Horror Writers Association’s Mentor of the Year Award Winner

2016 Mentor of the Year Award – Linda Addison   Long Beach, CA, March 7, 2017 The Horror Writers Association announces Linda Addison as winner of the 2016 Mentor of the Year Award. Addison is a distinguished poet and writer and will receive the award at StokerCon 2017 held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. “What a wonderful surprise,” Addison stated upon notification of the award. “I have always enjoyed sharing what I know with others.” HWA presents the Mentor of the Year Award in recognition of a member who distinguishes herself in helping mentees, while serving in…

Horror Writers Association’s Silver Hammer Award Winner

2016 Silver Hammer Award – James Chambers   Long Beach, CA, March 7, 2017 The Horror Writers Association announces James Chambers as the 2016 Silver Hammer Award recipient. Chambers will receive the award at StokerCon 2017 held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. “I enjoy the work I do for the HWA,” Chambers commented, “and I appreciate the opportunity to pitch in and help out the group and other writers.” HWA presents the Silver Hammer Award in recognition of extraordinary volunteerism by a member who dedicates valuable time and effort to the organization. The award is determined by…

The Scholarship From Hell taking applications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   Horror Writers Association Sponsors Scholarship Study with Celebrity Authors– Horror University   Long Beach, CA, March 3, 2017 The Horror Writers Association announces the 2017 Horror University Scholarship. The Scholarship from Hell is offered by the HWA and puts the recipient through an intensive, hands-on workshop offered through Horror University.   This year’s Horror University will take place during StokerCon2017 aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA, from April 27-30. The winner of the Scholarship from Hell will receive domestic coach airfare (contiguous 48 states) to and from Long Beach, a four-night stay on the…

The Seers’ Table March 2017

The Seers Table! Janet Holden, Diverse Works Inclusion Community Member In many parts of the world, the snow is falling, the wind is blowing. Time to settle by a warm fire with a good book, and here are our suggestions for the month of March. Kate Maruyama recommends: Carmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press this year. She is a fiction writer, critic, and essayist whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in The New Yorker, Granta, Guernica, Electric Literature, The Paris Review, AGNI, NPR, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review…

2016 Specialty Press Award Winner – Omnium Gatherum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Horror Writers Association’s 2016 Specialty Press Award Omnium Gatherum – Kate Jonez   Long Beach, CA, March 1, 2017 The Horror Writers Association proudly announces Omnium Gatherum as the recipient of the 2016 Specialty Press Award. Each year the HWA recognizes the accomplishments of a noteworthy small press. The Specialty Press Award brings recognition to an outstanding publisher of horror, dark fantasy, and weird fiction.This year’s Specialty Press award will be presented during StokerCon2017 aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA, from April 27-30. Omnium Gatherum means “this” and “that” in Latin. The publisher released its…

Women in Horror Month Interview – Charlee Jacob

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Charlee Jacob, who won for Novel in 2005 (Dread in the Beast), Poetry Collection in 2005 (Sineater), Poetry Collection in 2007 (VECTORS: A Week in the Death of a Planet, co-written with Marge Simon), and Poetry Collection in 2013 (Four Elements, co-written with Linda Addison, Rain Graves, and Marge Simon). Special thanks by Sanda Jelcic and Alessandro Manzetti for conducting this interview.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning works. Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Beth Gwinn

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Beth Gwinn, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2001 for Dark Dreamers: Facing the Masters of Fear.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? BG: At the time of creating the book, it took over 10 years to have produced. Being the photographer for Locus helped me to be taken seriously. Talk about winning the award – how surprised were you? Did winning pay off in…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Sarah Langan

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Sarah Langan, who has won the Bram Stoker Award twice for her novels and once for short fiction. Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? SL: The Keeper, The Missing, and a short story called “The Lost” have all received Bram Stoker awards, for which I’m grateful. The Keeper was a book-of-the-month-club main selection in the US and UK. As it happens, it was the lowest rated BOMC…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Sandra Kasturi

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Sandra Kasturi who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2000 for her work on the specialty press, Chiaroscuro Magazine.   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction?  SK: Brett Savory and I and the Chiaroscuro Magazine (chizine.com) team won for editing back in... I think it was 2001? It feels like it was a different world back then. . . . We were at World Horror in Seattle,…

2016 Richard Laymon Award Winner – Caren Hanten

The Horror Writers Association announces the 2016 Richard Laymon President’s Award will be presented to Caren Hanten. She will receive the award for her extraordinary volunteerism and dedication to HWA at StokerCon 2017, which is being held on the Queen Mary. Instituted in 2000, the Richard Laymon President’s Award is named in honor of Richard Laymon, who passed away in 2000 while serving as HWA’s president. The honor is awarded by the current President of the HWA, Lisa Morton, and is presented to a member who has served HWA in an exemplary manner and shown exceptional dedication to the organization.…

