2018 Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot

• The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro & Daniel Kraus (Feiwel and Friends)
• Dark Mary, Paolo Di Orazio (Independent Legions)
• The Hunger, Alma Katsu (Putnam)
• The Outsider, Stephen King (Scribner)
• Glimpse, Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin’s)
• Unbury Carol, Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
• Naraka, Alessandro Manzetti (Independent Legions)
• Hazards of Time Travel, Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco)
• Foe, Iain Reid (Gallery/Scout)
• Frankenstein in Baghdad, Ahmed Saadawi (Penguin)
• Dracul, Dacre Stoker & J.D. Barker (Putnam)
• The Cabin at the End of the World, Paul Tremblay (Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• The Garden of Blue Roses, Michael Barsa (Underland)
• What Should Be Wild, Julia Fine (Harper)
• Breaking the World, Jerry Gordon (Apex)
• I Am the River, T.E. Grau (Lethe)
• The Rust Maidens, Gwendolyn Kiste (Trepidatio)
• Fiction, Ryan Lieske (Burning Willow)
• The Honey Farm, Harriet Alida Lye (Liveright)
• The War in the Dark, Nick Setchfield (Titan)
• The Nightmare Room, Chris Sorensen (Harmful Monkey)
• Baby Teeth, Zoje Stage (St. Martin’s)
• The Moore House, Tony Tremblay (Twisted)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• Pitch Dark, Courtney Alameda (Feiwel and Friends)
• The Wicked Deep, Shea Ernshaw (Simon Pulse)
• Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower, Christian McKay Heidicker (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Dread Nation, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)
• Wormholes, Dani Kane (Barking Deer)
• Sawkill Girls, Claire Legrand (Katherine Tegen)
• Broken Lands, Jonathan Maberry (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• The Night Weaver, Monique Snyman (Gigi)
• The Wren Hunt, Mary Watson (Bloomsbury)
• The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, Kiersten White (Delacorte)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• Our Children, Our Teachers, Michael Bailey (Written Backwards)
• “The Barrens”, Stephanie Feldman (F&SF 5-6/18)
• Shiloh, Philip Fracassi (Lovecraft eZine)
• “You Are Released”, Joe Hill (Flight or Fright)
• Cruce Roosters, Brent Michael Kelley (Omnium Gatherum)
• “Black’s Red Gold”, Ed Kurtz (At the Mercy of Beasts)
• “Dead Lovers on Each Blade, Hung”, Usman T. Malik (Nightmare 11/18)
• “The Devil’s Throat”, Rena Mason (Hellhole)
• Body of Christ, Mark Matthews (self-published)
• Bitter Suites, Angela Yuriko Smith (self-published)
• “Shape Shifting Priestess of the 1,000 Year War”, Todd Sullivan (Schlock! Horror!)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• “All Summers End”, Tom Deady (Unnerving 11/18)
• “Life After Breath”, Tori Eldridge (Running Wild)
• “Cold, Silent, and Dark”, Kary English (Undercurrents)
• “The Gods in Their Seats, Unblinking”, Kurt Fawver (Vastarien Spring ’18)
• “The Woman in the Blue Dress”, Heather Herrman (Dark Screams: Volume Ten)
• “Mutter”, Jess Landry (Fantastic Tales of Terror)
• “Dead End Town”, Lee Murray (Cthulhu Deep Down Under: Volume 2)
• “Glove Box”, Annie Neugebauer (The Dark City Crime & Mystery Magazine 7/18)
• “Fish Hooks”, Kit Power (New Fears 2)
• “Her Royal Counsel”, Andrew Robertson (Alice Unbound: Beyond Wonderland)
• “A Winter’s Tale”, John F.D. Taff (Little Black Spots)
• “And in Her Eyes the City Drowned”, Kyla Lee Ward (Weirdbook 5/18)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, Christa Carmen (Unnerving)
• Spectral Evidence, Gemma Files (Trepidatio)
• That Which Grows Wild, Eric J. Guignard (Cemetery Dance)
• Coyote Songs, Gabino Iglesias (Broken River)
• Octoberland, Thana Niveau (PS)
