Aurealis Award for best fantasy short story

Aurealis Award for best fantasy short story
The Aurealis Award design is often placed on the winning book's cover as a promotional tool.
Awarded for	Excellence in fantasy fiction short stories
Country	Australia
Presented by	Chimaera Publications, WASFF
First awarded	1995
Currently held by	Rowena Cory Daniells
Official website	Official site

The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and WASFF to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have been first published by an Australian citizen or permanent resident between 1 January and 31 December of the corresponding year; the presentation ceremony is held the following year. It has grown from a small function of around 20 people to a two-day event attended by over 200 people.

Since their creation in 1995, awards have been given in various categories of speculative fiction. Categories currently include science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative young adult fiction—with separate awards for novels and short fiction—collections, anthologies, illustrative works or graphic novels, children's books, and an award for excellence in speculative fiction. The awards have attracted the attention of publishers by setting down a benchmark in science fiction and fantasy. The continued sponsorship by publishers such as HarperCollins and Orbit has identified the award as an honour to be taken seriously.

The results are decided by a panel of judges from a list of submitted nominees; the long-list of nominees is reduced to a short-list of finalists. Ties can occur if the panel decides both entries show equal merit, however they are encouraged to choose a single winner. The judges may declare a "no award" if there is unanimous agreement that none of the nominees are worthy. The judges are selected from a public application process by the Award's management team.

This article lists all the short-list nominees and winners in the best fantasy short story category, as well as short stories that have received honourable mentions or have been highly commended. Since 2003, honourable mentions and high commendations have been awarded intermittently. Four people have won the award twice – Thoraiya Dyer, Richard Harland, Margo Lanagan and Lucy Sussex. Angela Slatter holds the record for most nominations, having been nominated seven times. Adam Browne and Kaaron Warren share the record for most nominations without winning, both having been losing finalists three times.