2016 Stoker Preliminary Ballot

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) announced the preliminary ballot for the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards on January 20, 2017.

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• Dead Souls, J. Lincoln Fenn (Gallery)
• Hard Light, Elizabeth Hand (Minotaur)
• Mongrels, Stephen Graham Jones (William Morrow)
• The Fisherman, John Langan (Word Horde)
• The Tank, Nicola Lombardi (Dunwich Edizioni)
• Stranded, Bracken MacLeod (Tor)
• Into the Mist, Lee Murray (Cohesion)
• HEX, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor)
• Odd Adventures with your Other Father, Norman Prentiss (self-published)
• Muti Nation, Monique Snyman (Omnium Gatherum)
• Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, Paul Tremblay (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• The Apothecary’s Curse, Barbara Barnett (Pyr)
• Hollow House, Greg Chapman (Omnium Gatherum)
• Haven, Tom Deady (Cemetery Dance)
• The Monster Underneath, Matthew Franks (Samhain)
• Mayan Blue, Michelle Garza & Melissa Lason (Sinister Grin)
• Blackwater Val, William Gorman (Crystal Lake)
• Until Death, Kari Anne Kilgore (Spiral)
• The Sanguinarian ID, L.M. Labat (Night to Dawn)
• The Wolf Road, Beth Lewis (Crown)
• The Black Goat Motorcycle Club, Jason Murphy (Sinister Grin)
• Wasteland Gods, Jonathan Woodrow (Horrific Tales)
• The Eighth, Stephanie M. Wytovich (Dark Regions)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• Snowed, Maria Alexander (Raw Dog Screaming)
• Last Days of Salton Academy, Jennifer Brozek (Ragnarok)
• Holding Smoke, Elle Cosimano (Disney-Hyperion)
• Lily, Michael Thomas Ford (Lethe)
• Keep Away From Psycho Joe, Michael Brent Kelley (Omnium Gatherum)
• When They Fade, Jeyn Roberts (Knopf)
• The Telling, Alexandra Sirowy (Simon & Schuster)
• Sinful, Dax Varley (self-published)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• “Bones Are Made to Be Broken”, Paul Michael Anderson (Bones Are Made to Be Broken)
• Jedi Summer with The Magnetic Kid, John Boden (Post Mortem)
• Vampire Boy, Aric Cushing (Grand & Archer)
• The Sadist’s Bible, Nicole Cushing (01Publishing)
• Harvest Festival, Karl Drinkwater (Organic Apocalypse)
• “That Perilous Stuff”, Scott Edelman (Chiral Mad 3)
• The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor.com Publishing)
• “The Jupiter Drop”, Josh Malerman (You, Human)
• All Smoke Rises: Milk-Blood Redux, Mark Matthews (Wicked Run)
• “Raw”, Shane Simmons (Silent Screams)
• The Winter Box, Tim Waggoner (Darkfuse)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• “Time is a Face on the Water”, Michael Bailey (Borderlands 6)
• “A Rift in Reflection”, Hal Bodner (Chiral Mad 3)
• “The Bad Hour”, Christopher Golden (What the #@&% Is That?)
• “Conqueror Worms”, Michael H. Hanson (Dark Corners)
• “Ortolan”, Dane Hucklebridge (F(r)iction Summer 2016)
• “Reasons I Hate My Big Sister”, Gwendolyn Kiste (Nightscript: Vol 2)
• “Arbeit Macht Frei”, Lisa Mannetti (Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories)
• “Long Hair’s Inferno”, Alessandro Manzetti (The Monster, the Bad, and the Ugly)
• “The Crawl Space”, Joyce Carol Oates (Ellery Queen 9-10/16)
• “The Wounded Table”, John Claude Smith (The Wrath of Concrete and Steel)
• “Only Unclench Your Hand”, Isabel Yap (What the #@&% Is That?)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• Swift to Chase, Laird Barron (JournalStone)
• The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales, Daniel Braum (Grey Matter)
• A Long December, Richard Chizmar (Subterranean)
• Sylvan Dread: Tales of Pastoral Darkness, Richard Gavin (Three Hands)
