Books
1996	Gwyneth Jones*	Seven Tales and a Fable	Edgewood Press
	Hugh B. Cave	Death Stalks the Night	Fedogan & Bremer
	Charles de Lint	The Ivory and the Horn	Tor Books
	Jonathan Carroll	The Panic Hand	HarperCollins UK
	Brian W. Aldiss	The Secret of This Book	HarperCollins UK
1997	Jonathan Lethem*	The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye	Harcourt Brace
	Norman Partridge	Bad Intentions	Subterranean Press
	James K. Morrow	Bible Stories for Adults	Harcourt Brace
	Terry Lamsley	Conference with the Dead	Ash-Tree Press
	Richard Chizmar	Midnight Promises	Gauntlet Publications
	Thomas Ligotti	The Nightmare Factory	Carroll & Graf Publishers
	S. P. Somtow	The Pavilion of Frozen Women	Victor Gollancz
1998	Brian McNaughton*	The Throne of Bones	Terminal Fright Press
	Ray Bradbury	Driving Blind	Avon Publications
	Paul Di Filippo	Fractal Paisleys	Four Walls Eight Windows
	Michael Swanwick	A Geography of Unknown Lands	Tigereyes Press
	Peter S. Beagle	Giant Bones	Roc Books
1999	Karen Joy Fowler*	Black Glass	Henry Holt and Company
	Gahan Wilson	The Cleft and Other Odd Tales	Tor Books
	Elizabeth Hand	Last Summer at Mars Hill	HarperPrism
	Graham Masterton	Manitou Man: The Worlds of Graham Masterton	British Fantasy Society
	Jack Cady	The Night We Buried Road Dog	DreamHaven Books
2000	Charles de Lint*	Moonlight and Vines	Tor Books
	Stephen R. Donaldson*	Reave the Just and Other Tales	HarperCollins Voyager
	Thomas Piccirilli	Deep Into That Darkness Peering	Terminal Fright Press
	Stephen King	Hearts in Atlantis	Charles Scribner's Sons
	Darrell Schweitzer	Necromancies and Netherworlds: Uncanny Stories	Wildside Press
2001	Andy Duncan*	Beluthahatchie and Other Stories	Golden Gryphon Press
	Terry Dowling	Blackwater Days	Eidolon Publications
	Peter Straub	Magic Terror: Seven Tales	Random House
	Neal Barrett, Jr.	Perpetuity Blues and Other Stories	Golden Gryphon Press
	Robert Charles Wilson	The Perseids and Other Stories	Tor Books
	M. John Harrison	Travel Arrangements	Victor Gollancz
2002	Nalo Hopkinson*	Skin Folk	Warner Aspect
	William F. Nolan	Dark Universe: Stories 1951-2001	Stealth Press
	Harlan Ellison	The Essential Ellison: A 50-Year Retrospective: Revised and Expanded	Morpheus International
	Kelly Link	Stranger Things Happen	Small Beer Press
	Dennis Etchison	Talking in the Dark	Stealth Press
2003	Jeffrey Ford*	The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories	Golden Gryphon Press
	Jeff VanderMeer	City of Saints and Madmen	Prime Books
	Chet Williamson	Figures in Rain	Ash-Tree Press
	Richard Parks	The Ogre's Wife: Fairy Tales for Grownups	Obscura Press
	Charles de Lint	Waifs and Strays	Viking Press
	Robin McKinley	Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits	Putnam Publishing Group
	Peter Dickinson
2004	Elizabeth Hand*	Bibliomancy	PS Publishing
	Jack Cady	Ghosts of Yesterday	Night Shade Books
	George R. R. Martin	GRRM: A RRetrospective	Subterranean Press
	Michael Marshall Smith	More Tomorrow & Other Stories	Earthling Publications
	Glen Hirshberg	The Two Sams: Ghost Stories	Carroll & Graf Publishers
2005	Margo Lanagan*	Black Juice	Allen & Unwin Australia
	Ian R. MacLeod	Breathmoss and Other Exhalations	Golden Gryphon Press
	John M. Ford	Heat of Fusion and Other Stories	Tor Books
	Joe R. Lansdale	Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories	Subterranean Press
	Peter Crowther	Songs of Leaving	Subterranean Press
	Eileen Gunn	Stable Strategies and Others	Tachyon Publications
	Lucius Shepard	Trujillo and Other Stories	PS Publishing
2006	Bruce Holland Rogers*	The Keyhole Opera	Wheatland Press
	Joe Hill	20th Century Ghosts	PS Publishing
	Holly Phillips	In the Palace of Repose	Prime Books
	Kelly Link	Magic for Beginners	Small Beer Press
	Caitlín R. Kiernan	To Charles Fort, with Love	Subterranean Press
2007	M. Rickert*	Map of Dreams	Golden Gryphon Press
	Glen Hirshberg	American Morons	Earthling Publications
	Jeffrey Ford	The Empire of Ice Cream	Golden Gryphon Press
	Susanna Clarke	The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories	Bloomsbury
	Margo Lanagan	Red Spikes	Allen & Unwin Australia
2008	Robert Shearman*	Tiny Deaths	Comma Press
	Lucius Shepard	Dagger Key and Other Stories	PS Publishing
	Tim Pratt	Hart & Boot & Other Stories	Night Shade Books
	Stephen Gallagher	Plots and Misadventures	Subterranean Press
	Ellen Klages	Portable Childhoods	Tachyon Publications
	Kim Newman	The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club	MonkeyBrain Books
2009	Jeffrey Ford*	The Drowned Life	Harper Perennial
	Nisi Shawl	Filter House	Aqueduct Press
	Kelly Link	Pretty Monsters	Viking Press
	Peter S. Beagle	Strange Roads	DreamHaven Books
