The
World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the
World Fantasy Convention for the best
fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described by book critics such as
The Guardian as a "prestigious fantasy prize", and one of the three most prestigious
speculative fiction awards, along with the
Hugo and
Nebula Awards (which cover both fantasy and
science fiction). The
World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology is given each year for
anthologies of fantasy stories by multiple authors published in English. An anthology can have any number of editors, and works in the anthology may have been previously published; awards are also given out for collections of works by a single author in the
collection category. The World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology has been awarded annually since 1988, though from 1977 through 1987 anthologies were admissible as nominees in the collection category. During the ten years they were admissible for that category they won the award seven times and represented 38 of the 56 nominations.