Using Awards List 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 with links to those for which I have a review. And spoiler alert, I really enjoyed a lot of these stories last year: 

Boston, MA (June 2025) — 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 2024 Shirley Jackson Awards are:
 
NOVEL

• Curdle Creek: A Novel by Yvonne Battle-Felton (Henry Holt & Co)
• The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim (Erewhon Books)
• Eynhallow by Tim McGregor (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste (Saga Press)
• The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden (St. Martin’s Press-US/Titan Books-UK)
• Smothermoss by Alisa Alering (Tin House)

 
NOVELLA

• Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram (Titan Books)
• Hollow Tongue by Eden Royce (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Red Skies in the Morning by Nadia Bulkin (Dim Shores)
• A Scout is Brave by Will Ludwigsen (Lethe Press)
• A Voice Calling by Christopher Barzak (Psychopomp)

 
NOVELETTE

• “All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn” by Eric LaRocca (This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances)
• “The Girl with Barnacles for Eyes” by Lyndsey Croal (Split Scream Volume Five)
• His Unburned Heart by David Sandner (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• “Ready Player (n+1)” by M. Shaw (All Your Friends Are Here)
• Stay on the Line by Clay McLeod Chapman (Shortwave Publishing)
• The Thirteen Ways We Turned Darryl Datson Into A Monster by Kurt Fawver (Dim Shores)

 
SHORT FICTION

• “Kamchatka” by Kristina Ten (Washington Square Review, Issue 51, Spring 2024)
• “Strike” by Jessica P. Wick (Monsters in the Mills)
• “MAMMOTH” by Manish Melwani (Nightmare Magazine, June 2024)
• “Moon Rabbit Song” by Caroline Hung (Nightmare Magazine, November 2024)
• “Three Faces of a Beheading” by Arkady Martine (Uncanny Magazine #58)

 
SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

• The Bone Picker: Native Stories, Alternate Histories by Devon A. Mihesuah (University of Oklahoma Press)
• Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations by Carina Bissett (Trepidatio Publishing)
• Midwestern Gothic by Scott Thomas (Inkshares)
• A Place Between Waking and Forgetting by Eugen Bacon (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• These Things That Walk Behind Me by David Surface (Lethe Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

• Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror, edited by Sofia Ajram (Ghoulish Books)
• The Crawling Moon, edited by dave ring (Neon Hemlock)
• Monsters in the Mills, edited by Christa Carmen and L.E. Daniels (IP [Interactive Publications Pty Ltd])
• The White Guy Dies First, edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker (Tor Publishing Group)
• Why Didn’t You Just Leave, edited by Julia Rios and Nadia Bulkin (Cursed Morsels Press)

The 2024 Shirley Jackson Awards will be presented in-person on Saturday, July 19 at 8pm at Readercon 34, 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.