Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Shirley Jackson 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.  

I am on record, multiple times, saying that the Shirley Jackson Award is my favorite award. If I had to pick only 1 award for fiction, this would be it. And that is saying a lot because I love awards, hence this series.

But why this one? A few reasons,

First, the Shirley Jackson Awards are an excellent RA tool not only for the normal reasons I outline with the links to start this post, but also because they are an award that is NOT bound by genre. The entire point of the books that are nominated for and win this award is that they represent the legacy of Jackson, herself. Books that are darkly speculative and/or are intensely psychological; books that defy conventions but are great.  Each and every year titles are honored that are amazing reads but are almost always overlooked by genre awards, not because they aren't great [because they are], but because when push comes to shove, they do not fit as easily into the genre box as the other options.

Second, because books that win the Shirley Jackson Award already live on the fringes, the jurors and the titles they choose are more diverse than your average award.

Third, this award can be used as a "readalike" list on its own. Why? Because the main thing these nominated titles all share is a connection to Jackson and her brand of storytelling; thus, they all have an appeal connection that other awards can not promise in the same way.

Fourth, the entire concept of the books, being "genreless," means you have a very WIDE audience to handsell these titles to. 

And fifth, this is collection development gold. You want to have the best dark speculative titles, authors, collections, and anthologies for your patrons? Here is an easy purchasing list. And not only is the list diverse in terms of the identity of the writers themselves, but also the range of publishers here is wide. You can learn about some excellent small presses, putting out award worthy material. Just receiving a SJA nomination alone, is a reason to check these new to you publishers out. 

Which reminds me, sixth, the Shirley Jackson Awards not only have annual jurors who rotate every year but they also have a board of directors and an advisory board. You can access all of those people and their bios on this one page. Every single one of those authors is also readlaike option.

Speaking of, two years ago I was asked to be on the SJA Advisory Board which has been amazing. As a member of the Advisory Board, I am able to nominate titles to be read by the Jury (which changes every year), If I nominate a title it will be acquired by the adminstrator for the awards and put into the pool that the jury considers. I take this advisory role very seriously. This year I am so happy to see books I suggested make the Nominees list below.

And of course seventh, the super easy backlist access of nominees and winners going back to 2007, all avaiable with 1 easy click. 

You want a display of weird, unsettling, and compelling titles, look no further than these tales, all of which are singled out for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. Those nominated for this year and all past years. There are so many options you will never run out of a suggestion for your patrons searching out this type of read.

Before I get to this year's nominees, which like all past years are amazing and I have read and reviewed many fathom, I want to also shout out the physical prize. Not only do the winners get that very cool sundial award above, but every single nominees gets a stone. If you don't know why, first go read "The Lottery," If you either know why, or don't care about knowing on the of best twists in all of literature ever, click here for an article about the tradition from LitHub.

Now here are this year's Shirley Jackson Award Nominees:

Nominees Announced for the 2023 Shirley Jackson Awards

Boston, MA (June 2024) — In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, The Shirley Jackson Awards, Inc. has been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories:  Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Fiction, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology.

The nominees for the 2023 Shirley Jackson Awards are:

 NOVEL

Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt (Nightfire)

The Daughters of Block Island by Christa Carmen (Thomas & Mercer)

Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press/Simon and Schuster)

Every Version Ends in Death by Aliya Chaudhry (Haunt Publishing)

The Militia House by John Milas (Henry Holt & Company)

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due (Saga Press/Simon and Schuster)

 NOVELLA

Broken Paradise by Eugen Bacon (Luna Press Publishing)

Getting by in Tligolian by Roppotucha Greenberg (Arachne Press)

Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris (Stelliform Press)

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire)

Sleep Alone by J.A.W. McCarthy (Off Limits Press LLC)

To the Woman in the Pink Hat by LaToya Jordan (Aqueduct Press)

 NOVELETTE

The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Amazon Original Stories)

People Like Them by Minka Kent (Amazon Original Stories)

The Pram by Joe Hill (Amazon Original Stories)

“Six Versions of My Brother Found Under the Bridge” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny Magazine)

“The Swan” by Lynn C. Pitts (Infinite Constellations)

“Vampire Fiction” by Michael Wehunt (The Inconsolables)

“What’s He Building in There” by Cat Powell (Fairy Tale Review:  The Rainbow Issue)

 SHORT FICTION

“The Dizzy Room” by Kristina Ten (Adamant Press / Nightmare Magazine)

“The First Mrs. Edward Rochester Would Like a Word” by Laura Blackwell (Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic)

“Invasion of the Baby Snatchers” by Lesley Nneka Arimah (Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror)

Kazti Girls by Sciascia DeKay (The Fabulist)

“Something is Rotten” by Jo Kaplan (Shakespeare Unleashed)

 SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

Drinking from Graveyard Wells: Stories by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu (University Press of Kentucky)

Her Body Among Animals by Paola Ferrante (Book*hug Press)

Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic by Tobi Ogundiran (Undertow Publications)

They Will Dream in the Garden by Gabriela Damián Miravete, translated by Adrian Demopulos (Rosarium Publishing)

White Trash & Recycled Nightmares by Rebecca Rowland (Dead Sky Publishing)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic, edited by Jolie Toomajan (Cosmic Horror Monthly)

Mooncalves, edited by John WM Thompson (NO Press)

Never Whistle at Night:  An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (Vintage Books)

Out There Screaming:  An Anthology of New Black Horror, edited by Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams

Shakespeare Unleashed, edited by James Aquilone (Monstrous Books)

The 2023 Shirley Jackson Awards will be presented in-person on Saturday, July 13 at 8pm at Readercon 33, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) wrote such classic novels as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, “The Lottery. ” Her work continues to be a major influence on writers of every kind of fiction, from the most traditional genre offerings to the most innovative literary work.

In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of horror, the dark fantastic, and psychological suspense.

The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in English in the following categories:  Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Fiction, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology.

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) wrote such classic novels as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, “The Lottery.”  Her work continues to be a major influence on writers of every kind of fiction, from the most traditional genre offerings to the most innovative literary work.