Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Abigail F. Taylor

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Abigail F. Taylor

  What is your novel about? Maryneal, 1962, is American Werewolf in London meets American Graffiti… With the full moon approaching and no salvation in sight, Delah is faced with an unconscionable decision: If she can’t find a cure, she’ll have to kill the boy next door. Despite its monsters and all things that go bump in the night, at its core, Maryneal is about grief and how concealing identities can devour us. Delah is learning how to navigate her sexuality with an unexpected crush developing on one of her girlfriends, and it hits her at the worst possible time:…
Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Newton Webb

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Newton Webb

  What is your book about? My books explore the horrors humans inflict on one another, cannibalism, gaslighting, serial killers, and mad science. I’ve published fifteen books now. Even though I include supernatural creatures and cryptids in many of my stories, I always focus on the human element. Beneath the gore and the ghosts, there is a consistent theme: power, the abuse of it, and what happens when ordinary people are pushed too far. I write my stories to unsettle, to provoke, and to tell my personal truth through the lens of horror. I’ve written nearly a hundred short stories…
StokerCon 2025 Keynote Speech: Why We Need Horror Authors in the Fight For the Freedom to Read

StokerCon 2025 Keynote Speech: Why We Need Horror Authors in the Fight For the Freedom to Read

  On June 14th in Stamford, Connecticut, Becky Spratford gave the keynote speech at StokerCon 2025. You can watch the entire awards on YouTube, and you can see her keynote speech HERE. Why We Need Horror Authors in the Fight For the Freedom to Read Hello. As many of you know, my name is Becky Spratford and I am the Secretary of the Horror Writers Association and the Co-Chair (with Konrad Stump) of our Libraries Committee. I have been a librarian for 25 years–the entirety of this century–and I don’t think this will shock any of you, but the last five…
2024 Bram Stoker Award Winners Announced

2024 Bram Stoker Award Winners Announced

  The Horror Writers Association is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Bram Stoker Awards®.   Superior Achievement in a Novel WINNER: The Haunting of Velkwood, Gwendolyn Kiste (Saga) House of Bone and Rain, Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland) I Was a Teenage Slasher, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga) Incidents Around the House, Josh Malerman (Del Rey) Horror Movie, Paul Tremblay (William Morrow)   Superior Achievement in a First Novel WINNER: The Eyes Are the Best Part, Monika Kim (Erewhon) Midnight Rooms, Donyae Coles (Amistad) Hollow Girls, Jessica Drake-Thomas (Cemetery Dance) This Wretched Valley, Jenny Kiefer (Quirk) Bless Your Heart, Lindy Ryan (Minotaur…
StokerCon 2026 Announced – Celebrating Ten Years of StokerCon!

StokerCon 2026 Announced – Celebrating Ten Years of StokerCon!

The Horror Writers Association is pleased to announce StokerCon 2026 which will be StokerCon 10. This is a milestone for us to celebrate an occasion to look back on the history of the convention and how it has grown and flourished through the decade.  It is also a moment to think ahead and look to 2027 where we recognize 40 years of the HWA. So taking a page from our history and the years before StokerCon, we will be inviting you to join us in the same location for both 2026 and 2027 - a place that is dedicated to preserving…
Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Nico Bell

Pride Month 2025: An Interview with Nico Bell

  What is your novel about? Static Screams is a sci-fi horror about a young woman seeking a cure to her terrifying hallucinations. Carmen Franco’s untethered mind twists reality into a nightmare filled with relentless hallucinations. Carmen’s greatest desire is a peaceful life, but despite countless doctors and swallowing a pharmacy’s worth of pills, Carmen can’t escape her disturbing delusions brought forth from a past tragedy. Enter Dr. Barbara MacDonald, a brilliant psychologist proposing an innovative and experimental treatment program. Barbara ignites a flicker of hope, but Carmen quickly realizes the doctor’s motives aren’t exactly pure. Carmen holds the key…
Final Frame Short Horror Film Competition 2025 Finalists Announced!

