The WSFA Small Press Award honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction. The award showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year (2011). An unusual feature of the selection process is that all voting is done with the identity of the author (and publisher) hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story.

The winner is chosen by the members of the Washington Science Fiction Association and will be presented at their annual convention, Capclave, held this year on October 12-14th in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
The complete list of the finalists for the 2012 WSFA Small Press Award is:

“A Militant Peace” by David Klecha and Tobias S. Buckell, published in Clarkesworld Magazine, edited by Neil Clarke, November 2011.
“Flowers in the Shadow of the Garden” by Joanne Anderton in Hope, edited by Sasha Beattie, published by Kayelle Press, October 2011.
“Lessons from a Clockwork Queen” by Megan Arkenberg, published in Fantasy Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, September 2011.
“Sauerkraut Station” by Ferrett Steinmetz, published in GigaNotoSaurus, edited by Ann Leckie, November 2011.
“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu, published in Clarkesworld Magazine, edited by Neil Clarke, April 2011.
“The Patrician” by Tansy Rayner Roberts in Love and Romanpunk, edited by Alisa Krasnostein, published by Twelfth Planet Press, May 2011.
“What Ho, Automaton!” by Chris Dolley, in Shadow Conspiracy, Volume II, edited by Phyllis Irene Radford and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, published by Book View Cafe, February 2011.
“Yesterday’s Taste” by Lawrence M. Schoen in Transtories, edited by Colin Harvey and published by Aeon Press, October 2011.

The first award was presented at the 2007 Capclave in Rockville Maryland and WSFA looks forward to continuing this tradition for many years to come. The winner will be announced at this years Capclave.