The award honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction. The award showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year (2009). An unusual feature of the selection process is that all voting is done with the identity of the author (and publisher) hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story.

The winner is chosen by the members of the Washington Science Fiction Association and will be presented at their annual convention, Capclave, held this year on October 22-24th in Rockville, Maryland.

• "each thing i show you is a piece of my death" by Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer, published in Clockwork Phoenix 2, edited by Mike Allen, Norilana Books (July 2009).
• "Images of Anna" by Nancy Kress, published in Fantasy Magazine, edited by Cat Rambo (September 2009).
• "James and the Dark Grimoire" by Kevin Lauderdale, published in Cthulhu Unbound, edited by Thomas Brannan and John Sunseri, Permuted Press, (March 2009).
• "Race to the Moon" by Kyell Gold, published in New Fables, Summer 2009, edited by Tim Susman, Sofawolf Press (July 2009).
• "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster, published in Interzone (January 2009) / Apex Magazine (August 2009), edited by Andy Cox (Interzone,) / Catherynne M. Valente (Apex).
• "Siren Beat" by Tansy Rayner Roberts, published in Twelfth Planet, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (October 2009).
• "The Pirate Captain's Daughter" by Yoon Ha Lee, published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #27, 10/08/2009, edited Scott H. Andrews.
• "The Very Difficult Diwali of Sub-Inspector Gurushankar Rajaram" by Jeff Soesbe, published in DayBreak Magazine, edited by Jetse de Vries (October 2009).