2020 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot Announced
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Preliminary Ballot for the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see https://www.horror.org/) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 1,700 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/)
Works on this ballot are not referred to as “nominees” or “finalists.” Only works appearing on the Final Ballot may be referred to as “nominated works” and their authors as “finalists.”
The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on the Preliminary Ballot. Notes about the voting process will appear after the ballot listing.
If your work appears on this ballot and you would like to offer it to voting members of the HWA in the Internet Mailer to be sent on or around January 25, please see important information following the ballot.
The 2020 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Davidson, Andy – The Boatman’s Daughter (MCD x FSG Originals)
Hurst, Rex – What Hell May Come (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Jones, Stephen Graham – The Only Good Indians (Gallery/Saga Press)
Katsu, Alma – The Deep (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Keisling, Todd – Devil’s Creek (Silver Shamrock Publishing)
Kenemore, Scott – Lake of Darkness (Talos)
Malerman, Josh – Malorie (Del Rey)
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia – Mexican Gothic (Del Rey)
Thomas, Jeffrey – The American (JournalStone)
Triana, Kristopher – Gone to See the River Man (Cemetery Dance Publications)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Alleyne, C.S. – Belle Vue (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Fram, John – The Bright Lands (Hanover Square Press)
Hall, Polly – The Taxidermist’s Lover (CamCat Publishing, LLC)
Harrison, Rachel – The Return (Berkley)
Jeffery, Ross – Tome (The Writing Collective)
Knight, EV – The Fourth Whore (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Kulski, K.P. – Fairest Flesh (Rooster Republic Press)
Lyons, Matthew – The Night Will Find Us (Keylight Books)
Meijer, Maryse – The Seventh Mansion (FSG Originals)
Reed Petty, Kate – True Story (Viking)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Archer, Steven (author/artist) – The Masque of the Red Death (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Brody, Jennifer (author) and Rivera, Jules (artist) – Spectre Deep 6 (Turner)
Chapman, Clay McLeod (author), Brown, Garry (artist), and Mooneyham, Chris (artist) – Scream Vol. 1: Curse of Carnage (Marvel)
Daniel, Tim (author), Moreci, Michael (author), and Hixson, Joshua (artist) – The Plot (Vault Comics)
Douek, Rich (author) and Cormack, Alex (artist) – Road of Bones (IDW Publishing)
Holder, Nancy (author), Di Francia, Chiara (artist), and Woo, Amelia (artist) – Mary Shelley Presents (Kymera Press)
Manzetti, Alessandro (author) and Cardoselli, Stefano (artist/author) – Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein) (Independent Legions Publishing)
Nadler, Lonnie (author) and Cha, Jenna (artist) – Black Stars Above (Vault Comics)
Niles, Steve (author), Simeone, Salvatore (author), and Kudranski, Szymon (artist) – Lonesome Days, Savage Nights (TKO Studios)
Paknadel, Alex (author), Brusco, Giulia (artist), and Vendrell, Nil (artist) – Redfork (TKO Studios)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Cesare, Adam – Clown in a Cornfield (HarperTeen)
Charlton, Darren – Wranglestone (Stripes/Little Tiger)
Dávila Cardinal, Ann – Category Five (Tor Teen)
Kraus, Daniel – Bent Heavens (Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan)
Laure, Estelle – Mayhem (Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s)
Lutz, Leslie – Fractured Tide (Blink)
Parsons, Ash – Girls Save the World in This One (Philomel Books)
Snyman, Monique – The Bone Carver (Vesuvian Books)
Thomas, Aiden – Cemetery Boys (Swoon Reads/Macmillan)
Waters, Erica – Ghost Wood Song (HarperTeen)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Ashley-Smith, J. – The Attic Tragedy (Meerkat Press)
Cowen, David E. – Proof of Death and Other Facts (Horror USA – Texas: An Anthology of Horror from the Lone Star State) (Soteira Press)
Deady, Tom – Coleridge (Silver Shamrock Publishing)
Iglesias, Gabino – Beyond the Reef (Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror) (Wicked Run Press)
Jones, Stephen Graham – Night of the Mannequins (Tor.com)
Kiste, Gwendolyn – The Invention of Ghosts (Nightscape Press)
Landry, Jess – I Will Find You, Even in the Dark (Dim Shores Presents Volume 1) (Dim Shores)
Miskowski, S.P. – The Best of Both Worlds (Trepidatio Publishing)
Parent, Jason – Eight Cylinders (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Pinsker, Sarah – Two Truths and a Lie (Tor.com)
Stred, Steve – The Window in the Ground (The Writing Collective)
Wise, A.C. – Exhalation #10 (Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles) (Blumhouse Books)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Arcuri, Meghan – “Am I Missing the Sunlight?” (Borderlands 7) (Borderlands Press)
Busby, R.A. – “Street View” (Collective Realms Magazine: Issue #002) (Lazy Adventurer Publishing)
