Bram Stoker Awards Finalists Announced

The final ballot for the prestigious Horror Award Show, The Bram Stoker Awards, have been announced. Founded in 1987, the Bram Stoker awards are dedicated to celebrating “superior achievement” in dark fantasy and horror writing.

 

The 2020 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• Jones, Stephen Graham – The Only Good Indians (Gallery/Saga Press)
• Katsu, Alma – The Deep (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
• Keisling, Todd – Devil’s Creek (Silver Shamrock Publishing)
• Malerman, Josh – Malorie (Del Rey)
• Moreno-Garcia, Silvia – Mexican Gothic (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• Hall, Polly – The Taxidermist’s Lover (CamCat Publishing, LLC)
• Harrison, Rachel – The Return (Berkley)
• Jeffery, Ross – Tome (The Writing Collective)
• Knight, EV – The Fourth Whore (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Petty, Kate Reed – True Story (Viking)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• Archer, Steven (author/artist) – The Masque of the Red Death (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Brody, Jennifer (author) and Rivera, Jules (artist) – Spectre Deep 6 (Turner)
• Douek, Rich (author) and Cormack, Alex (artist) – Road of Bones (IDW Publishing)
• Holder, Nancy (author), Di Francia, Chiara (artist), and Woo, Amelia (artist) – Mary Shelley Presents (Kymera Press)
• Manzetti, Alessandro (author) and Cardoselli, Stefano (artist/author) – Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein) (Independent Legions Publishing)
• Niles, Steve (author), Simeone, Salvatore (author), and Kudranski, Szymon (artist) – Lonesome Days, Savage Nights (TKO Studios)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• Cesare, Adam – Clown in a Cornfield (HarperTeen)
• Kraus, Daniel – Bent Heavens (Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan)
• Snyman, Monique – The Bone Carver (Vesuvian Books)
• Thomas, Aiden – Cemetery Boys (Swoon Reads/Macmillan)
• Waters, Erica – Ghost Wood Song (HarperTeen)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• Arcuri, Meghan – “Am I Missing the Sunlight?” (Borderlands 7) (Borderlands Press)
• Fawver, Kurt – “Introduction to the Horror Story, Day 1” (Nightmare Magazine Nov. 2020 (Issue 98))
• Malerman, Josh – “One Last Transformation” (Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors) (Written Backwards)
• O’Quinn, Cindy – “The Thing I Found Along a Dirt Patch Road” (Shotgun Honey Presents Volume 4: Recoil) (Down and Out Books)
• Ward, Kyla Lee – “Should Fire Remember the Fuel?” (Oz is Burning) (B Cubed Press)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• Iglesias, Gabino – Beyond the Reef (Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror) (Wicked Run Press)
• Jones, Stephen Graham – Night of the Mannequins (Tor.com)
• Kiste, Gwendolyn – The Invention of Ghosts (Nightscape Press)
• Landry, Jess – I Will Find You, Even in the Dark (Dim Shores Presents Volume 1) (Dim Shores)
• Pinsker, Sarah – Two Truths and a Lie (Tor.com)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• Koja, Kathe – Velocities: Stories (Meerkat Press)
• Langan, John – Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies (Word Horde)
• Lillie, Patricia – The Cuckoo Girls (Trepidatio Publishing)
• Murray, Lee – Grotesque: Monster Stories (Things in the Well)
• Taborska, Anna – Bloody Britain (Shadow Publishing)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• Green, Misha – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 1: “Sundown” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)
• Green, Misha and Ofordire, Ihuoma – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 8: “Jig-a-Bobo” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)
• Whannell, Leigh – The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Goalpost Pictures, Nervous Tick Productions)
• LaManna, Angela – The Haunting of Bly Manor, Season 1, Episode 5: “The Altar of the Dead” (Intrepid Pictures, Amblin Television, Paramount Television Studios)
• Amaris, Scarlett and Stanley, Richard – Color Out of Space (SpectreVision)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• McHugh, Jessica – A Complex Accident of Life (Apokrupha)
• Pelayo, Cynthia – Into the Forest and All the Way Through (Burial Day Books)
• Sng, Christina – A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Tantlinger, Sara – Cradleland of Parasites (Rooster Republic Press)
• Manzetti, Alessandro – Whitechapel Rhapsody: Dark Poems (Independent Legions Publishing)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• Bailey, Michael and Murano, Doug – Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors (Written Backwards)
• Murray, Lee and Flynn, Geneve – Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• Kolesnik, Samantha – Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror (Grindhouse Press)
• Tantlinger, Sara – Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror (Rooster Republic Press)
• Yardley, Mercedes M. – Arterial Bloom (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

• Joseph, Rhonda Jackson – “The Beloved Haunting of Hill House: An Examination of Monstrous Motherhood” (The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaption) (McFarland)
• Pelayo, Cynthia – “I Need to Believe” (Southwest Review Volume 105.3)
• Robinson, Kelly – “Lost, Found, and Finally Unbound: The Strange History of the 1910 Edison Frankenstein” (Rue Morgue Magazine, June 2020)
• Sng, Christina – “Final Girl: A Life in Horror” (Interstellar Flight Magazine, October 2020)
• Waggoner, Tim – “Speaking of Horror” (The Writer)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• Florence, Kelly and Hafdahl, Meg – The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films (Skyhorse)
• Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra – 1000 Women in Horror (BearManor Media)
• Keene, Brian – End of the Road (Cemetery Dance Publications)
• Peirse, Alison – Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre (Rutgers University Press)
• Waggoner, Tim – Writing in the Dark (Guide Dog Books/Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Wetmore, Jr. Kevin J. – The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaption (McFarland)

 

The final ballot will close on March 15th. The winners will be announced at the 2021 Stokercon, a virtual event being held on May 23rd.