• The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror, Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious)
• Lethal Birds, Gene O’Neill (Omnium Gatherum)
• Meet Me in the Middle of the Air, Eric Schaller (Undertow)
• American Nocturne, Hank Schwaeble (Cohesion)
• A Tiding of Magpies, Pete Sutton (Kensington Gore)
• Greener Pastures, Michael Wehunt (Shock Totem)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• Chiral Mad 3, Michael Bailey, ed. (Written Backwards)
• Cemetery Riots, T.C. Bennett & Tracy L.  Carbone, eds. (Awol From Elysium)
• Horror from the Inside Out, Lisa Dabrowski, ed. (Whorror House)
• Drive-In Creature Feature, Eugene Johnson & Charles Day, eds. (Evil Jester)
• Not Your Average Monster: Vol 2: A Menagerie of Vile Beasts, Pete Kahle, ed. (Bloodshot)
• The Beauty of Death, Alessandro Manzetti, ed. (Independent Legions)
• The Monster, the Bad and the Ugly, Alessandro Manzetti & Paolo DiOrazio, eds. (Kipple Officina Libraria)
• Borderlands 6, Oliva F. Monteleone & Thomas F. Monteleone, eds. (Samhain)
• Fright Mare – Women Write Horror, Billie Sue Mosiman, ed. (self-published)
• Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Doug Murano & D. Alexander Ward, eds. (Crystal Lake)
• Peel Back the Skin, Anthony Rivera & Sharon Lawson, eds. (Grey Matter)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• Haunted, Leo Braudy (Yale University Press)
• Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, Ruth Franklin (Liveright)
• A Season with the Witch, J.W. Ocker (Countryman)
• Guillermo del Toro’s “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”, Danel P. Olson (Centipede)
• In the Mountains of Madness, W. Scott Poole (Soft Skull)
• Something in the Blood, David J. Skal (Liveright)
• The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub, John Tibbetts (McFarland)
• The Turn to Gruesomeness in American Horror Films, 1931-1936, Jon Towlson (McFarland)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• Underwater Fistfight, Matt Betts (Raw Dog Screaming)
• Sacrificial Nights, Bruce Boston & Alessandro Manzetti (Kipple Officina Libraria)
• Corona Obscura, Michael R. Collins (self-published)
• The Seven Yards of Sorrow, David E. Cowen (Weasel)
• Children of God, Craig DiLouie & Jonathan Moon (self-published)
• Field Guide to the End of the World, Jeannine Hall Gailey (Moon City)
• Voices from Empty Rooms, Lisa Lepovetsky (Alban Lake)
• Two Drinks Away from Chaos, Aurelio Rico Lopez III (Azoth Khem)
• Small Spirits, Marge Simon (self-published)
• Brothel, Stephanie M. Wytovich (Raw Dog Screaming)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• Blood Feud, Cullen Bunn (Oni)
• Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe, James Chambers (Moonstone)
• No Mercy: Volume 2, Alex de Campi (Image)
• Outcast: Volume 3: This Little Light, Robert Kirkman (Image)
• The Steam Man, Mark Alan Miller & Joe R. Lansdale (Dark Horse)
• Providence: Act 1, Alan Moore (Avatar)
• Weirdy, Ashley P Quach (self-published)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• The Conjuring 2
• Don’t Breathe
• Midnight Special
• Penny Dreadful: “A Blade of Grass”
• Preacher: “Pilot”
• Stranger Things: “The Upside Down”
• Stranger Things: “The Vanishing of Will Byers”
• 10 Cloverfield Lane
• The Walking Dead: “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”
• The Witch

Voting is open to active and lifetime HWA members until February 15, 2017.

Bram Stoker Award nominees for 2016 (the short list) will be announced on February 23, 2017. Winners will be honored April 29, 2017 at a gala held aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach CA during StokerCon. For more information, see the HWA website.