Compton, Johnny – “FFUNS” (PseudoPod 692)
Di Orazio, Paolo – “The Man Who Fell Beyond the Wall” (KDP Amazon)
Fawver, Kurt – “Introduction to the Horror Story, Day 1” (Nightmare Magazine Nov. 2020 (Issue 98))
Girardi, Jill – “The Ecstasy of Gold” (25 Gates of Hell: A Horror Anthology) (Burwick Anthologies)
Girardi, Jill – “The Wet Dream” (The Places We Fear to Tread) (Cemetery Gates Media)
Hinkle, Larry – “The Space Between” (Deep Magic, Spring 2020) (Amberlin)
Malerman, Josh – “One Last Transformation” (Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors) (Written Backwards)
McKnight Hardy, Lucie – “The Birds of Nagasaki” (Uncertainties Volume IV) (Swan River Press)
O’Quinn, Cindy – “The Thing I Found Along a Dirt Patch Road” (Shotgun Honey Presents Volume 4: Recoil) (Down and Out Books)
Ward, Kyla Lee – “Should Fire Remember the Fuel?” (Oz is Burning) (B Cubed Press)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Chronister, Kay – Thin Places (Undertow Publications)
Koja, Kathe – Velocities: Stories (Meerkat Press)
Langan, John – Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies (Word Horde)
Lillie, Patricia – The Cuckoo Girls (Trepidatio Publishing)
McMahon, Gary – Some Bruising May Occur (JournalStone)
Murray, Lee – Grotesque: Monster Stories (Things in the Well)
Oliver, Jonathan – The Language of Beasts (Black Shuck Books)
Ottone, Robert P. – Her Infernal Name & Other Nightmares (Spooky House Press LLC)
Stanton, Max D. – A Season of Loathsome Miracles (Trepidatio Publishing)
Taborska, Anna – Bloody Britain (Shadow Publishing)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Amaris, Scarlett and Stanley, Richard – Color Out of Space (SpectreVision)
Cozad, Adam and Duffield, Brian – Underwater (20th Century Fox Film Corporation)
Desola, David and Rivero, Pedro – The Platform (Basque Films, Netflix)
Finnegan, Lorcan and Shanley, Garret – Vivarium (Lovely Productions, Saban Films)
Green, Misha – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 1: “Sundown” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)
Green, Misha and Ofordire, Ihuoma – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 8: “Jig-a-Bobo” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)
James, Natalie Erika and White, Christian – Relic (AGBO, Film Constellation, IFC Midnight)
LaManna, Angela – The Haunting of Bly Manor, Season 1, Episode 5: “The Altar of the Dead” (Intrepid Pictures, Amblin Television, Paramount Television Studios)
Weekes, Remi – His House (Regency Enterprises, BBC Films, Vertigo Entertainment, Starchild Pictures)
Whannell, Leigh – The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Goalpost Pictures, Nervous Tick Productions)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Borski, Robert – Carpe Noctem (Weird House Press)
Brandeis, Gayle – Many Restless Concerns (Black Lawrence Press)
Clarke, Cassandra Rose – Sacred Summer (Aqueduct Press)
Crum, Amanda – The Day You Learned To Swim (Self-Published)
Manzetti, Alessandro – Whitechapel Rhapsody: Dark Poems (Independent Legions Publishing)
McHugh, Jessica – A Complex Accident of Life (Apokrupha)
Murray, Ronald J. – Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower (Bizarro Pulp Press)
Pelayo, Cynthia – Into the Forest and All the Way Through (Burial Day Books)
Sng, Christina – A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Tantlinger, Sara – Cradleland of Parasites (Rooster Republic Press)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Bailey, Michael and Murano, Doug – Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors (Written Backwards)
Cagle, Ryan and Jenkins, James D. – The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Volume 1 (Valancourt Books)
Murray, Lee and Flynn, Geneve – Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women (Omnium Gatherum Media)
Givens Kurtz, Nicole – Slay: Stories of the Vampire (Mocha Memoirs Press)
Kelly, Michael – Shadows & Tall Trees 8 (Undertow Publications)
Kolesnik, Samantha – Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror (Grindhouse Press)
Neal, David T. and Scott, Christine M. – The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror (Nosetouch Press)
Rector, Jeani and Wild, Dean H. – The Horror Zine’s Book of Ghost Stories (HellBound Books Publishing, LLC)
Tantlinger, Sara – Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror (Rooster Republic Press)
Yardley, Mercedes M. – Arterial Bloom (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Florence, Kelly and Hafdahl, Meg – The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films (Skyhorse)
Glasby, Matt – The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film (White Lion Publishing)
Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra – 1000 Women in Horror (BearManor Media)
Keene, Brian – End of the Road (Cemetery Dance Publications)
Kerestman, Katherine – Creepy Cat’s Macabre Travels: Prowling Around Haunted Towers, Crumbling Castles, and Ghoulish Graveyards (WordCrafts Press)
Peirse, Alison – Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre (Rutgers University Press)
Stallings, Courtenay – Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak About Twin Peaks (Fayetteville Mafia Press)
