Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Bram Stoker 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.  

The official nominees for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards® are now live. You can see the press release here or below where I have added direct links to my reviews where applicable. 

You need to update your horror collection? Want to get some displays or lists up to take advantage of the huge boom and interest in Horror? All you need is the Bram Stoker Awards® website. You can use that to see a database of every single nominee and winner all with one click here. [Well and my Horror site.]

Use the entire homepage to identify critically acclaimed authors and titles of Horror for all ages. Consider adding the anthologies, collections, and novels from the last few years to your collections as well.

One of the best things about the Bram Stoker Awards® is the process that is involved to get to the nominees. Each category has a jury made up of all levels of HWA members, each jury has a chair and an alt chair, and all members have a portal to recommend titles. It is a hybrid nomination process ensuring a diverse (in every way) mix of options on the ballot. Only Lifetime and Active members can vote but everyone has a say up to the vote.

Also jurors are limited to 2 years on a jury before they have to cycle off and either stop or go to another category, meaning, the categories don't get stuck in a rut. I just finished my second year as Jury Chair for Middle Grade and am very happy with our 5 finalists. I am awaiting my assignment for next year; it is still a mystery but I have been notified it is coming soon.

Sadie Hartmann-- a nominee in Nonfiction this year herself-- had this great interview with the Bram Stoker committee a few years ago where they explain the entire process, including the fact that the awards are not for BEST books, but rather award for SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT. I love that distinction as well. We used that distinction throughout our deliberation process for the MG jury this year. Click here to read that interview. I wish all genre awards were this transparent. But alas, I can only control the awards with which I am affiliated.

See the full nominee list here or below (with links to my reviews where applicable). I am going to have some hard choices in a few categories when my ballot arrives later this week.

Click here to enter the Bram Stoker Award Homepage

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Final Ballot for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see http://www.horror.org/) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 2,000 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see https://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 26, please see important information following the ballot.

The 2023 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Aquilone, James – Shakespeare Unleashed (Crystal Lake Publishing, Monstrous Books)

Golden, Christopher, and Keene, Brian – The Drive-In: Multiplex (Pandi Press)

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

Peele, Jordan, and Adams,John Joseph – Out There Screaming (Random House)

Rowland, Rebecca – American Cannibal (Maenad Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Files, Gemma – Blood from the Air (Grimscribe Press)

Keisling, Todd – Cold, Black, & Infinite (Cemetery Dance)

Malerman, Josh – Spin A Black Yarn (Del Rey)

Nogle, Christi – The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future (Flame Tree Press)

Read, Sarah – Root Rot & Other Grim Tales (Bad Hand Books)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

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

Compton, Johnny – The Spite House (Tor Nightfire/Macmillan)

LaRocca, Eric – Everything the Darkness Eats (CLASH Books/Titan)

Leede, CJ – Maeve Fly (Tor Nightfire/Macmillan/Titan)

Rebelein, Sam – Edenville (William Morrow/Titan)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Bunn, Cullen (author) and Leomacs (artist) – Ghostlore, Vol. 1 (BOOM! Studios)

Cesare, Adam (author) and Stoll, David (artist) – Dead Mall (Dark Horse Comics)

Chu, Amy (author) and Lee, Soo (artist) – Carmilla: The First Vampire (Dark Horse)  

Ito, Junji (author and artist) –Tombs (Viz Media)

Tanabe, Gou (author and artist) – H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Dark Horse Comics)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Due, Tananarive – “Rumpus Room” (The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Akashic Books)

Jiang, Ai – Linghun (Dark Matter INK)

Khaw, Cassandra – The Salt Grows Heavy (Tor Nightfire/Macmillan/Titan)

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

Murray, Lee – Despatches (PS Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Long Nonfiction

Coleman, Robin R. Means and Harris, Mark H. – The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar(Gallery/Saga Press)

Fitzpatrick, Claire (ed.) – A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley (IFWG Publishing International)

Hartmann, Sadie – 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered (Page Street Publishing)

Morton, Lisa – The Art of the Zombie Movie (Applause Books)

Murray, Lee and Smith, Angela Yuriko (eds.) – Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror (Black Spot Books)

Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel

Henning, Sarah – Monster Camp (Margaret K. McElderry Books)

López, Diana – Los Monstruos: Felice and the Wailing Woman (Kokila)

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

Tuma, Refe – Frances and the Werewolves of the Black Forest (HarperCollins)

Young, Suzanne – What Stays Buried (HarperCollins)

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Due, Tananarive – The Reformatory (Gallery/Saga Press/Titan)

Hendrix, Grady – How to Sell a Haunted House (Berkley/Titan)

Jones, StephenGraham – Don’t Fear the Reaper (Gallery/Saga Press/Titan)

LaValle, Victor – Lone Women (One World)

Wendig, Chuck – Black River Orchard (Del Rey/Penguin Random House)

Superior Achievement in Poetry

Gold, Maxwell Ian – Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums (Hex Publishers)

McHugh, Jessica – The Quiet Ways I Destroy You (Apokrupha Press)

Pichette, Marisca – Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair (Android Press)

Walrath, Holly Lyn – Numinous Stones (Aqueduct Press)

Wytovich, Stephanie M. – On the Subject of Blackberries (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Brooker, Charlie – Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea (Episode 03:06) (Zeppotron, Babieka, Banijay Entertainment, Broke and Bones, House of Tomorrow)

Cervera, Michelle Garza and Castillo, Abia – Huesera: The Bone Woman (Disruptiva Films, Machete Producciones, MalignoGorehouse)

Duffield, Brian – No One Will Save You (20th Century Studios, Star Thrower Entertainment)

Rugna, Demián – When Evil Lurks (Machaco Films, Aramos Cine, Shudder)

Yamazaki, Takashi – Godzilla Minus One (Robot Communications, Toho Studios)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Daniels, L.E. – “Silk” (Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster: Stories Inspired by Stephen King, Twisted Wing Productions)

Jones, Rachael K. – “The Sound of Children Screaming” (Nightmare Magazine)

Miller, Sam J. – “If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak” (The Dark)

O’Quinn, Cindy – “Quondam” (The Nightmare Never Ends, Exploding Head Fiction)

Tabing, Nadine Aurora – “An Inherited Taste” (No Trouble at All, Cursed Morsels Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

Bissett, Carina – “Words Wielded by Women” (Apex Magazine)

Bulkin, Nadia – “Becoming Ungovernable: Latah, Amok, and Disorder in Indonesia,” (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books)

Kulski, K.P. – “100 Livers” (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books)

Murray, Lee – “Displaced Spirits” (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books)

Wetmore Jr, Kevin – “A Theatre of Ghosts, A Haunted Cinema: The Japanese Gothic as Theatrical Tradition in Gurozuka” (The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture: Special Issue on Asian Gothic)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Dimaline, Cherie – Funeral Songs for Dying Girls (Tundra Book Group)

Simmons, Kristen – Find Him Where You Left Him Dead (Tor Teen)

Smith, CynthiaLeitich – Harvest House (Candlewick Press)

Tingle, Chuck – Camp Damascus (Tor Nightfire/MacMillan/Titan)

Tran, Trang Thanh – She Is a Haunting (Bloomsbury YA)