February 22, 2021, 1:04pm
Today, the Horror Writers Association—dedicated to promoting horror and dark fantasy writers—announced the finalists for the annual Bram Stoker Award, which honors the best work in horror and dark fiction published in the last year.
The Award is named in honor of Irish writer Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and comes with an eight-inch replica of a haunted house, with a door that opens to reveal a brass plaque engraved with the name of the winning work and its author.
The 62 finalists were selected across 12 categories—Novel, First Novel, Short Fiction, Long Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction Collection, Poetry Collection, Anthology, Screenplay, Graphic Novel, Nonfiction, and Short Nonfiction—and the winner of each category will be announced live at this year’s virtual StockerCon 2021, which will be held between May 20 and May 23, 2021. A hearty congrats to all!
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2020 Bram Stoker Award Finalists
NOVEL
Stephen Graham Jones, The Only Good Indians
Alma Katsu, The Deep
Todd Keisling, Devil’s Creek
Josh Malerman, Malorie
Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic
FIRST NOVEL
Polly Hall, The Taxidermist’s Lover
Rachel Harrison, The Return
Ross Jeffery, Tome
EV Knight, The Fourth Whore
Kate Reed Petty, True Story
GRAPHIC NOVEL
Steven Archer, The Masque of the Red Death
Jennifer Brody (author) and Jules Rivera (artist), Spectre Deep 6
Rich Douek (author) and Alex Cormack (artist), Road of Bones
Nancy Holder (author), Chiara Di Francia, (artist), and Amelia Woo (artist), Mary Shelley Presents
Alessandro Manzetti (author) and Stefano Cardoselli (artist/author), Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein)
Steve Niles (author), Salvatore Simeone (author), and Szymon Kudranski (artist), Lonesome Days, Savage Nights
YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Adam Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield
Daniel Kraus, Bent Heavens
Monique Snyman, The Bone Carver
Aiden Thomas, Cemetery Boys
Erica Waters, Ghost Wood Song
LONG FICTION
Gabino Iglesias, Beyond the Reef
Stephen Graham Jones, Night of the Mannequins
Gwendolyn Kiste, The Invention of Ghosts
Jess Landry, I Will Find You, Even in the Dark
Sarah Pinsker, Two Truths and a Lie
SHORT FICTION
Meghan Arcuri, “Am I Missing the Sunlight?”
Kurt Fawver, “Introduction to the Horror Story, Day 1”
Josh Malerman, “One Last Transformation”
Cindy O’Quinn, “The Thing I Found Along a Dirt Patch Road”
Kyla Lee Ward, “Should Fire Remember the Fuel?”
FICTION COLLECTION
Kathe Koja, Velocities: Stories
John Langan, Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies
Patricia Lillie, The Cuckoo Girls
Lee Murray, Grotesque: Monster Stories
Anna Taborska, Bloody Britain
SCREENPLAY
Scarlett Amaris and Richard Stanley, Color Out of Space
Misha Green, Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 1: “Sundown”
Misha Green and Ihuoma Ofordire, Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 8: “Jig-a-Bobo”
Angela LaManna, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Season 1, Episode 5: “The Altar of the Dead”
Leigh Whannell, The Invisible Man
POETRY COLLECTION
Alessandro Manzetti, Whitechapel Rhapsody: Dark Poems
Jessica McHugh, A Complex Accident of Life
Cynthia Pelayo, Into the Forest and All the Way Through
Christina Sng, A Collection of Dreamscapes
Sara Tantlinger, Cradleland of Parasites
ANTHOLOGY
Michael Bailey and Doug Murano, Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors
Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn, Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women
Samantha Kolesnik, Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror
Sara Tantlinger, Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror
Mercedes M. Yardley, Arterial Bloom
NONFICTION
Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl, The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, 1000 Women in Horror
Brian Keene, End of the Road
Alison Peirse, Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre
Tim Waggoner, Writing in the Dark
Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaption
SHORT NONFICTION
Rhonda Jackson Joseph, “The Beloved Haunting of Hill House: An Examination of Monstrous Motherhood”
Cynthia Pelayo, “I Need to Believe”
Kelly Robinson, “Lost, Found, and Finally Unbound: The Strange History of the 1910 Edison Frankenstein”
Christina Sng, “Final Girl: A Life in Horror”
Tim Waggoner, “Speaking of Horror”
[h/t Tor]