These are the 22 literary and genre awards shortlists (novels only) that I read throughout 2015 (the hyperlinks should take you to the relevant 2015 finalists for each award).

  1. The Philip K. Dick Award,
  2. The National Book Critics Circle Award,
  3. James Herbert Award,
  4. The Folio Prize,
  5. The British Science Fiction Association Award,
  6. The Kitschies (2 novel categories),
  7. The Nebulas,
  8. The Hugo Award,
  9. The Clarkes,
  10. The Believer Magazine Award,
  11. The Bailey Prize,
  12. The Pulitzer Prize,
  13. The Shirley Jackson Award,
  14. The John Campbell Memorial Award,
  15. The Desmond Elliot Prize,
  16. The Locus Award (4 novel categories),
  17. The World Fantasy Award,
  18. The Tiptree,
  19. The Man Booker Award,
  20. The National Book Award,
  21. The Goldsmith Prize,
  22. The Costa Book Awards (2 novel categories)

I’d like to think that the above is a decent enough sample size to (a) conduct an analysis and (b) draw some conclusions.  Obviously there are hundreds… thousands of awards that I didn’t bother with (including some important ones from the country of my birth), but I do believe that this list represents a fair chunk of the mainstream and high profile awards that are longlisted / shortlisted and announced each year.

My analysis is going to be simple.  I’m going to look at the number of books featured – both overall and unique (that is discounting a books overlap with other awards).  I’m going to look at the gender split.  I’m going to provide a subjective analysis as to which shortlists were enjoyable and which were rubbish.  And I’m going to do this by both combining the literature and genre awards and then splitting them apart.

I have no idea at all what the analysis will show or what, if any, conclusions I’ll be able to draw.  Still it should be fun.