Final Frame Short Horror Film Competition 2025 Finalists Announced!

  We are excited to finally announce the Final Frame Short Horror Film Competition 2025 Finalists! The winner will be announced next week at the 2025 StokerCon convention.     Vote for Wyrm Director: Benjamin Percy Writer: Benjamin Percy UNITED STATES/2025/5:00 A political attack ad for a small-town mayoral race descends into horror.   Izzy Director: Yfke van Berckelaer Writer: Yfke van Berckelaer NETHERLANDS/2024/9:18 Izzy is constantly stuck in the same: mocked, dismissed, ignored, forgotten. How can she get out of it?   Cruelty Director: Sam Das Writer: Sam Das UNITED STATES/2024/9:18 A young trans woman is chased into a…
Final Frame Judges Announced!

Final Frame Judges Announced!

  2025 JUDGES ​The judges for the Final Frame competition are always an essential part of an ever-evolving film family we love to see at StokerCon. Four returning judges and two new additions round out the discerning minds tasked to evaluate the evening’s selections. We’ll have fun hearing them scream along with the audience during an evening of cinematic mindbenders leading up to their prize determinations for Grand Prize, Runner-Up, Best Writing in a Short Film, and more! (in alphabetical order) AARON DRIES is the author of Dirty Heads, A Place for Sinners (featured in 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered), House of Sighs, and Where…
Pride Month 2025: Celebrating in the Midst of Chaos

Pride Month 2025: Celebrating in the Midst of Chaos

  by Gwendolyn Kiste Bittersweet—that’s what I recently called this year’s Pride Month in a social media post. It’s difficult to celebrate when the world is falling apart around us. It’s difficult to celebrate when you know your neighbors want to see your rights dismantled. It’s difficult to celebrate when each and every day we’re waking up to news that’s worse than the morning before. But here’s the thing I keep telling myself: it’s more important to celebrate now than ever. We need to use our voices and raise each other up. We need to remind each other—and ourselves—that our…
HWA Scholarship Applications Now Open!

HWA Scholarship Applications Now Open!

  The  Horror Writers Association is pleased to announce that the Scholarship Committee will be reviewing applications for the following scholarships and grants: the Mary W. Shelley, HWA and Poetry Scholarships. Applications will be available via the HWA submittable and reviewed by a sub-committee of the HWA Scholarship Committee. Additional funding for the HWA Scholarship Program has been generously provided by the Authors Coalition and the Aeroflex Foundation. Membership is not required to apply for any HWA scholarship.  Each Scholarship is worth $2500, except for the Poetry Scholarship ($1250), and may be spent on approved writing education over the two years…
Annual StokerCon Diversity Raffle Prizes Announced

Annual StokerCon Diversity Raffle Prizes Announced

Annual StokerCon Diversity Raffle The Annual StokerCon Diversity Grant Raffle is here! Over twenty books, unique collectables, and other treasured items for lovers of horror, dark fantasy, and the weird will be raffled to benefit the Horror Writers Association Diversity Grant Program. The HWA Diversity Grants have supported over 10 individuals over the last three years giving, $6,000.00 in need to marginalized authors. Raffle winners will be announced at the beginning of the Bram Stoker Awards Cocktail Reception on Saturday, June 14th 6 pm.  Presale tickets for the raffle are available on the Eventbrite page and will be available to purchase…

The Horror Writers Association Announces Horror University 2025

  The HWA is pleased to announce this year's course lineup for StokerCon 2025. Course Pricing: $55 per course (to register see Eventbrite for details). Michael Arnzen: The Uncanny and the Abject This two-hour online workshop will involve short writing activities that will allow you to explore and practice the different techniques writers summon when triggering revulsion or conjuring dread. Amityville-born horror writer Michael Arnzen holds four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his often funny, always disturbing fiction and poetry. In addition to his creative books -- like the novel, Grave Markings, or the short story collection, Proverbs for Monsters--he's…

