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 on the top nominations has begun and runs until March 31st.

Log on to cast your ballot!

The 2018 Nominees

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

• Avengers: Infinity War (Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo; April 27)
• Isle of Dogs (Directed by Wes Anderson; April 13)
• Mary Poppins Returns (Directed by Rob Marshall; December 19)
• Peter Rabbit (Directed by Will Gluck; February 9)
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman; December 14)

Best Dramatic Series or Short Work
TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.

• Aggretsuko (Directed by Rarecho, episodes 1-10)
• Bojack Horseman (Directed by John Aoshima, Dana Terrace; Season 1, August 12 to December 2)
• Brush: A Fox Tale (Directed by Willi Anton and Faustina Arriola; May 12)
• DuckTales (Directed by John Aoshima, Matthew Humphreys, and Dana Terrace, Episode 10 to 30)
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by Denny Lu and Mike Myhre, Season 8 Episode 1 to My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever)

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

• Cosmic Lotus, by Bernard Doove (CreateSpace; June 26)
• Once A Dog, by Shaune Lafferty Webb. (Jaffa Books; May 7)
• Small World, by Gre7g Luterman. (Thurston Howl Publications; April 23)
• The Snake's Song, by Mary E. Lowd. (ShadowSpinners Press; March 13)

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

• The Beating of Wild Hooves, by Dwale. (In CLAW, volume 1, July) Mature Audiences
• Come To Todor!, by Fred Patten. (In Exploring New Places, FurPlanet Productions; July 5)
• A Legend in His Own Time, by Fred Patten. (In What the Fox?!, Thurston Howl Publications; March 6)
• Of Starwhals and Spaceships, by Mary E. Lowd. (In Daily Science Fiction; January 31)
• Uri's Bitterweet Story, by Uranium 235. (CrossTime Cafe; December 9)

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

• CLAW Volume 1, edited by K.C. Alpinus. (FurPlanet Productions, July 5)
• Heat 15, produced by Dark End, Teagan Gavet. (Sofawolf Press, July 5) Mature Audiences
• ROAR 9, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions, July)
• Tales From the Guild: World Tour, edited by Ocean Tigrox. (FurPlanet Productions, story anthology, July)
• What the Fox!, edited by Fred Patten. (Thurston Howl Publications; March 6) both trade paperback and deluxe editions

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

• The Day the Fandom Died - November 12th, 2018 - Loss of a creator and a super fan (Rooview, November 25)
• Furries Assist, help lead to arrest of Levi "SnakeThing" Simmons (Rooview, October 28)
• Furries | Down the Rabbit Hole (Created by Fredrik Knudsen, August 13)
• Fursuit History (Culturally F'd, videos; parts 1 to 5, February 16 to December 11)
• This is Life with Lisa Ling: Furry Nation (CNN, video; November 18)

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

• The Dreamkeepers, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 5 [#386] to December 15 [#432])
• DreamKeepers Prelude, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 5 [#394] to December 15 [#428])
• Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler (internet; Lackadaisy Liaison to Lackadaisy Overdrive)
• Rising Sand, by Ty Dunitz and Jenn Lee (internet; March 7 [RS057] to September 12 [RS083])
• Scurry, by Mac Smith. (Internet; January 4 to December 31)

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

• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
• Doc Rat, by Jenner (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
• Freefall, by Mark Stanley. (Internet; #3065 to 3221)
• Part Time Dragons, by Spike Parra and Donna Vu (Internet; March 28 to December 30)
• The Whiteboard, by Doc Nickel. (Internet, January to December)

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.

• Culturally F'd (YouTube videos, Sonic OC Rusty Knucklesfur to Fursuit History Part 5: Cosplay)
• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat. (Internet; January 2 to December 31)
• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon. (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
• Moms of Furries (YouTube videos, Moms of Furries Our First Con to How Do You Tell Them Start With the Art)
• South Afrifur Pawdcast (You Tube videos, January to December)

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

• Ashley Ash, Will You Be My Valentine February 14
• Tracy Butler, Murder in Surfer's Paradise, cover of FurDU 2018 convention souvenir book, May 6
• Caraid, Pirates!, website header for Furry Weekend Atlanta 2019, April 12
• Demicoeur, cover for Exploring New Places edited by Fred Patten, FurPlanet Productions, July 5
• Teagan Gavet, cover for CLAW Volume 1, edited by K.C. Alpinus,FurPlanet Productions, July 5

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

• Deltarune: Chapter 1 (Developer: Toby Fox, October 31)
• Detective Pikachu (English release) (Developer: Creatures, Publisher: Nintendo and The Pokémon Company; March 23)
• Ghost of a Tale (Developer and Publisher: SeithCG; March 13)
• Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! (Developer: Game Freak, Publisher(s): The Pokémon Company and Nintendo, November 16)
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Developer, Toys for Bob, Publisher, Activision, November 13)

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

• e621.net (art, discussions, etc.)
• Furry Writers' Guild (Supporting, informing, elevating, and promoting quality anthropomorphic fiction and its creators)
• Inkbunny (furry art community)
• Lackadaisy.com
• WikiFur (furry fandom encyclopedia)

Best Fursuit
Anthropomorphic costumes.

• Penelope, made by Dludnerad (AKA Tamara Carmichael) and Paul Kidd, owner Paul Kidd.
• Ravtrag, made by Suit-a-dile.
• SonicFox, worn at Esports Award. Costume by Yamishizen/Fursuit Enterprise.
• Zabivaka, FIFA World Cup Mascot 2018

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.