2016 Bram Stoker Award® Winners Announced

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy, announces this year’s Bram Stoker Awards® winners after a ceremony held aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. “The winners for this year’s awards unquestionably represent the continued high-level state of the art in horror writing,” said Lisa Morton, HWA President and multiple Bram Stoker Award winner. “Our members and awards juries were dedicated to the selection process for outstanding works of literature, cinema, non-fiction, and poetry.”

We proudly provide the list of talented winners along with the finalist nominees.

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Winner: John Langan – The Fisherman (Word Horde)

Also nominated:
Hand, Elizabeth – Hard Light: A Cass Neary Crime Novel (Minotaur Books)
Jones, Stephen Graham – Mongrels (William Morrow)
MacLeod, Bracken – Stranded: A Novel (Tor Books)
Tremblay, Paul – Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Winner: Tom Deady – Haven (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Also nominated:
Barnett, Barbara – The Apothecary’s Curse (Pyr Books)
Chapman, Greg – Hollow House (Omnium Gatherum Media)
Garza, Michelle and Lason, Melissa – Mayan Blue (Sinister Grin Press)
Wytovich, Stephanie – The Eighth (Dark Regions Press)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Winner: Maria Alexander – Snowed (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Also nominated:
Brozek, Jennifer – Last Days of Salton Academy (Ragnarok Publishing)
Cosimano, Elle – Holding Smoke (Hyperion-Disney)
Roberts, Jeyn – When They Fade (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Sirowy, Alexandra – The Telling (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Winner: James Chambers – Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe (Moonstone)

Also nominated:
Bunn, Cullen – Blood Feud (Oni Press)
de Campi, Alex – No Mercy, Vol. 2 (Image Comics)
Miller, Mark Alan and Lansdale, Joe R. –The Steam Man (Dark Horse Books)
Moore, Alan – Providence, Act 1 (Avatar Press)
Kirkman, Robert – Outcast by Kirkman&Azaceta, Vol 3 This Little Light (Image Comics)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Winner: Tim Waggoner – The Winter Box (DarkFuse)

Also nominated:
Cushing, Nicole – The Sadist’s Bible (01Publishing)
Edelman, Scott – That Perilous Stuff (Chiral Mad 3) (Written Backwards)
LaValle, Victor – The Ballad of Black Tom (Tor.com)
Malerman, Josh – The Jupiter Drop (You, Human) (Dark Regions Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Winner: Joyce Carol Oates– The Crawl Space (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Volume #2016/Issue#8) (Dell Magazines)

Also nominated:
Bailey, Michael – Time is a Face on the Water (Borderlands 6) (Borderlands Press)
Bodner, Hal – A Rift in Reflection (Chiral Mad 3) (Written Backwards)
Golden, Christopher – The Bad Hour (What the #@&% is That?) (Saga Press)
Mannetti, Lisa – ArbeitMacht Frei (Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories)
(Crystal Lake Publishing)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Winner: Joyce Carol Oates– The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror (Mysterious Press)

Also nominated:
Barron, Laird – Swift to Chase (JournalStone)
Chizmar, Richard – A Long December (Subterranean Press)
O’Neill, Gene – Lethal Birds (Omnium Gatherum Media)
Schwaeble, Hank – American Nocturne (Cohesion Press)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Winner: Robert Eggers – The VVitch (Parts and Labor, RT Features, Rooks Nest Entertainment, Code Red Productions, Scythia Films, Maiden Voyage Pictures, Mott Street Pictures, Pulse Films, and Very Special Projects)

Also nominated:
Campbell, Josh, Chazelle, Damien, and Stuecken, Matthew – 10 Cloverfield Lane (Paramount Pictures)
Duffer, Matt and Duffer, Ross – Stranger Things: The Vanishing of Will Byers
(Episode 01: Chapter One) (21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre)
Duffer, Matt and Duffer, Ross – Stranger Things: The Upside Down
(Episode 01: Chapter Eight) (21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre)
Logan, John – Penny Dreadful: A Blade of Grass (Episode 03:04)
(Showtime Presents in association with SKY, Desert Wolf Productions,
Neal Street Productions)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Winner:, Thomas F. Monteleone and Olivia F. Monteleone – Borderlands 6
(Samhain Publishing, Ltd.)

Also nominated:
Bailey, Michael – Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards)
Manzetti, Alessandro – The Beauty of Death (Independent Legions Publishing)
Mosiman, Billie Sue – Fright Mare-Women Write Horror (DM Publishing)
Murano, Doug and Ward, D. Alexander – Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories
(Crystal Lake Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Winner: Ruth Franklin – Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life
(Liveright Publishing Corporation)

Also nominated:
Braudy, Leo – Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural (Yale University Press)
Olson, Danel P. – Guillermo del Toro’s “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”: Studies in the Horror Film (Centipede Press)
Poole, W. Scott – In the Mountains of Madness: The Life, Death and Extraordinary Afterlife of H. P. Lovecraft (Soft Skull Press)
Skal, David J. – Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula (Liveright Publishing Corporation)
Tibbetts, John – The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub (McFarland)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Winner: Stephanie M. Wytovich– Brothel (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Also nominated:
Boston, Bruce and Manzetti, Alessandro – Sacrificial Nights (KippleOfficinaLibraria)
Collings, Michael R. – Corona Obscura: Poems Dark and Elemental (self-published)
Gailey, Jeannine Hall – Field Guide to the End of the World: Poems (Moon City Press)
Simon, Marge – Small Spirits (Midnight Town Media)

Named in honor of the author of the seminal horror novel Dracula, the Bram Stoker Awards® are presented annually for superior writing in eleven categories including traditional fiction of various lengths, poetry, screenplays and non-fiction. Previous winners include Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, Joyce Carol Oates and Neil Gaiman.

Active and Lifetime members of the organization are eligible to vote for the winners in all categories.