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

Voting for the 2022 Ursa Major Awards has opened!

The Recommended List for 2023 is also open for submissions.

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

      PLEASE DONATE

The Awards are run by an unpaid volunteer committee. Donations to cover the cost of the physical awards and other running costs would be hugely appreciated. The Paypal link in the column at left is the simplest way to do this. If everyone who voted for the Awards gave just one dollar, we would easily meet our annual running costs.

The 2022 Nominees (in alphabetical order)

Best Motion Picture
Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

• DC League of Super-Pets (Directed by Jared Stern and Sam Levin; July 29)
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado; December 21)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Directed by Jeff Fowler; April 8)
• The Bad Guys (Directed by Pierre Perifel; April 22)
• Turning Red (Directed by Domee Shi; March 11)

Best Dramatic Short Work
One-shots, advertisements or short videos.

• Horns (Directed by FattyDragonite; December 9)
• The Legend of Pipi (Directed by Julia Schoel and Birgit Uhlig; Jul 16)
• Monkey Wrench - The Ghost Egg (Directed by Joshua Palmer; Jul 18)
• Tales From Scorchwater Valley - The Rhino and the Redbill (Directed by Alex Henderson; February 15)
• Tales of Zale - Flickering Lights (Directed by Sif Savery; September 7)

Best Dramatic Series
TV or YouTube series videos.

• Bluey (Created by Joe Brumm; Season 3 (Part 2))
• Helluva Boss (Directed by Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano; Season 2, "The Circus" and "Seeing Stars")
• The Owl House (Created by Dana Terrace; season 2 episode 11 to season 3 episode 1)
• Tuca & Bertie (Created by Lisa Hanawalt; Season 3) Mature Audiences.
• Zootopia+ (Directed by Trent Correy and Josie Trinidad, Season 1)

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. (Page Street Kids; July 26)
• Brothers At Arms (The Zyearth Chronicles Book 2), by R.A. Meenan. (Starcrest Fox Press; February 14)
• Mouse Cage, by Malcolm F. Cross. (Fenris Publishing; July 13)
• Scars of the Golden Dancer, by NightEyes DaySpring. (Dancing Jackal Books; March 4) Mature Audiences
• Toledot (Post-Self #2), by Madison Scott-Clary. (Self; January 21)

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

• Bears & Bravery, by Gre7g Luterman (illustrations by BearHybrid). (The Bear Minimum patreon; April 5)
• Draught Horse, by Huskyteer. (ROAR 11; July)
• Null, by Elise Zoe Heider. (Google Docs; April 10) Mature Audiences
• The Otter's wings, by Mary E. Lowd. (ShadowSpinners Press; October 15)
• The Swift-Footed Darling of the Rocks (Do NOT Actually Call Me That), by Marie Croke. (Zooscape; issue 14)

Best General Literary Work
Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.

• Circles: Volume 4, by Andrew French, Scott Fabianek, and Steve Domanski. (Fenris Publishing, collection, Febuary 21)
• ROAR: Volume 11, Edited by Ian Madison Keller. (Bad Dog Books, anthology, July 1)
• Usagi Yojimbo Origins, by Stan Sakai. (IDW Publishing, trade paperback collection; volume 2 to 4)
• Usagi Yojimbo (Trade Paperback), by Stan Sakai. (IDW Publishing, trade paperback collection; Tengu War to Crossroads)
• When the World Was Young: A Prehistoric Anthology, edited by Madison Scott-Clary. (The Furry Historical Fiction Society,anthology, December 1

Best Non-Fiction Work

• Art, Furries, God, by Patricia Taxxon. (YouTube, video; Jul 6)
• Furries & The Ethics of Cringe Culture, by Kurtis Connor. (You Tube, video; September 30)
• Furry Fiction: The Squishy Edges and the Heart, by Mary E. Lowd. (Deep Sky Anchor, article, December 5.)
• Ursa's Major Issue - Confident self-promotion vs humble passionate skill, and a voting system's favoritism, by Sonious. (Flayrah, article; June 9)
• Who Runs The Internet? Furries, by Dylan Reeve. (The Spinoff, article; January 11)

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

• Slightly Damned, by Chu. (Internet, pages 1038 to 1081)
• Sonic the Hedgehog, written by Evan Stanley and Ian Flynn, art by Aaron Hammerstrom, Evan Stanley and Adam Bryce Thomas. (IDW; issues 48 to 55)
• Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai. (IDW Publishing; issues 25 to 31)
• Usagi Yojimbo: Lone Goat & Kid, by Stan Sakai. (IDW Publishing; issues 1 to 6)
• The Whiteboard: Sherlock Holmes, by Doc N. (Internet, October 3 to December 23)

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

• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (Internet, January 4 to December 30)
• Duncan & Eddie, by Chevril. (Twitter; January 1 to December 26)
• Foxes In Love, @foxes_in_love. (Twitter; January 1 to December 21)
• Part Time Dragons, by Part Time Dragons. (Internet; Dragon Bite Meat to The Disturbing Side Effects of Immortality)
• The Whiteboard, by Doc N. (Internet, January 4 to December 23)

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.

