World Fantasy Awards retire trophies modeled after H.P. Lovecraft

By Sam Barsanti | November 16, 2015 | 9:46pm

Aux Features Books

As reported by The Guardian, the organizers of the World Fantasy Convention have announced that they will no longer be presenting the winners of its prestigious World Fantasy Award with a statuette that bears the likeness of H.P. Lovecraft. The Bone Clocks author David Mitchell (who won the award for best novel at this year’s event) will be one of the last people to receive the creepy little trophy. The Guardian notes that the World Fantasy people didn’t give an official reason for the change or announce what will replace Lovecraft’s spooky head, but this announcement comes after a petition to change the statuette received over 2,500 signatures last year, as well as a number of complaints from World Fantasy Award winners and nominees.

Lovecraft, of course, created the iconic “Cthulhu Mythos,” an umbrella term later given to a particular style of bizarre horror stories involving impossible monsters that are beyond the capabilities of human understanding, all of which stem from the weirdo lore initially created by Lovecraft. He was also—as the critics of World Fantasy’s original trophy point out—an undeniable bigot who wrote racist poetry and believed in the absolute superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. As influential as he was and continues to be, it’s a little hard to sweep that other thing under the rug when handing out awards that look like a little version of his head. World Fantasy’s new trophy design will presumably be announced at some point before next year’s awards.