Call For 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award Nominations

Call For 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award Nominations

  The Horror Writers Association calls for suggestions and nominations from the membership for the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an individual whose work has substantially influenced the horror genre. While this award is often presented to a writer, it may also be given for influential accomplishments in other creative fields. The award is presented each year during HWA's gala presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards at StokerCon. To be eligible for this award, a candidate must either be at least sixty years of age by May 1 of the year of the…
The HWA Interview: Daniela E

The HWA Interview: Daniela E

  What is your novel about? My latest book is a collection of horror stories, and Goodnight and Sweet Dreams, a rather ironic title. The stories are based on nightmares and human fears; there are demons, asylums, possessed dolls, witches, haunted forests, wells that lead to another world, and possessions. I love playing with the  combination of fears, nightmares, horror, and psychology. Each title has a Latin name that enhances its meaning   What are you looking to express to readers with your work? I want to help people appreciate horror literature even if they don’t read it, because horror…
HWA ELECTION RESULTS 2025

HWA ELECTION RESULTS 2025

  HWA Election Results 2025 The Horror Writers Association (HWA) held its annual election in September. We had a number of amazing candidates for the four open positions of Trustee. Offices of Vice President and Treasurer ran unopposed. Our members have voted, and we are pleased to share the results. Please welcome back our Vice President, Lisa Wood, and Treasurer, Marc Abbot. Congratulations to Lisa Kröger, Brian Matthews, and Patrick Barb on being re-elected as Trustees; and welcome to new Trustee, Sèphera Girón. The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on October 31st at midnight.…
Halloween Haunts: THE PERSONAL NATURE OF HORROR

Halloween Haunts: THE PERSONAL NATURE OF HORROR

Halloween Haunts: The Personal Nature of Horror Eugen Bacon   As writers of horror, there are many motivations that spur us to write this kind of fiction. Some, perhaps like Eric LaRocca, there’s a certain glee in unsettling the reader. But in an interview on their book This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances, he shares that horror is, to him, a form of healing. There’s blood and brutality, the Lovecraftian in cosmic horror. In the horrific is a certain truth: ‘awful things happen to everyone’. This is one reason I write horror—it reflects reality. You have only to…
Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Carmen Baca

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Carmen Baca

    What is your novel about? My next book will be a collection of short stories and poetry of the supernatural horror variety. My Chicano roots are deep in the New Mexico soil where my ancestors planted them centuries ago. Living in the Land of Enchantment means opening our minds to possibilities that the supernatural exists, and the creatures, cryptids, monsters, and spirits our abuelas told us they encountered weren’t figments of their imagination. They were real then, and they’re just as real today. En las montañas, placitas, y llanos de Nuevo Mejico, they never left, and they always…
Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Clara Elena García

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Clara Elena García

  What is your novel about? “What are monsters but men made wrong?” An age-old question brought to life through the lens of Paraguayan mythology, Seven Legendary Monsters is an epic poem retelling of Guaraní lore and legend. Steeped in indigenous horror and told from the perspective of the monsters themselves, this novel-in-verse explores the duality of good and evil, the weight of curses, and the enduring power of sacrifice. From the cruel pranks of the feathered serpent trickster, Moñai, to the self-loathing of the hideous lizard dog, Teju Jagua, to the feminist musings of Keraná, the Mother of Monsters…
An Introduction to Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: Cynthia Pelayo

An Introduction to Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: Cynthia Pelayo

    Writing is an isolated activity. Yet, there’s a quiet comfort in knowing that there are others out there who are too, staring at their screens, tapping away at keys, and scribbling in their journals.   We are not alone at this.   When you are writing, know that there is someone else, somewhere, wrestling with a scene, structure, or outline, at the very same hour as you.   Writers come to the horror genre for a number of reasons, nostalgia, the aesthetics, and the ability to explore spiritual, philosophical, and sociological questions, and so on. Each day, the…
HWA 2025 Election Candidates

HWA 2025 Election Candidates

  The HWA’s annual elections will soon be upon us. Up this year are four Trustee positions, as well as the offices of Vice President and Treasurer. Please read the statements of the following candidates carefully. Links to the ballot will be sent out on or around September 9th, 2025 to our Active and Lifetime members, with a due date of September 16th, 2025.  The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on November 1 and ending on October 31.   Candidates for 2025 Elections All candidates have been verified as active members and eligible…
HWA Scholarship Recipients Announced

HWA Scholarship Recipients Announced

  The HWA Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce the following recipients for this year’s scholarship selections. The committee would like to thank those who applied and the volunteers who reviewed the many applications we received. Congratulations to all those selected!   Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship Recipient: Victoria Timpanaro     Victoria Timpanaro is a PhD Candidate at Rutgers University – Newark, NJ in the American Studies program. Her areas of study are film, media, gender, and popular culture. She is currently working on a dissertation focusing on the work of George A. Romero and female representation in horror cinema.…
HWA Update on the LibGen AI Litigation

HWA Update on the LibGen AI Litigation

  We have an important update on the ongoing copyright class-action lawsuit involving the exploitation of authors’ works. The court has found that Anthropic infringed on authors’ and publishers’ copyrights by downloading millions of books from the pirate websites Library Genesis (“LibGen”) and Pirate Library Mirror (“PiLiMi”) to train its AI model. A certified class has been established, made up of rights holders whose copyright-registered books were downloaded from these sites by Anthropic. Here is a link to a searchable database of titles in the LibGen collection. This database includes both traditionally published and independently published works. The plaintiffs’ attorneys are…
API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror: An Interview with Geneve Flynn

API/AANHPI Heritage in Horror: An Interview with Geneve Flynn

  What is your story about? “If I Am to Earn My Tether” is a horror short story about sand piracy, colonialism, and living with the choices our ancestors made. It features the Malaysian myth of the polong, a tiny homunculus born from the blood of a murder victim, and her pet grasshopper, the pelesit. It was published in Silk and Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora by Bad Hand Books in May this year. The collection is edited by Kristy Park Kulski and includes short fiction and poetry by Ai Jiang, Nadia Bulkin, Christina Sng,…
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…
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…