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

Nominations for the 2018 Ursa Major Awards are open as of Thursday January 17th and will run until Saturday February 16th. Voting on the top nominations will begin March 1st.

On Monday November 12, 2018, we were saddened to learn of the passing of Fred Patten, writer, historian, and founder of the Ursa Major Awards. Fred served as secretary to the Athropomorphic Literature and Arts Asociation until recently when he resigned due to ill health. His contribution to the furry arts cannot be underestimated and his presence will be sorely missed. You can find out more about this amazing man at Wikifur. Rest in Peace, our friend.

The results of the voting for the 2017 Ursa Major Awards were announced at the award presentations at FurDU 2018 in Surfer’s Paradise, Queensland, Saturday May 5 at 6:00 PM AEST. Thank you to the staff of Furry Down-Under, and a special thank-you to Logan Husky of Husky Pause Productions for his help in making the event look great. A video of the event can be watched below. Congratulations to all the winners!

The 2017 Winners

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

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (Directed by James Gunn; May 5)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• My Little Pony: The Movie (Directed by Jayson Thiessen; October 6)
• Rock Dog (Directed by Ash Brannon; February 24)
• Ferdinand (Directed by Carlos Saldanha; December 15)
• War for the Planet of the Apes (Directed by Matt Reeves; July 14)
 

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

Duck Tales [2017 reboot] (Directed by John Aoshima, Dana Terrace; Season 1, August 12 to December 2)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by Jim Miller, Tim Stuby, Denny Lu, Mike Myhre; Season 7, episodes 1 to 26)
• OK KO! Let's Be Heroes (Directed by Hwang Ki-hoo, Chang-woo Shin, Sunjae Lee, Byungjae Oh, Eunyung Byun, Sunhung Kim; Season 1 Episode 1 to 42)
• Here's the Plan (Directed by Fernanda Frick; April 27)
• Mascot Fur Life (Directed by Jens Wernstedt; December 23)
• Doodle Toons (Directed by Jack C; Pilot episode to "Deleted Scene: Fast Food Follies")
• Kouka and Bibi (by Dan Variano; January 8
 

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

The Wayward Astronomer, by Geoffrey Thomas (Corvus Publishing; May 9)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Always Gray in Winter, by Mark J. Engels (Thurston Howl Publications; August 10)
• Otters in Space III: Octopus Ascending, by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions; June 30)
• Kismet, by Watts Martin (Argyll Productions, FurPlanet Productions; January 12)
• Black Friday, by Jan Stryvant (CreateSpace; September 8)
 

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

Lieutenant Kruger and the Mistress Jade Trophy Game, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (in The Cross Time Cafe; October 5)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Behesht, by Dwale (in ROAR volume 8; June 30)
• Beyond the Great Divide, by S. H. Mansouri (in Cirsova Heroic Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine #5; Spring 2017)
• The Moon Like an Unhatched Egg, by Mary E. Lowd (in Symbol of a Nation; June 30)
• Rickety V, by Rechan (in Intimate Little Secrets; March 24)
 

Non-Fiction Work
Includes art books, opinion pieces, and news articles.

Furry Nation, by Joe Strike (Cleis Press; October 10)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Furries Among Us 2; More Essays On Furries By Furries, edited by Thurston Howl (Thurston Howl Productions; August 18)
• Furry Fandom Conventions, 1989-2015, by Fred Patten (McFarland & Co.; January 3)
• 3 Ursa Major-ly Painful Victories, by Rooview (on YouTube; April 23)
• The Shocking Furry Fandom Conversation. Yes, Really! (on YouTube, featuring Stefan Molyneux; October 16)
 

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

Dogs of War, edited by Fred Patten (anthology; FurPlanet Productions; January 12)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• ROAR volume 8, edited by Mary E. Lowd (anthology; Bad Dog Books; June 30)
• Arcana: A Tarot Anthology, edited by Madison Scott-Clary (anthology; Thurston Howl Publications; November 9)
• Intimate Little Secrets, by Rechan (collection; FurPlanet Productions; March 24)
• Symbol of a Nation, edited by Fred Patten (anthology; GoAL Publications; June 30)
 

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

DreamKeepers, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 2 [#340] to December 18 [#385])

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler (internet; Lackadaisy Gimmickry to Lackadaisy Deliria)
• TwoKinds, by Tom Fischbach (internet; January 5 to December 28)
• A&H Club, by Rick Griffin (Internet; January 7 to November 25)
• Endtown, by Aaron Neathery (Internet; January 2 to December 25)
 

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

Housepets!, by Rick Griffin (Internet; January 2 to December 29)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• DreamKeepers Prelude, by David & Liz Lillie (Internet; January 6 [#350] to December 28 [#393])
• Freefall, by Mark Stanley (Internet; January 2 to December 29)
• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (Internet; January 1 to December 29)
• Doc Rat, by Jenner (Internet; January 4 to December 29)
 

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, ed. by Patch Packrat (Internet; January 5 to December 25)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon (Internet; January 1 to December 30)
• InFurNation, ed. by Rod O'Riley (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
• FurryFandom.es, edited by Mike Retriever (Internet; February 19 to October 9)
• Typewriter Emergencies: A Journal of Furry Lit, edited by Weasel (Weasel Press; May)
 

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

David Lillie, cover for The Wayward Astronomer, by Geoffrey Thomas (Corvus Publishing; May 9)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Bone, cover for Always Gray in Winter by Mark J. Engels (Thurston Howl Publications; August 10)
• Teagan Gavet, cover for Dogs of War, edited by Fred Patten (FurPlanet Productions; January 12)
• Teagan Gavet, cover for ROAR vol, 8, edited by Mary E. Lowd (Bad Dog Books; June 30)
• Baron Engel, Prepare to Engage the Enemy, cover for A Different Perspective by Bernard Doove (June 8)
• Idess, cover for Otters in Space III: Octopus Ascending, by Mary E. Lowd (FurPlanet Productions,; June 30)
• Ashley Foy, Valentine's Gifts (February 14)
 

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

Night in the Woods (Developer: Infinite Fall, Publisher: Finji; February 21)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• Cuphead (Developer and Publisher: StudioMDHR Entertainment; September 29)
• Star Fox 2 (Developer: Nintendo and Argonaut Games, Publisher: Nintendo; September 29)
• Sonic Mania (Developer: PagodaWest Games and Headcannon, Publisher: Sega; August 15)
• Yooka - Laylee (Developers: Playtonic Games; April 11)
 

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

Inkbunny (furry art community)

    Runners-Up (in descending number of votes)

• e621.com (art, discussions, etc.)
• WikiFur (furry fandom encyclopedia)
• Furry Writers' Guild (Supporting, informing, elevating, and promoting quality anthropomorphic fiction and its creators)
• The Cross Time Cafe (forum for comic discussions, including many on the Recommended List)
 

For the full results and voting statistics, go to the 2017 winners page.

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.