The 2022 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Final Ballot for the 2022 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 1,800 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 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 February 28, please see important information following the ballot.

The 2022 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Iglesias, Gabino – The Devil Takes You Home (Mullholland Press)

Katsu, Alma – The Fervor (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

Kiste, Gwendolyn – Reluctant Immortals (Saga Press)

Malerman, Josh – Daphne (Del Rey)

Ward, Catriona – Sundial (Tor Nightfire)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Adams, Erin – Jackal (Bantam Books)

Cañas, Isabel – The Hacienda (Berkley)

Jones, KC – Black Tide (Tor Nightfire)

Nogle, Christi – Beulah (Cemetery Gates Media)

Wilkes, Ally – All the White Spaces (Emily Bestler Books/Atria/Titan Books)

Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel

Dawson, Delilah S. – Camp Scare (Delacorte Press)

Kraus, Daniel – They Stole Our Hearts (Henry Holt and Co.)

Malinenko, Ally – This Appearing House (Katherine Tegen Books)

Senf, Lora – The Clackity (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

Stringfellow, Lisa – A Comb of Wishes (Quill Tree Books)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Aquilone, James (editor) – Kolchak: The Night Stalker: 50th Anniversary (Moonstone Books)

Gailey, Sarah (author) and Bak, Pius (artist) – Eat the Rich (Boom! Studios)

Manzetti, Alessandro (author) and Cardoselli, Stefano (artist/author) – Kraken Inferno: The Last Hunt (Independent Legions Publishing)

Tynion IV, James (author) and Dell’Edera, Werther (artist) – Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 4 (Boom! Studios)

Young, Skottie (author) and Corona, Jorge (artist) – The Me You Love in the Dark (Image Comics)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Fraistat, Ann – What We Harvest (Delacorte Press)

Jackson, Tiffany D. – The Weight of Blood (Katherine Tegen Books)

Marshall, Kate Alice – These Fleeting Shadows (Viking)

Ottone, Robert P. – The Triangle (Raven Tale Publishing)

Schwab, V.E. – Gallant (Greenwillow Books)

Tirado, Vincent – Burn Down, Rise Up (Sourcebooks Fire)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Allred, Rebecca J. and White, Gordon B. – And in Her Smile, the World (Trepidatio Publishing)

Carmen, Christa – “Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell” (Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror) (Wicked Run Press) 

Hightower, Laurel – Below (Ghoulish Books)

Katsu, Alma – The Wehrwolf (Amazon Original Stories)

Knight, EV – Three Days in the Pink Tower (Creature Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Dries, Aaron – “Nona Doesn’t Dance” (Cut to Care: A Collection of Little Hurts) (IFWG Australia, IFWG International)

Gwilym, Douglas – “Poppy’s Poppy” (Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine, Vol. V, No. 6)

McCarthy, J.A.W.  – “The Only Thing Different Will Be the Body” (A Woman Built by Man) (Cemetery Gates Media)

Taborska, Anna – “A Song for Barnaby Jones” (Zagava)

Taborska, Anna – “The Star” (Great British Horror 7: Major Arcane) (Black Shuck Books)

Yardley, Mercedes M. – “Fracture” (Mother: Tales of Love and Terror) (Weird Little Worlds)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Ashe, Paula D. – We Are Here to Hurt Each Other (Nictitating Books)

Joseph, RJ – Hell Hath No Sorrow Like a Woman Haunted (The Seventh Terrace)

Khaw, Cassandra – Breakable Things (Undertow Publications)

Thomas, Richard – Spontaneous Human Combustion (Keylight Books)

Veres, Attila – The Black Maybe (Valancourt Books) 

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Cooper, Scott – The Pale Blue Eye (Cross Creek Pictures, Grisbi Productions, Streamline Global Group)

Derrickson, Scott and Cargill, C. Robert – The Black Phone (Blumhouse Productions, Crooked Highway, Universal Pictures)

Duffer Brothers, The – Stranger Things: Episode 04.01 “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club” (21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre, Netflix, Upside Down Pictures)

Garland, Alex – Men (DNA Films)

