2026 Hall of Fame Awards – Nominations

Best Artist

Nominee	Nominating country	Nominee country	Description	url
Adrian van Schwamen	Germany	Germany	His illustrations show that, even in the age of AI and Photoshop, simple means and an eye for detail and composition can evoke a truly eerie feeling, and that actual drawing by hand is still the heart of this art. His unique style embodies a nod to the old masters, which he interprets in a modern way. And that leads to a truly high recognition factor.
Daniel Atanasov - Satanasov	Bulgaria	Bulgaria	Daniel Atanasov is a graphic novel and concept artist as well as a illustrator. He has received awards such as Japan Media Arts Festival Award, International Manga Award and International Manga Anime Festival Award. He’s created the comics BION, Dragonlast, Bonzai and Shaman. He’s done work as a concept artist for the game industry as well as a story board artist for the cinema.
Lucrezia Viperina	Italy	Italy	An emerging, incredibly talented illustrator who made the ADD publisher immediately recognizable with a unique style and design
Luis Louro	Portugal	Portugal	Luís Louro is a Portuguese comic book author, illustrator, and photographer, born in Lisbon in 1965. Widely regarded as one of the most prominent and prolific figures in contemporary Portuguese comics, he has built a career spanning over four decades, marked by a distinctive visual style and strong narrative voice.
Maya Hahto	Finland	Finland
Mikuláš Podprocký	Czech Republic	Czech Republic	Illustrator and creator of the comic book Winton Was Not Alone, about Sir Winton, who saved hundreds of children. https://argo.cz/knihy/winton-nebyl-sam/ ; https://argo.cz/autori/podprocky-mikulas/
Mojca Poljanc	Slovenia	Slovenia	Maja Poljanc (1989) is an illustrator with an original style. Her portfolio includes, among other things, the first encyclopaedia of Slovenian mythological creatures, Encyclopedia Mythologica Slovenica, for which she received the Faculty Prešeren Award and a Special Mention at the Slovenian Biennial of Illustration. Her illustrations can be found in the fantasy novel by Julija Lukovnjak
Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv (Романа Романишин і Андрій Лесів)	Ukraine	Ukraine	The “Agrafka” creative studio is a collaborative and family-run venture led by artists Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv. They are among the most popular Ukrainian illustrators abroad. They are not only artists but also writers who create and illustrate their own fairy tales. The most known works in SFF are covers for Terry Pratchett’s book.
Stéphanie Hans	France	France	She is a French illustrator & comics artist. Best known for co-creating the series "Die", a 3-time Hugo Award-finalist, & British Fantasy Award winner, and for the graphic novel "We Called Them Giants", 2025 Hugo Award-finalist. Hans has worked with Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and independant comic book publishers as an artist and series creator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Hans
Valentin Tănase	Romania	Romania	Valentin Tănase is a virtuoso of the visual arts with a prolific artistic career spanning a wide range, including graphics, painting, book illustration, comics, sculpture and art criticism. His works are notable for their originality and diversity.

