The ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards has been announced, so congrats to the finalists and may the best ghoul win. Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking…
I write regularly about the Hugo Awards, the Dragon Awards and the new-fangled Splatterpunk Awards, but I tend not to write about the Stoker Awards. Perhaps I should start — it could be interesting. I doubt I could fit in every category, or even every novel category, but there are some worthwhile angles I could still take. Maybe someday I’ll start a retrospective of the winners; or perhaps I could dig into the comic category — it’d bring back lovely memories of being the Comics Honey for Belladonna. Or maybe a spotlight on the First Novel category, to help celebrate new talent?
Well, anyway. Here’s this year’s ballot:
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Katsu, Alma – The Hunger (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Maberry, Jonathan – Glimpse (St. Martin’s Press)
Malerman, Josh – Unbury Carol (Del Rey)
Stoker, Dacre and Barker, J.D. – Dracul (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Tremblay, Paul – The Cabin at the End of the World (William Morrow)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Fine, Julia – What Should Be Wild (Harper)
Grau, T.E. – I Am the River (Lethe Press)
Kiste, Gwendolyn – The Rust Maidens (Trepidatio Publishing)
Stage, Zoje – Baby Teeth (St. Martin’s Press)
Tremblay, Tony – The Moore House (Twisted Publishing)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Ireland, Justina – Dread Nation (Balzer + Bray)
Legrand, Claire – Sawkill Girls (Katherine Tegen Books)
Maberry, Jonathan – Broken Lands (Simon & Schuster)
Snyman, Monique – The Night Weaver (Gigi Publishing)
White, Kiersten – The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (Delacorte Press)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Ahmed, Saladin – Abbott (BOOM! Studios)
Azzarello, Brian – Moonshine Vol. 2: Misery Train (Image Comics)
Bunn, Cullen – Bone Parish (BOOM! Studios)
LaValle, Victor – Victor LaValle’s Destroyer (BOOM! Studios)
Liu, Marjorie – Monstress Volume 3: Haven (Image Comics)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Bailey, Michael – Our Children, Our Teachers (Written Backwards)
Hill, Joe – You Are Released (Flight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales) (Scribner)
Malik, Usman T. – Dead Lovers on Each Blade, Hung (Nightmare Magazine Issue #74)
Mason, Rena – The Devil’s Throat (Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror) (Adrenaline Press)
Smith, Angela Yuriko – Bitter Suites (CreateSpace)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Landry, Jess – “Mutter” (Fantastic Tales of Terror) (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Murray, Lee – “Dead End Town” (Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 2) (IFWG Publishing International)
Neugebauer, Annie – “Glove Box” (The Dark City Crime & Mystery Magazine Volume 3, Issue 4-July 2018)
Taff, John F.D. – “A Winter’s Tale” (Little Black Spots) (Grey Matter Press)
Ward, Kyla Lee – “And in Her Eyes the City Drowned” (Weirdbook #39) (Wildside Press)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Files, Gemma – Spectral Evidence (Trepidatio Publishing)
Guignard, Eric J. – That Which Grows Wild (Cemetery Dance Publications)
Iglesias, Gabino – Coyote Songs (Broken River Books)
Snyder, Lucy A. – Garden of Eldritch Delights (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Waggoner, Tim – Dark and Distant Voices: A Story Collection (Nightscape Press)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Aster, Ari – Hereditary (PalmStar Media)
Averill, Meredith – The Haunting of Hill House: The Bent-Neck Lady, Episode 01:05 (Amblin Television, FlanaganFilm, Paramount Television)
Garland, Alex – Annihilation (DNA Films, Paramount Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions, Skydance Media)
Heisserer, Eric – Bird Box (Bluegrass Films, Chris Morgan Productions, Universal Pictures)
Woods, Bryan, Beck, Scott, and Krasinski, John – A Quiet Place (Platinum Dunes, Sunday Night)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Chambers, James, Grey, April, and Masterson, Robert – A New York State of Fright: Horror Stories from the Empire State (Hippocampus Press)
Datlow, Ellen – The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea (Night Shade Books)
Guignard, Eric J. – A World of Horror (Dark Moon Books)
Murray, Lee – Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror (Adrenaline Press)
Ward, D. Alexander – Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Connolly, John – Horror Express (PS Publishing)
Gambin, Lee – The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film (Centipede Press)
Ingham, Howard David – We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror (Room 207 Press)
Mynhardt, Joe and Johnson, Eugene – It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Wetmore Jr., Kevin J. – Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series (McFarland)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Boston, Bruce – Artifacts (Independent Legions Publishing)
Cowen, David E. – Bleeding Saffron (Weasel Press)
Lynch, Donna – Witches (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Simon, Marge and Manzetti, Alessandro – War (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Tantlinger, Sara – The Devil’s Dreamland (Strangehouse Books)
Doris V. Sutherland 