Goth, Mia and West, Ti – Pearl (A24, Bron Creative, Little Lamb, New Zealand Film Commission)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Bailey, Michael and Simon, Marge – Sifting the Ashes (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Lynch, Donna – Girls from the County (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Pelayo, Cynthia – Crime Scene (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Saulson, Sumiko – The Rat King: A Book of Dark Poetry (Dooky Zines)

Sng, Christina – The Gravity of Existence (Interstellar Flight Press)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Datlow, Ellen – Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous (Tor Nightfire)

Hartmann, Sadie and Saywers, Ashley – Human Monsters: A Horror Anthology (Dark Matter Ink)

Nogle, Christi and Becker, Willow – Mother: Tales of Love and Terror (Weird Little Worlds)

Ryan, Lindy – Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga (Black Spot Books)

Tantlinger, Sara – Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror (Strangehouse Books)

Superior Achievement in Non–Fiction

Cisco, Michael – Weird Fiction: A Genre Study (Palgrave Macmillan)

Hieber, Leanna Renee and Janes, Andrea – A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America’s Ghosts (Citadel Press)

Kröger, Lisa and Anderson, Melanie R. – Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult (Quirk Books)

Waggoner, Tim – Writing in the Dark: The Workbook (Guide Dog Books)

Wytovich, Stephanie M. – Writing Poetry in the Dark (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Non–Fiction

Murray, Lee – “I Don’t Read Horror (& Other Weird Tales)” (Interstellar Flight Magazine) (Interstellar Flight Press)

Pelayo, Cynthia – “This is Not a Poem” (Writing Poetry in the Dark) (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Wetmore, Jr., Kevin J. – “A Clown in the Living Room: The Sinister Clown on Television” (The Many Lives of Scary Clowns: Essays on Pennywise, Twisty, the Joker, Krusty and More) (McFarland and Company)

Wood, L. Marie – “African American Horror Authors and Their Craft: The Evolution of Horror Fiction from African Folklore” (Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook for Middle and High School Students) (Conjure World)

Wood, L. Marie, “The H Word: The Horror of Hair” (Nightmare Magazine, No. 118) (Adamant Press)

If your work appears on the Final Ballot (i.e., you are the author, agent, editor, publisher, or publicist) and you wish to provide a link allowing Voting Members to read the work, there will be a SPECIAL FINAL BALLOT INTERNET MAILER issued on or about February 28.

If a link to your work was listed on the Special Preliminary Ballot Internet Mailer it will be relisted automatically and you need not email or query.

If a link to your work was not on the Special Preliminary Ballot IM, please email the details to stokerchair@horror.org as soon as you can, but no later than February 26 (links will not be accepted for this Special IM after February 26). Anyone validly representing a work appearing on the Final 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 on the HWA Discord here: http://discord.gg/qXNWT2MCEK. If you had already posted your work in these places prior to the announcement of the Final Ballot you are entitled to post it again. Only members may post in the website forum, but members are encouraged to post on behalf of non–members who may appear on the Ballot. The Discord and Facebook page is open to members and non–members alike. Non–members may also email stokerchair@horror.org for help with this.

March 1: Stoker Final ballot dispatched – please note only Active and Lifetime Members in good-standing as of January 31 can vote. If you are an Active or Lifetime Member and do NOT receive your electronic ballot link by March 1, 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 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.

March 15: The Bram Stoker Awards final ballot closes at midnight U.S. Pacific Time. Any ballots received after this time will be discarded.

March 15 (approx.): The 2023 Bram Stoker Recommendation sheet goes live and the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards Juries open to Submissions. Members should hold any Recommendations for works published in the calendar year 2023 until the Sheet is live.

Members wishing to submit work published in 2023 to the relevant Jury should read the information at the Bram Stoker Awards website before doing so here: http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/submissions/

June 17: The 2022 Bram Stoker Awards® announced during the Annual Bram Stoker Awards Banquet held during StokerCon™ 2023 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Bookings and information at: http://stokercon.com. Note: Banquet Tickets are separate from the Convention Membership and should be purchased directly from https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bram-stoker-awards-banquet-at-stokercon-2023-tickets-557171183007. Click “Tickets” to see the Banquet option as an add-on to your existing registration or an option for a new registration.

Please direct any questions to: info@stokercon.com.