HWA Scholarship from Hell Recipient Announced

  The Scholarship from Hell is the only scholarship offered by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) that puts the recipient right into the intensive, hands-on workshop environment of Horror University, which takes place during StokerCon®. The StokerCon®2025 Committee Chairs read numerous submissions and this year's recipient is S.E. Clark! S.E. Clark is a writer, artist, and college professor from Boston, MA, who explores the tension between the mundane and the macabre in her prose and art. Her short stories have appeared in publications such as Weird Horror and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and more of her work may be found at www.aprilarium.com.  When not writing, she…

2025 HWA Specialty Award Winners Announced

  The Horror Writers Association announces its 2025 Specialty Award Recipients! These awards will be presented during the Bram Stoker Awards Ceremony in Stamford, Connecticut this June.   Specialty Press Award The recipient of the Specialty Press Award is Mocha Memoirs Press. The HWA Specialty Press Award is presented periodically to a specialty publisher whose work has substantially contributed to the horror genre, whose publications display general excellence, and whose dealings with authors have been fair and exemplary. The award was instituted in 1997, largely due to the efforts of long-time HWA member and specialty press aficionado, Peter Crowther. Congratulations,…

The Horror Writers Association Announces Lifetime Achievement Award Winners

Columbus, OH – The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Lifetime Achievement Award. These awards will be presented on June 14, 2025, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2025 in Stamford, CT. The recipients of the HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2025 are: Del and Sue Howison, Dame Susan Hill, and David Cronenberg.   Del Howison is an author, journalist, SAG actor including a cameo in the upcoming horror film Big Baby produced by Cher and directed by Spider One. He is a Bram Stoker Award-winning editor of the anthology Dark Delicacies: Original…

HWA Poetry Showcase Volume XII Now Open for Submissions

The HWA is proud to announce that it will call for submissions from its members for the HWA Poetry Showcase Volume XII beginning April 1, 2025. Maxwell I. Gold will be the editor for the volume. This year’s judges, along with Maxwell, will include Jewelle Gomez, Jonathan Maberry, Cynthia Pelayo, and Bryan Thao Worra. Maxwell I. Gold has agreed to take over as the editor for the next two volumes to follow HWA Poetry Showcase volumes XIII and XIV. The cover for Showcase Volume XII will be designed and illustrated by Dan V. Sauer. Only HWA members (of any status)…

NUTS & BOLTS: Lisa Morton Discusses Dennis Etchison

Lisa Morton describes Dennis Etchison’s work as a “brain bombshell” that changed her idea of what horror fiction could do. When she was just starting out, Etchison had a major influence on both her art and her career. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Lisa discusses Etchison’s writing technique, his influence on her own work, and what writers today can learn from the late horror legend.

Women in Horror Month: Why Women in Horror Matter

  Horror has long been a genre of fear and power—one that reflects our deepest anxieties and dares to explore the unknown. Yet, for too long, the voices of women in horror have been overlooked, despite their undeniable influence in shaping the genre. Women in Horror Month is a time to celebrate these groundbreaking authors, editors, and creators who bring fresh, haunting perspectives to the page. From the gothic brilliance of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House to modern anthologies that center female terror and resilience, women have always been at the forefront of pushing horror’s boundaries. Here are…
The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot Nominees Announced

The 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot Nominees Announced

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Final Ballot for the 2024 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (https://horror.org/) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 2,000 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/). Works appearing on this Ballot are Bram Stoker Award Nominees for Superior Achievement in their Category, e.g., Novel, and everyone may refer to them as such immediately after the announcement. The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on the Final Ballot. Notes about…

Nuts & Bolts: Interview With John Harrison, Netflix Series Creator, Author of Residue: Paramentals Rising

Early in his career, writer and director John Harrison picked up techniques about telling a horror story from collaborating with George Romero. He’s spent decades refining those techniques as a screenwriter, director, and novelist – most recently in a new novel that released on the 11th of this month, Residue: Paramentals Rising, based on the Netflix series he created. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, John shares his thoughts about telling a horror story and storytelling in general. He also gives advice about releasing a book, and getting into TV writing.