The field of quality excerpts in this year’s Aurora Contest has been tough for our committee to whittle down! Because our larger categories had so many great entries, we’re sending this list on to a third round of judging before we bring in the editors and other industry professionals to choose our winners.
Congratulations to everyone who is moving on to further judging, and for those of you who don’t see your name on this list, you’ve already accomplished big things by entering and making it through the first round. We hope the feedback you’ll be receiving in the coming weeks will help you to hone your work to an even tighter version.
Middle Grade
Lizzie Love: Shadow and Song, Danielle Vogt*
Pond of Principium, K.T. Leigh
Sebastian Funny & the Brave Mountain, Chris Warszawski*
The Memory Thieves, Kassy Lodge
The Secret War of Inglenook Manor (Or: Polite Children Don’t Fight Goblins), Amy E. Bryant
Young Adult
A Lode to Light, Samantha Mendell
Curse-eaters, Emma Heinz
Fabrication, Annika Crum
Selkie Song, Hannah Prewett
Set Among Kings, Kristen Bazen*
Sook – Book 1 of the Purge War, Sara C. Anderson
The Butterfly Gate, Amanda Helvey
The Emperor’s Elite: The Pendant and the Prophecy, Autumn Acosta
The Gift of Seeing, M. K. Minnick
The Secret of the Pearls, Meg Hardin
To Hope, Amanda Walker
Adult
Becoming Chaos, Colleen Ochab
Breath Blood and Bone, Annika Crum
Dăwm Tower, Ginger Takamiya
Fogg, Madison Brown*
I’m Moral, Cheresa Bouley
Legacy of Cain, Jason Schembri
The Mountain’s Veil, Kelly Jasmer
Vows of Iniquity, Leah Ellis
Worth of the Phoenix, Arabella Takamiya
Fantasy
A Cursed Lineage, Carley Rains
Counterparts: The High Mage’s Task, Angela Merkle
Hero, Chelsea Post
NIRO, Nikki Diekemper
One Soul Graft, Tracy Oguni
Reclamation, Hadley Cole
Set Among Kings, Kristen Bazen *
Stewards, Elise Haroldson *
The Hand and the Phoenix, Rachel Dib
The Lost Song of VaLore, Kendra Bell
Thorn Cursed, Melissa Myers
To Hope, Amanda Walker
Transcendent, Katrina Austin *
Sebastian Funny & the Brave Mountain, Chris Warszawski *
Science Fiction
Chrysalis, Justin Poythress
Eden, Megan Minnick
Falling From the In Between, Alex Rogers
Infinities, Eric Clutter
SUBLUNAR, Shannon Skaer
Vanum Bellum, Hannah Hershberger
Horror/Paranormal/Supernatural
Khatan’s Rose, Annette Marie Griffin
Should Dragons Fail, Chloe Wilcox
The Chain Link Murder, Mary Lynn Cloghesy
Treeple, Elise Haroldson
Cross-Genre
Dirigible, Sydney Leeson
Fogg, Madison Brown *
Leitha, Shelby Hercules
Race Rexter in the Dinosaur Dimension, Broose Johnson
The Corridor Game, Emily Martin