• Deep Sky Anchor, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (Internet; May to December)
• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat. (Internet; January 12 to September 30)
• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon (Internet; January 1 to December 29)
• InFurNation, edited by Rod O'Riley. (Internet; January 1 to December 30)
• Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd (Internet; Issue 14 to 16)

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

• Ais05, Dragon Party, (Twitter, October 18)
• Caraid, Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary, (Twitter, August 18)
• Jacato, Wind Watcher (Twitter, March 3)
• Wildering, Space Boy, (Twitter, December 1)

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

• Cult of the Lamb (Developer: Massive Monster, Publisher: Devolver Digital; Aug 11)
• Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series (Developer: Monkey Craft, Publisher: Bandai Namco; July 8)
• Lookouts (Developer:ParanoidHawk and ColDoggo, Publisher: itch.io; March 31)
• Stray (Developer: BlueTwelve Studio, Publisher: Annapurna Interactive; July 19)
• Tunic (Developer: Andrew Shouldice, Publisher: Finji; March 16)

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

• e621, reverse image search for the furry community
• Fluffle, Furry art and stories
• Fur Affinity, Furry art and stories
• Kemono Café, Furry webcomic hosting
• Wikifur, Furry wiki

Best Anthropomorphic Music

• Another Railway Day, by Nonnie, album, November 23.
• Can Opener's Notebook: Fish Whisperer, by Vylet Pony. album, Feb 22.
• Cute Cervid Vol. 1, by CUTE CERVID (various artists), album, December 2.
• idaidaida, by ida deerz. album, June 3.
• Visiting Narcissa, by Patricia Taxxon. album, June 3.

Best Anthropomorphic Fursuit

• This category will not be contested this year due to insufficient nominations.

Notice: Kyell Gold has indicated that he wishes to withdraw from consideration for the Novel and Short Story categories until further notice. For full details, please read his blog on Fur Affinity.

PLEASE DONATE

The Ursa Major Awards have always been run by volunteer members, and all costs associated with it such as maintaining the website, and especially providing the physical awards to the winners, have mostly been borne by donations from the core members. In order to help us with this, and to improve the quality of the award trophies, we would like to solicit donations from the fandom.

	The easiest way to contribute is to use the PayPal link button on the left for paypal@ursamajorawards.org, and any donation would be hugely appreciated. If everyone who nominated or voted donated just one dollar, all our expenses would be covered for the year! 100% of the money received will be put towards the running costs. Thank you for your consideration.

To be eligible, a work must have been released between January 1 and December 31 of the calendar year for that award, and must include a non-human being given human attributes (anthropomorphic), which can be mental and/or physical (for example the intelligent rabbits in Watership Down for the former, and Bugs Bunny for the latter.) Simply including an animal character is not sufficient to qualify. Non-animal characters such as Wall-E are also anthropomorphic.

While we have yet to do so, the ALAA reserves the right to exclude from the Recommended Anthropomorphics List, and from contention for an Ursa Major Award, any works it deems to be obscene, libelous, illegal, or otherwise detrimental to the integrity and good standing of the Ursa Major Awards and the anthropomorphics fandom that those awards represent. For example: Works of a predominantly sexual nature, or which include explicit sexual situations involving characters which may be underage or non-anthropomorphic animals.

The Ursa Major Award was administered and presented during its first two years by The ConFurence Group, a membership organization dedicated to promoting anthropomorphic fandom-related events. It is now presented by the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA), a membership organization dedicated to promoting anthropomorphic literature and arts through such projects as this List and Award, and others which may be undertaken later. Discussions are currently taking place to improve their effectiveness and expand their presence throughout Furry fandom. All suggestions are invited.

The Ursa Major Award banner was designed and drawn by EosFoxx. The A.L.A.A. much appreciates Eos' contribution.

'Hugo Award,' 'Worldcon,' and 'World Science Fiction Society' are registered service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.