Nominees for the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards® Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Congratulations to everyone nominated for the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards®! Most especially, congratulations to the five nominated poetry collections for the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards®!!!! Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection: Boston, Bruce and Manzetti, Alessandro – Sacrificial Nights (Kipple Officina Libraria) 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) Wytovich, Stephanie M. – Brothel (Raw Dog Screaming Press) To help celebrate and to promote these poets and to provide a larger sample,…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Kathryn Ptacek

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Kathryn Ptacek, who won the Silver Hammer Award in 2009 for her volunteer work.   Tell us a little about your experience with the Horror Writers Association and how it has influenced your own writing.  KP: I’ve been in the organization since the start when it was H.O.W.L., and almost from the beginning I was preparing market reports for the newsletter. Somewhere along the line I became the newsletter editor, and I still do the market reports. (By the…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Elizabeth Monteleone

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Elizabeth Monteleone, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 2003 for the anthology Borderlands 5.       Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? EM: As with most things in my life, I tend to back into many of the successes that happen to me. If I  decide to take on task (such as editing the Borderlands series with my husband and then taking over the small…

Final Frame Film Competition at StokerCon

Acclaimed Director Judges Short Film Competition Horror Writers Association – Final Frame Judged by Michael Flanagan The Horror Writers Association announces the second annual short film competition held in conjunction with StokerCon 2017 on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. Final Frame will celebrate short horror films from around the globe. Everyone is encouraged to enter their film. Selected films will be screened on Friday, April 28th in the Queen’s Salon from 8 to 10 in the evening. A grand prize winner will be announced at the film competition’s cocktail reception in the Royal Salon once the screening is…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with P.D. Cacek

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with P.D. Cacek, who won the Bram Stoker Award in 1996 for her short fiction, "Metalica."   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? PDC: I won a Bram Stoker in 1996 for my short story, Metalica: a “touching” story about a woman and her speculum. Yes, you read correctly: speculum. Now, in case you’re not sure what a speculum is, let me explain that it is a…
2016 Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot

2016 Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot

The Horror Writers Association announces the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot. HWA is the premier organization for writers of horror and dark fantasy. “The nominees for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards® unquestionably represent the state of the art of horror writing,” said Lisa Morton, HWA President and multiple Bram Stoker Award winner. “Once again, our members and awards juries have chosen outstanding works of literature, cinema, non-fiction, and poetry.” The presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards® will occur during the second annual StokerCon aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California on the evening of April 29, 2017. Tickets…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Donna K. Fitch

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Donna K. Fitch, who won the Silver Hammer Award in 2006 for her volunteer work.   Tell us a little about your experience with the Horror Writers Association and how it has influenced your own writing. DKF: I’ve been a member of HWA for about 17 or 18 years. It’s been amazing being associated with so many talented writers. I’m not active in discussion boards, but volunteering behind the scenes has given me insight into the workings of the association. I’ve…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Lucy A. Snyder

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Lucy A. Snyder, who has won the Bram Stoker Award five times for works including her fiction collection, While the Black Stars Burn (2015); fiction collection, Soft Apocalypses (2014); non-fiction, Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide (2014); short fiction, “Magdala Amygdala” (2012); and poetry collection, Chimeric Machines (2009).   Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? SL: Five of my works…

Women in Horror Month – Interview with Nancy Holder

February is Women in Horror Month! The HWA is celebrating by posting interviews with award-winning authors. Following is an interview with Nancy Holder, who has won the Bram Stoker Award five times for her short fiction and novels.      Tell us a little about your Bram Stoker Award-winning work(s). Inspirations? Influences? Anecdotes about the writing or critical reaction? NH: I have received five Bram Stoker awards. This is my list: Dead in the Water – Novel 1994 "Lady Madonna" – Short Fiction 1991 "I Hear the Mermaids Singing" – Short Fiction 1993 “Café Endless: Spring Rain” – Short Fiction 1994…
Horror in the Headlines: Using the News for Novel Ideas

Horror in the Headlines: Using the News for Novel Ideas

While I love supernatural horror, realistic horror stories—murders, kidnappings, unexplainable medical phenomena—are the ones that really keep me up at night. There’s something extra terrifying about a fictional story that can, and does, happen to people in real life, so it’s no surprise that authors draw inspiration for their horror (or suspense or thriller) novels from news stories. With a 24-hour news cycle and the Internet vortex, you won’t need to look too far for an idea to rip from the headlines. I read a stack of Sick-Sad-World-worthy YA fiction, and here are some ideas I came away with about…