Best Author

Nominee	Nominating country	Nominee country	Description	url
Agnieszka Hałas	Poland	Poland	Agnieszka’s prose combines gritty imagery, symbolism and feeling, mostly on fantasy territory, with occasional forays into SF. Her publications include six novels (a five-volume series and one standalone), over twenty stories in magazines and anthologies (including five stories published in English, translated by her), and three story collections. She has received the Polish Fandom Award twice.
Alessandro Forlani	Italy	Italy	An experienced and mature author who moves between genres (weird, speculative, fantastic, and science fiction) with the same narrative skills and original craftsmanship.
Christian Léourier	France	France	(b. 1948, Paris) French writer of adult, children’s, and young adult literature. He is a multi-award winner and prolific SF writer, and his works have been translated in Spanish, German, Russian, Croatian, Portuguese, Finnish... Highly esteemed within the SF community, devoted explorer of parallel worlds and futuristic societies, he has been crafting novels & short fictions for over 50 years.
Cosimo Suglia	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	Cosimo Suglia is a Luxembourgish speculative fiction author whose work spans short fiction, poetry, and theatre, weaving the fantastic with history, memory, and multilingual identity. His novel Roserei uses speculative motifs to explore how place and language shape personal and collective imagination. Cosimo is a former ESFS Chrysalis Award winner.
Dănuț Ungureanu	Romania	Romania	An essential anthology bringing together the unique vision of one of Romania's most refined SFF authors. The volume oscillates between sharp satire, social dystopia, and philosophical speculation, all delivered through an impeccable literary style. Dănuț Ungureanu transforms this "fictional life" into a mirror of our own reality, offering a reading experience.
Emil Minchev	Bulgaria	Bulgaria	Minchev started writing horror stories at 11. He is beloved in his native Bulgaria for mixing and fusing genres like sci-fi, mystery and fantasy and adapting them to reflect contemporary world issues and deeply personal moral dilemmas. He has published 11 novels and 3 short story collections and has a dedicated fan base as the creator of Bunk Romero, Bulgaria’s most famous fictional detective.
Julija Lukovnjak	Slovenia	Slovenia	Both Imaginarni svetovi Edgarja Kaosa and Svet je senca received the Zlata hruška quality mark for outstanding youth literature. The English translation of her debut novel will be published by Založba Goga in 2027. Within the European literary platform CELA, Ukrainian translator Julia Stankevych translated an excerpt of Imaginarni svetovi Edgarja Kaosa, which was presented in Kyiv in May 2025.
Luís Filipe Silva	Portugal	Portugal	Luís Filipe Silva has gained prominence with O Futuro à Janela and has since published novels, short stories, and edited anthologies, playing a key role in promoting Portuguese science fiction internationally. Has won an Adamastor Award in 2025.
Marc Elsberg	Austria	Austria	Marc Elsberg is a bestselling author of well-researched near future science-fiction. He is mostly known for his book "Blackout", that had been translated into a dozen of languages. There is also a TV-show inspired by it.
Michael Marrak	Germany	Germany	This author has been demonstrating the creative power of innovative, weird, speculative literature in words (and pictures) for 30 years. Appropriately, his “Lord Gamma” is being given a worthy new edition after 26 years. Some of you may even remember him winning Best Artist in 1997.
Ondřej Neff	Czech Republic	Czech Republic	Writer, literary theorist, journalist, photographer, internet pioneer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ond%C5%99ej_Neff
Ruth Frances Long	Ireland	Ireland	Ruth is the author of 20 novels. She released 5 books in the last 2 years, both as Ruth Frances Long (The Feral Gods #1 and #2) and Jessica Thorne (The Lost Queen Trilogy). The first Feral Gods novel, The Book of Gold, has been longlisted for the 2025 BSFA Award and selected for the 2024 Locus Recommended Reading List. She was awarded the ESFS Children's Author award in 2015.
Volodymyr Yeshkiliev (Володимир Єшкілєв)	Ukraine	Ukraine	Ukrainian writer, historian, and philosopher. He is one of the founders of the so-called “Stanislaviv Phenomenon”—a literary movement that gave impetus to literary developments in the early 1990s. Yeshkiliev is the author of numerous novels in the genres of science fiction, alternate history, and cryptohistory, as well as several collections of short stories.