	Shaun Tan	Tales from Outer Suburbia	Allen & Unwin
2010	Lyudmila Petrushevskaya*	There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales	Penguin
	Gene Wolfe*	The Best of Gene Wolfe	PS Publishing
	Paul Witcover	Everland and Other Stories	PS Publishing
	Brian Evenson	Fugue State	Coffee House Press
	Barbara Roden	Northwest Passages	Prime Books
	Peter S. Beagle	We Never Talk About My Brother	Tachyon Publications
2011	Karen Joy Fowler*	What I Didn't See and Other Stories	Small Beer Press
	Caitlín R. Kiernan	The Ammonite Violin & Others	Subterranean Press
	M. Rickert	Holiday	Golden Gryphon Press
	Angela Slatter	Sourdough and Other Stories	Tartarus Press
	Jeff VanderMeer	The Third Bear	Tachyon Publications
2012	Tim Powers*	The Bible Repairman and Other Stories	Tachyon Publications
	Lisa L. Hannett	Bluegrass Symphony	Ticonderoga Publications
	Caitlín R. Kiernan	Two Worlds and In Between	Subterranean Press
	Maureen F. McHugh	After the Apocalypse	Small Beer Press
	Reggie Oliver	Mrs Midnight and Other Stories	Tartarus Press
2013	Joel Lane*	Where Furnaces Burn	PS Publishing
	Kij Johnson	At the Mouth of the River of Bees	Small Beer Press
	Ursula K. Le Guin	The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth and Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands	Small Beer Press
	Robert Shearman	Remember Why You Fear Me	ChiZine Publications
	Karin Tidbeck	Jagannath	Cheeky Frawg Books
2014	Caitlín R. Kiernan*	The Ape's Wife and Other Stories	Subterranean Press
	Nathan Ballingrud	North American Lake Monsters: Stories	Small Beer Press
	Laird Barron	The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories	Night Shade Books
	Reggie Oliver	Flowers of the Sea	Tartarus Press
	Rachel Swirsky	How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future	Subterranean Press
2015	Angela Slatter*	The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings	Tartarus Press
	Helen Marshall*	Gifts for the One Who Comes After	ChiZine Publications
	Rebecca Lloyd	Mercy and Other Stories	Tartarus Press
	Robert Shearman	They Do the Same Things Different There	ChiZine Publications
	Janeen Webb	Death at the Blue Elephant	Ticonderoga Publications
2016	C. S. E. Cooney*	Bone Swans	Mythic Delirium
	Kelly Link	Get in Trouble	Random House
	Leena Krohn	Leena Krohn: The Collected Fiction	Cheeky Frawg Books
	James K. Morrow	Reality by Other Means: The Best Short Fiction of James Morrow	Wesleyan University Press
	V. H. Leslie	Skein and Bone	Undertow Publications
	M. Rickert	You Have Never Been Here	Small Beer Press
2017	Jeffrey Ford*	A Natural History of Hell	Small Beer Press
	Tina Connolly	On the Eyeball Floor and Other Stories	Fairwood Press
	Ken Liu	The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories	Saga Press
	Joe Abercrombie	Sharp Ends	Orbit Books
	L. S. Johnson	Vacui Magia	Traversing Z Press
2018	Jane Yolen*	The Emerald Circus	Tachyon Publications
	Ellen Klages	Wicked Wonders	Tachyon Publications
	Carmen Maria Machado	Her Body and Other Parties	Graywolf Press
	Tim Powers	Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers	Baen Books
	Sofia Samatar	Tender	Small Beer Press
2019	Paolo Bacigalupi*	The Tangled Lands	Saga Press
	Tobias S. Buckell*
	Andy Duncan	An Agent of Utopia	Small Beer Press
	N. K. Jemisin	How Long 'til Black Future Month?	Orbit Books
	Margo Lanagan	Phantom Limbs	PS Publishing
	Amanda Downum	Still So Strange	ChiZine Publications
2020	Brian Evenson*	Song for the Unraveling of the World	Coffee House Press
	Nino Cipri	Homesick	Dzanc Books
	John Hornor Jacobs	A Lush and Seething Hell	Harper Voyager
	Sarah Pinsker	Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea	Small Beer Press
	Molly Gloss	Unforeseen	Saga Press
2021	Aoko Matsuda*	Where the Wild Ladies Are	Soft Skull Press
	Jeffrey Ford	The Best of Jeffrey Ford	PS Publishing
	Sheree Renée Thomas	Nine Bar Blues	Third Man Books
	Kathe Koja	Velocities: Stories	Meerkat Press
	Robert Shearman	We All Hear Stories in the Dark	PS Publishing
2022	Usman T. Malik*	Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan	Kitab Press
	Jeffrey Ford	Big Dark Hole	Small Beer Press
	A. C. Wise	The Ghost Sequences	Undertow Publications
	Isabel Yap	Never Have I Ever	Small Beer Press
	Jen Fawkes	Tales the Devil Told Me	Press 53
	Angela Slatter	The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales	Tartarus Press
2023	Tim Lebbon*	All Nightmare Long	PS Publishing
	Sam J. Miller	Boys, Beasts & Men	Tachyon Publications
	Cassandra Khaw	Breakable Things	Undertow Publications
	C. S. E. Cooney	Dark Breakers	Mythic Delirium
	Luigi Musolino	A Different Darkness and Other Abominations	Valancourt Books