• Frozen Shadows, Gene O’Neill (Crystal Lake)
• All the Fabulous Beasts, Priya Sharma (Undertow)
• Occasional Beasts, John Claude Smith (Omnium Gatherum)
• Garden of Eldritch Delights, Lucy A. Snyder (Raw Dog Screaming)
• Little Black Spots, John F.D. Taff (Grey Matter)
• Dark and Distant Voices, Tim Waggoner (Nightscape)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• A New York State of Fright, James Chambers, April Grey & Robert Masterson, eds. (Hippocampus)
• The Devil and the Deep, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade)
• Suspended in Dusk II, Simon Dewar, ed. (Grey Matter)
• A World of Horror, Eric J. Guignard, ed. (Dark Moon)
• Welcome to the Show, Doug Murano & Matt Hayward, eds. (Crystal Lake)
• Hellhole, Lee Murray, ed. (Adrenaline)
• The Fiends in the Furrows, David T. Neal & Christine M. Scott, eds. (Nosetouch)
• Phantoms, Marie O’Regan, ed. (Titan)
• Lost Highways, D. Alexander Ward, ed. (Crystal Lake)
• Quoth the Raven, Lyn Worthen, ed. (Camden Park)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• Horror Express, John Connolly (PS)
• Adapting Frankenstein: The Monster’s Eternal Lives in Popular Culture, Dennis Cutchins & Dennis R. Perry (Manchester University Press)
• The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film, Lee Gambin (Centipede)
• Woman at the Devil’s Door: The Untold True Story of the Hampstead Murderess, Sarah Beth Hopton (Red Lightning)
• We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror, Howard David Ingham (Room 207)
• Sleeping with the Lights On: The Unsettling Story of Horror, Darryl Jones (Oxford University Press)
• It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life, Joe Mynhardt & Eugene Johnson, eds. (Crystal Lake)
• A Place of Darkness: The Rhetoric of Horror in Early American Cinema, Kendall R. Phillips (University of Texas Press)
• Wasteland: The Great Ward and the Origins of Modern Horror, W. Scott Poole (Counterpoint)
• Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series, Kevin J. Wetmore Jr., ed. (McFarland)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• Artifacts, Bruce Boston (Independent Legions)
• The Comfort of Screams, G.O. Clark (Alban Lake)
• Bleeding Saffron, David E. Cowen (Weasel)
• The Hatch, Joe Fletcher (Brooklyn Arts)
• Witches, Donna Lynch (Raw Dog Screaming)
• Thirteen Nocturnes, Oliver Shepard (Ikonograph)
• War, Marge Simon & Alessandro Manzetti (Crystal Lake)
• The Devil’s Dreamland, Sara Tantlinger (Strangehouse)
• Candle and Pins, Jacqueline West (Alban Lake)
• Gwendolyn Witch and Other Macabria, Twyla Wren (self-published)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• Abbott, Saladin Ahmed, Sami Kivela & Jason Wordie (BOOM!)
• Cursed Comics Cavalcade #1, Alex Antone & Dave James Wielgosz, eds. (DC)
• Moonshine Vol. 2: Misery Train, Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (Image)
• Redlands Volume 1, Jordie Bellaire, Vanesa Del Rey & Clayton Cowles (Image)
• Bone Parish, Cullen Bunn (BOOM!)
• Denver Moon: Metamorphosis, Warren Hammond, Aaron Lovett & Joshua Viola (Hex)
• Victor LaValle’s Destroyer, Victor LaValle, Dietrich Smith & Joana Lafuente (BOOM!)
• Gideon Falls Volume 1: The Black Barn, Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino & Dave Stewart (Image)
• Monstress Volume 3: Haven, Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda (Image)
• Infidel, Pornsak Pichetshote, Jose Villarrubia & Jeff Powell (Image)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• Annihilation
• Bird Box
• Ghost Stories
• Halloween
• The Haunting of Hill House: “The Bent-Neck Lady”
• The Haunting of Hill House: “Screaming Meemies”
• Hereditary
• Mandy
• Overlord
• A Quiet Place