Best Publisher

Nominee	Nominating country	Nominee country	Description	url
Carcosa	Germany	Germany	Strong focus on sophisticated and unusual speculative literature in all its forms, from SF & fantasy to the supernatural, from novellas & short story collections to mammoth works of over 1,000 pages, from new translations of true classics to interesting new works. They are not afraid to take big risks, while attaching great importance to design & layout.
Cristian PlusArt	Romania	Romania	A recently established publishing house with roots in the '90s promotes Romanian authors and visual arts, supports rural education through school partnerships and a reading and creation club, and has also established a literary café that brings together a significant number of authors. The publishing house covers various literary genres, ranging from fiction to non-fiction and visual arts.
Critic	France	France	This independent publishing house, born more than 15 years ago as a side project of its namesake bookstore in Rennes, Brittany, specializes in French novels belonging to the speculative fiction spectrum — from science fiction and fantasy to the fantastical — or thrillers.
Editorial Divergência	Portugal	Portugal	Editorial Divergência is an independent Portuguese publishing house dedicated to speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It supports emerging and established authors, promoting innovative voices and contributing to the growth and international visibility of Portuguese and other European genre literature.
Jakub Němeček	Czech Republic	Czech Republic	Jakub Němeček focuses primarily on publishing horror novels; his books are always visually stunning and superbly translated.
Newcon Press	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	Founded in 2006, NewCon Press is a multiple award-winning independent publisher specialising in science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy and horror. NewCon produces signed limited edition hardback, paperback, and eBook editions of its books. Publisher, Ian Whates, is also an author and editor who has supported the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror for more than twenty years.
Ohneohren	Austria	Austria	The publishing house Ohneohren, founded in 2013 by Ingrid Pointecker is spezialized in speculative fiction. A focus is on so called “unpopular” topics and on supporting female authors.
Orange Books	Bulgaria	Bulgaria	Established in 2012, Orange Books has mission to provoke good literary taste by providing intriguing stories from around the world. We are mainly focused on publishing YA fiction, fantasy, and contemporary literary fiction. Our catalogue holds major fantasy and sci-fi authors like Margaret Atwood, R. F Kuang, Katherine Arden, Rebecca Ross, Neal Shusterman, Ava Reid etc.
The O'Brien Press	Ireland	Ireland	The O'Brien Press was founded in 1974, and has been publishing books for children and teens since the 1990s. The publisher has printed SF&F books by Eoin Colfer, Oisín McGann, Conor Kostick, Celine Kiernan, Ruth Frances Long, and countless others. For over 30 years they have supported Irish authors and illustrators, and fostered a love of SF&F in Irish children.
Vivat Publishing	Ukraine	Ukraine	Vivat Publishing was established in 2013. Based in Kharkiv, Vivat is the second largest publishing house in Ukraine with approximately 3,000 titles in print. Vivat publishes the world's bestsellers and a lot of domestic writers. The publishing house's portfolio includes such authors of the world's bestsellers as Brandon Sanderson, Madeline Miller, Sarah J. Maas, Roshani Chokshi and many others.
Zona 42	Italy	Italy	An independent small press dedicated to all sorts of "wonder" genres, able to convey literary messages and contemporary issues.

Best Promoter

Nominee	Nominating country	Nominee country	Description	url
Afonso Cruz	Portugal	Portugal	Afonso Cruz is an award-winning Portuguese author, illustrator, and filmmaker, known for his inventive and genre-crossing works. He is also closely associated with the Mariano Gago Literary Award on Science Fiction, highlighting his commitment to promoting science and speculative literature in Portugal.
Alain Grousset	France	France	Renowned & award-winning Fr. SF author (b. 1956). Passionate advocate of SF, he created fanzines (Divergent54 & award-winning Fantascienza), was critic, edited anthologies & wrote essays. Petites histoires de la science-fiction française (2025, 500 p.) gives rich insights (1945-2000) into the history of Fr. fandom. He is also an avid collector: 15,000 SF books & also SF-related objects & toys!
Bojan Ekselenski	Slovenia	Slovenia	Bojan Ekselenski was born in the prehistoric year 1964 in Celje, where he also works and lives. He is currently the president of the Celje Literary Society (third term), where he supports amateur literature, and fantasy is one of the fields he actively develops and promotes. He actively participates in various festival events across the post-Yugoslav region as a promoter of Slovenian fantasy.
Cornel Secu	Romania	Romania	Cornel Secu is a graduate of the Faculty of Philology, University of Timișoara. In 1980, Cornel Secu founded, at the Youth House in Timișoara, the "Helion" anticipatory club, from 1981 to the present, editor-in-chief of the printed magazine "Helion", from 2010, editor-in-chief of "Helion Online", executive president of A.R.C.A.S.F. Romanian Association of Science-Fiction Clubs and Authors).
Dmytro a.k.a. Khajiit, Midnight Quantum channel (Три кванти опівночі)	Ukraine	Ukraine	The owner of the youtube channel and blog with the same name who promotes the new books that appear on the Ukrainian market. He specializes in science fiction and highlights the Ukrainian emerging writers.
Francesco Verso	Italy	Italy	Long time writer and editor of Science Fiction, that promotes inclusivity, Science Fiction in Translation and a "decolonization of the imagination" tool on his small press Future Fiction. The only project in the world to translate SF from 15 languages and 40 countries.
Helmuth W. Mommers	Austria	Austria	Helmuth W. Mommers is a well-known author and editor of science-fiction. He founded and runs Villa Fantastica, a public library on speculative fiction in Vienna. Events like author events provide a platform for scene networking.
Jo Zebedee	Ireland	United Kingdom	Jo was the Social Media Queen of the hugely successful 2025 Eastercon in Belfast, and is Deputy Chair of NornCon in Belfast in May 2026. As well as being an author in her own right, Jo has been a tireless champion of Irish, UK, and European SF&F through shelfspace, signings, and festivals at her shop "The Secret Bookshelf" in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Zebedee
Karo Leikomaa	Finland	Finland
Klaudia Seibel	Germany	Germany	As an employee of the Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar (i.e., the fantastic library), Klaudia Seibel is both custodian and champion of speculative fiction. She regularly promotes the ideas of science fiction at academic, research, and business events. In this way, she helps free science fiction from its "niche status" and inspires new target groups to take an interest in the subject.
Science Fiction & Fantasy Society Luxembourg	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	The Science Fiction & Fantasy Society Luxembourg is an all‑volunteer association promoting science fiction, fantasy, and horror through LuxCon, year‑round events, and international collaborations. It builds bridges between fans, creators, and professionals, making speculative culture visible locally while actively connecting Luxembourg to the wider European SF community.
The Team of Through 9 Lands and Strannosbor	Bulgaria	Bulgaria	"Through 9 Lands"/"Prez 9 Zemi" is a dedicated team of fans passionate about bringing artists and professionals from diverse imaginative disciplines together. In addition to the twelve fiction conventions organized to date, the team regularly partners in various events that celebrate and examine the fantastical, contributing with featured talks, panels, workshops, and games.
Václav Pravda	Czech Republic	Czech Republic	Organizer of more than 90 science fiction and fantasy conventions, the largest of which is Comic Con Prague, with more than 25,000 attendees. He also promoted Czech science fiction as part of the Czech delegation at Worldcon in Seattle.

