Using Awards Lists as a RA Tool: Splatterpunk Awards Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on "Using Awards Lists as a RA Tool." Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

On Saturday KillerCon happened, virtually. At this event the Splatterpunk awards are given out. Click here for all of the nominees and here for backlist nominees and winners. Below is the full press release with this year's winners.

These winners are titles you need to add. One, True Crime, I featured in my October 2020 Readers' Shelf column in Library Journal here, but all are excellent choices for general public library collections. Yes they are technically, "Extreme" Horror, but if you have a single erotica title [and I know every single one of you has 50 Shades of Grey so the answer is, yes you do], you can have these titles.

Show your Horror readers that you are thinking of them by having award winning titles available for them to check out.

Also, don't forget, I have a page on this blog which archives all of the major Horror Awards.

Founders Wrath James White and Brian Keene announced the winners of the 4th annual Splatterpunk Awards — honoring honoring superior achievement in horror fictions’ Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror categories published in 2020 — on Saturday, August 21, 2021.

The Splatterpunk Award nominations are suggested by readers and fans. The final ballot is made up of the top seven nominations for each category. Then, a rotating jury of critics and academics read the works on the ballot and vote on the winners.

The winners for this year are:

Best Novel: The Magpie Coffin - Wile E. Young (Deaths Head Press)
Best Novella: True Crime - Samantha Kolesnik (Grindhouse Press)
Best Short Story: “My Body” - Wesley Southard (from Midnight In The Pentagram, Silver Shamrock Publishing)
Best Collection: The Essential Sick Stuff - Ronald Kelly (Silver Shamrock Publishing)
Best Anthology: Worst Laid Plans - Samantha Kolesnik (Grindhouse Press)

In addition, John Skipp was presented with the J.F. Gonzalez Lifetime Achievement Award. Previous LAA recipients are David J. Schow, David G. Barnett, and Edward Lee.

White and Keene also announced the formation of the Splatterpunk Awards Hall of Fame - a physical, traveling memorial and showcase honoring those who have left their mark on the fields of Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror. The initial Splatterpunk Award Hall of Fame Inductees will be: David J. Schow, David Barnett, Edward Lee, John Skipp. Richard Laymon, Jack Ketchum, Charlee Jacob, John Pelan, and J.F. Gonzalez. The Hall of Fame will debut in Austin, Texas next August.