More formally known as the Annual Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Award, the Ursa Major Award is presented annually for excellence in the furry arts. It is intended as Anthropomorphic (a.k.a. Furry) Fandom's equivalent of the Hugo Award ® presented by the World Science Fiction Society, mystery fandom's Anthony Award, horror fandom's Bram Stoker Award, and so forth. Anyone may nominate and vote for candidates for the Awards. These Awards are decided by the fans, not by a committee.

      NEWS

The results of the voting for the 2022 Ursa Major Awards are here! You can watch the presentation video on YouTube, but if you wish to just read the results, they are below the following article so that there are no accidental spoilers.

For 22 years of the Ursa Major Awards, we in the ALAA have done as best as we can to hold a ceremony that honors and celebrates the best in anthropomorphic art as decided by our fellow members of the furry fandom. We'd like to keep doing this for as long as we can, going into the future, hopefully for the next 22 years. However we have to acknowledge that monetary realities can often make the administration of the awards difficult.

Since the passing in 2018 of our friend Fred Patten who was a huge central force in our operation, and then later still with the effects of COVID which took the UMAs out of the con space and into digital out of necessity, keeping the lights on has been a matter of scrounging up whatever few donations we have and then paying the rest of the running costs out of our own pockets. This includes the manufacture of the trophies as well as shipping them to the winners.

The ALAA isn't a for-profit organization, but rather a skeleton crew of volunteers. We hear all the feedback that comes our way and we wish we were financially secure enough to implement it all - more categories (we were lucky that we could add Music this year, as it just barely fit inside our budget), an overhaul of the website, more production value in the ceremony, larger outreach, etc. However, the truth of the matter is that, for most of these past few years, the maximum we've been able to handle is shipping out the trophies, and that's a very tight maximum. There's also a tinge of frustration, as we feel that if we had the funds to do more with the awards, it would help increase interest and excitement for them across the fandom.

On that last point however, we feel a ray of hope. After years of stagnating participation, this year we saw a HUGE boost in nominations and votes, as well as more followers on our social media accounts. We have open donations on our site, though we've been wary of outright reaching out for them on our platforms. That said, this is a clear opportunity that would be silly to not act on.

So, whether you consider yourself a furry or just a fan of anthropomorphic works, and you like the idea of your favorite stuff in that category getting awards, if at any point over the last two decades you’ve heard of the UMAs or you're just learning about them now, we humbly ask that you consider tossing a donation our way via PayPal — whatever you can afford — and to spread the word around.  

A special shout-out to Xanni who hosts and troubleshoots the UMA website. Your help is very much appreciated!

The 2022 Winners

Check out the video of the presentations.

We'll start with the brand new category:

Best Anthropomorphic Music
Anthropomorphically themed songs and albums.

Another Railway Day, album, by Nonnie

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Visiting Narcissa, album, by Patricia Taxxon
• Can Opener's Notebook: Fish Whisperer, album, by Vylet Pony
• Cute Cervid Vol. 1, album, by CUTE CERVID (various artists)
• idaidaida, album, by ida deerz
 

Best Website
Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.

Fur Affinity

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• e621
• Wikifur
• Kemono Café
• Fluffle
 

Best Game
Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.

Cult of the Lamb

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Stray
• Tunic
• Lookouts
• Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series
 

Best Published Illustration
Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.

Ais05, Dragon Party

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Jacato, Wind Watcher
• Wildering, Space Boy
• Caraid, Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary
 

Best Magazine
Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.

Dogpatch Press, by Patch Packrat

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• InFurNation, edited by Rod O'Riley
• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon
• Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd
• Deep Sky Anchor, edited by Mary E. Lowd
 

Best Comic Strip
Newspaper-style strips, including those with some ongoing arcs.

The Whiteboard, by Doc N.

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Duncan & Eddie, by Chevril
• Foxes In Love, @foxes_in_love
• Part Time Dragons, by Part Time Dragons
• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg
 

Best Graphic Story
Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.

The Whiteboard: Sherlock Holmes, by Doc N.

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Slightly Damned, by Chu
• Sonic the Hedgehog, written by Evan Stanley and Ian Flynn, art by Aaron Hammerstrom, Evan Stanley and Adam Bryce Thomas
• Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai
• Usagi Yojimbo: Lone Goat & Kid, by Stan Sakai
 

Best Non-Fiction Work
Includes opinion pieces and news articles.

Art, Furries, God, by Patricia Taxxon

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Who Runs The Internet? Furries, by Dylan Reeve
• Furries & The Ethics of Cringe Culture, by Kurtis Connor
• Furry Fiction: The Squishy Edges and the Heart, by Mary E. Lowd
• Ursa's Major Issue - Confident self-promotion vs humble passionate skill, and a voting system's favoritism, by Sonious
 

Best General Literary Work
Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, and serialized online stories.

Circles: Volume 4, by Andrew French, Scott Fabianek, and Steve Domanski

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Usagi Yojimbo Origins, by Stan Sakai
• When the World Was Young: A Prehistoric Anthology, edited by Madison Scott-Clary
• Usagi Yojimbo (Trade Paperback), by Stan Sakai
• ROAR: Volume 11, Edited by Ian Madison Keller
 

Best Short Fiction
Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.

Bears & Bravery, by Gre7g Luterman (illustrations by BearHybrid)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Null, by Elise Zoe Heider
• The Otter's Wings, by Mary E. Lowd
• Draught Horse, by Huskyteer
• The Swift-Footed Darling of the Rocks (Do NOT Actually Call Me That), by Marie Croke
 

Best Novel
Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.

A Furry Faux Paw, by Jessica Kara