Best Magazine

Nominee	Nominating country	Nominee country	Description	url
Agamor Gamebooks Magazine	Bulgaria	Bulgaria	Since 2012 Agamor has been Bulgaria’s premier fanzine for interactive literature, a labor of love by a dedicated team of gamebook aficionados. Each yearly issue features original works, deep-dive articles and exclusive interviews. Bridging the gap between local talent and the international scene, Agamor is a hub for authors and fans alike, fostering the growth of the genre in Bulgaria and beyond.
DANGAN	Portugal	Portugal	Dangan Magazine is a new Portuguese magazine focused on speculative fiction, gaming, and pop culture, especially manga. It showcases short stories, articles, and emerging voices, contributing to the promotion of genre literature and fostering a dynamic creative community in Portugal.
Exodus	Germany	Germany	An institution since 1975. The magazine is a pillar of German SF, with high standards for both the short stories and the illustrations they publish. Each edition features one extraordinary artist or illustrator. This is the time for a Hall of Fame Award, because after 50 years and 50 issues, they will retire: The last (double) issue is scheduled for release in 2026.
Helion	Romania	Romania	Helion magazine, led from 1980 to the present by Cornel Secu, was one of the defining emblems of the Helion club (Timișoara), obtaining numerous national and international awards. In 1984 it received the first Eurocon award for the magazine, at the Eurocon in Brighton, Great Britain, in 1988 it obtained another Eurocon award in San Marino, Italy, in 2023, at the Eurocon in Italy.
Hypnos	Italy	Italy	High-quality magazine dealing with European Fantastic Literature.
Le Rocambole	France	France	With more than 100 issues (usually of 352 pages), it's recognized as an essential publication on popular fiction across Europe. It offers an impressive wealth of information on a body of work that remains too little known and difficult to fully grasp. Its articles display remarkable scholarship, written by leading specialists in popular fiction.
Parsec	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	A digital magazine, edited by Ian Whates, featuring the very best in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Parsec was founded in 2021, with the first issue hitting the digital shelves in autumn of that year. Since then, the magazine has continued to release and contains a selection of some of the best genre writing of the 2020s.
Supernova	Slovenia	Slovenia	Supernova is the only serious Slovenian magazine for fantasy literature. It was founded in 2016 by Bojan Ekselenski within the Celje Literary Society, and he serves as its editor. It is published twice a year, and since 2025 it also has an English edition aimed at promoting Slovenian fantasy abroad, especially at conventions such as Eurocon. Supernova also has its own English version of web page.
Tähtivaeltaja	Finland	Finland