Waggoner, Tim – Writing in the Dark (Guide Dog Books/Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew – The Monster Theory Reader (University of Minnesota Press)
Wetmore, Jr. Kevin J. – The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaption (McFarland)
Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction
Clasen, Mathias – “Why the World Is a Better Place with Stephen King in It: An Evolutionary Perspective” (Evolutionary Perspectives on Imaginative Culture) (Springer)
Clasen, Mathias; Johnson, John; Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, Jens; and Scrivner, Coltan – “Pandemic Practice: Horror Fans and Morbidly Curious Individuals Are More Psychologically Resilient during the Covid-19 Pandemic” (Personality and Individual Differences) (Elsevier)
Jackson Joseph, Rhonda – “The Beloved Haunting of Hill House: An Examination of Monstrous Motherhood” (The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaptation) (McFarland)
Pelayo, Cynthia – “I Need to Believe” (Southwest Review Volume 105.3)
Renner, Karen J. – “Degeneration through Violence: Stephen King’s Rage” (Children and Childhood in the Works of Stephen King) (Lexington Books)
Robinson, Kelly – “Hell is Other Mushroom People: Societal Decay in Matango” (Scary Monsters Magazine #117)
Robinson, Kelly – “Lost, Found, and Finally Unbound: The Strange History of the 1910 Edison Frankenstein” (Rue Morgue Magazine, June 2020)
Sng, Christina – “Final Girl: A Life in Horror” (Interstellar Flight Magazine, October 2020)
Waggoner, Tim – “Speaking of Horror” (The Writer)
Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew – “What is IT? Ambient Dead and Modern Paranoia in It (2017), It Follows (2014), and It Comes at Night (2017)” (Horror Studies v.11, no.2)
Please note these works must NOT be referred to as “Bram Stoker Award Nominees.” Only Works that appear on the Final Ballot, to be formally announced on February 23, may be called nominees.
Our voting members will now vote on these Preliminary Ballots, with voting closing on February 15, 2021 (only Active and Lifetime Members in good standing are eligible to vote).
Works appearing on the Preliminary Ballot are NOT “Bram Stoker Award® Nominees” and authors, editors, publishers, and others should not refer to any of these works as such – doing so is a severe breach of etiquette.
The Preliminary Ballot will be sent to Lifetime and Active Members in good standing on February 1. If you are an Active or Lifetime Member and do NOT receive your electronic Ballot link by February 3, please first check your spam/junk mail filter, make sure your email address is updated in Wild Apricot, and then email Brad C. Hodson at admin@horror.org with a brief message about the issue. Note that Ballots are sent to the same email address as the Newsletter and the Internet Mailer. It is the responsibility of Members to keep their email address up to date by in Wild Apricot or by advising the administrator of any issues with your membership account at admin@horror.org. Late Ballots cannot be accepted under any circumstances.
If your work (you are the author, agent, editor, publisher, or publicist) appears on the ballot and you wish to provide a link allowing Voting Members to read the work, there will be a SPECIAL PRELIMINARY BALLOT INTERNET MAILER issued on or about January 25. Please email the Internet Mailer editor at imailer@horror.org with a link to your work as soon as you can but no later than January 24 (links will not be accepted for this Special IM after January 24). Anyone validly representing a work appearing on the Preliminary Ballot may submit via this method, whether or not they are HWA members (this includes the author, agent, editor, publisher, or publicist of the work).
Do NOT spam Voting Members, this is a severe breach of etiquette – Active and Lifetime (voting) members tend to notice such breaches and may consider them when determining which works to vote for on the Ballot.
You may also post the fact that your work is available to be read for Bram Stoker Award consideration ONCE, and only once, here: http://www.horrorwritersassociation.org/login-forum/ (Bram Stoker Eligible Work); on the HWA Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Horrorwritersassoc/; and in the Wild Apricot forums here: https://hwa46.wildapricot.org/Works-Offered-for-Bram-Stoker-Awards-Consideration-2020. If you had already posted your work here prior to the announcement of the Preliminary Ballot you are entitled to post it again. Note: Only members may post in the website and Wild Apricot forums, but members are encouraged to post on behalf of non-members who may appear on the Ballot. The Facebook page is open to members and non-members alike. Non-members may also email stokerchair@horror.org for help with this.
• The Final Ballot will be announced on February 23.
• Please direct any questions regarding the Preliminary Ballot to stokerchair@horror.org.
• Any questions regarding your membership/account information to admin@horror.org.
• If you’re on the Preliminary Ballot and want to provide your work for the Special Preliminary Ballot Internet Mailer to go out on or around January 25, please send a link to your work to imailer@horror.org.