Best Translator

Nominee	Nominating country	Nominee country	Description	url
Ana-Veronica Mircea	Romania	Romania	With a prolific career, Ana-Veronica Mircea has translated the Romanian editions of iconic works by giants such as Ursula K. Le Guin, George R.R. Martin, Isaac Asimov, and Frank Herbert. Her translations are distinguished by their fidelity to the original tone and the creative adaptation of speculative terminology, providing Romanian readers with access to SF and Fantasy masterpieces.
Andrea Cassini	Italy	Italy	Andrea Cassini writes about culture for L’Indiscreto and sports for L’Ultimo Uomo. He's a translator specializing in speculative fiction and hosts the podcast I Diari del Lupo on Fango Radio.
Austin Wagner	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	Translator of "Liecraft" by Anita Moskat published by Apex, which won the British Science Fiction Association's Best Translated Short Work award for works published in 2025.
Bohdan Stasiuk (Богдан Стасюк)	Ukraine	Ukraine	He has translated into Ukrainian novels and short stories of Ray Bradbury, Dan Simmons, Charles Stross, Susanna Clarke, Michael Flynn and others. Works in Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State University and mentors emerging sci-fi and fantasy translators.
Emil Minchev	Bulgaria	Bulgaria	Minchev has translated great classics of English, Irish, Scottish and American literature into Bulgarian, including Shelley’s Frankenstein, R. L. Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stoker’s Dracula, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Bronte’s Jane Eyre and more than 40 others, often penning an informative and enlightening foreword to each edition.
Gilles Goullet	France	France	Gilles Goullet (b. 1967) has translated from english for 25 years now, more than 80 books & about 60 shorter texts, SF & fantasy. He won the 2010 Jacques Chambon award. He is the faithful French voice of Robert Charles Wilson, Peter Watts, Ian MacDonald, Jeff Vandermeer & Cory Doctorow (he likes challenges) & also more recently, Arkady Martine, K. Hurley, Annalee Newitz, D. Künsken & Elly Bangs.
Karin Will	Germany	Germany	Her translations of Becky Chambers' novels and novellas are lauded by many as simply magnificent, and they truly capture the tone and mood of the originals. But she's translated a lot more authors, such as Ted Chiang, Theodore Sturgeon, Erin Morgenstern ...
Mariano Martin Rodriguez	Moldova	Spain	Mariano Martin Rodriguez is the best thing happened for the Latin languages sf&f, in the last 20 years as he speaks and writes in all of them. The list of his translations and articles on the matter, only at academic level, takes 30 pages. He is also a great activist, with a vision of the detail in its place of the big picture. Example: his foray in Moldovan sf revival.
Pavel Bakič	Czech Republic	Czech Republic	Translator of Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" series
Sergej Hvala	Slovenia	Slovenia	Sergej Hvala is an experienced Slovenian translator, journalist, editor, and author. He is known for his exceptional linguistic intuition and rich vocabulary, which has significantly enriched the Slovenian language both through his gaming journalism (under the pseudonym Sneti) and his translations of the most demanding masterpieces in fantasy literature.
Teresa Fernandes Swiatkiewicz	Portugal	Portugal	Teresa Fernandes Swiatkiewicz is a Portuguese literary translator known for bringing major works of Stanisław Lem to Portuguese readers. Her translations have been instrumental in keeping Lem’s influential science fiction present in Portugal, also contributing significantly to the field of literary translation, together with publisher Antígona.
Ursula Phillips	Poland	United Kingdom	A British writer and scholar specializing in Polish literature and its history. Last year she published the translation of Jacek Dukaj’s “Lód” (“Ice”) for which she got the Found in Translation Award (it was her second time getting it). Among her other translations is Narcyza Żmichowska’s “Poganka” (“The Heathen”) Romanticism novel with supernatural motifs.