2020 Stoker Awards Final Ballot
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the final ballot for the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards:
Superior Achievement in a Novel
- The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
- The Deep, Alma Katsu (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
- Devil’s Creek, Todd Keisling (Silver Shamrock)
- Malorie, Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
- Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
- The Taxidermist’s Lover, Polly Hall (CamCat)
- The Return, Rachel Harrison (Berkley)
- Tome, Ross Jeffery (The Writing Collective)
- The Fourth Whore, EV Knight (Raw Dog Screaming)
- True Story, Kate Reed Petty (Viking)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
- Clown in a Cornfield, Adam Cesare (HarperTeen)
- Bent Heavens, Daniel Kraus (Holt)
- The Bone Carver, Monique Snyman (Vesuvian)
- Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas (Swoon)
- Ghost Wood Song, Erica Waters (HarperTeen)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
- “Beyond the Reef”, Gabino Iglesias (Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror)
- Night of the Mannequins, Stephen Graham Jones (Tordotcom)
- The Invention of Ghosts, Gwendolyn Kiste (Nightscape)
- “I Will Find You, Even in the Dark”, Jess Landry (Dim Shores Presents Volume 1)
- Two Truths and a Lie, Sarah Pinsker (Tordotcom)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
- “Am I Missing the Sunlight?”, Meghan Arcuri (Borderlands 7)
- “Introduction to the Horror Story, Day 1”, Kurt Fawver (Nightmare 11/20)
- “One Last Transformation”, Josh Malerman (Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors)
- “The Thing I Found Along a Dirt Patch Road”, Cindy O’Quinn (Shotgun Honey Presents Volume 4: Recoil)
- “Should Fire Remember the Fuel?”, Kyla Lee Ward (Oz is Burning)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
- Velocities: Stories, Kathe Koja (Meerkat)
- Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies, John Langan (Word Horde)
- The Cuckoo Girls, Patricia Lillie (Trepidatio)
- Grotesque: Monster Stories, Lee Murray (Things in the Well)
- Bloody Britain, Anna Taborska (Shadow)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
- Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors, Michael Bailey & Doug Murano, eds. (Written Backwards)
- Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Geneve Flynn & Lee Murray, eds. (Omnium Gatherum)
- Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror, Samantha Kolesnik, ed. (Grindhouse)
- Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror, Sara Tantlinger, ed. (Rooster Republic)
- Arterial Bloom, Mercedes M. Yardley, ed. (Crystal Lake)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
- The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films, Kelly Florence & Meg Hafdahl (Skyhorse)
- 1000 Women in Horror, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (BearManor)
- End of the Road, Brian Keene (Cemetery Dance)
- Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre, Alison Peirse, ed. (Rutgers University Press)
- Writing in the Dark, Tim Waggoner (Guide Dog)
- The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaption, Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., ed. (McFarland)
Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction
- “The Beloved Haunting of Hill House: An Examination of Monstrous Motherhood”, Rhonda Jackson Joseph (The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaptation)
- “I Need to Believe”, Cynthia Pelayo (Southwest Review 105.3)
- “Lost, Found, and Finally Unbound: The Strange History of the 1910 Edison Frankenstein”, Kelly Robinson (Rue Morgue 6/20)
- “Final Girl: A Life in Horror”, Christina Sng (Interstellar Flight 10/20)
- “Speaking of Horror”, Tim Waggoner (The Writer 11/20)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
- Whitechapel Rhapsody: Dark Poems, Alessandro Manzetti (Independent Legions)
- A Complex Accident of Life, Jessica McHugh (Apokrupha)
- Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Cynthia Pelayo (Burial Day)
- A Collection of Dreamscapes, Christina Sng (Raw Dog Screaming)
- Cradleland of Parasites, Sara Tantlinger (Rooster Republic)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
- The Masque of the Red Death, Steven Archer (Raw Dog Screaming)
- Spectre Deep 6, Jennifer Brody & Jules Rivera (Turner)
- Road of Bones, Rich Douek & Alex Cormack (IDW)
- Mary Shelley Presents, Nancy Holder, Chiara Di Francia & Amelia Woo (Kymera)
- Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein), Alessandro Manzetti & Stefano Cardoselli (Independent Legions)
- Lonesome Days, Savage Nights, Steve Niles, Salvatore Simeone & Szymon Kudranski (TKO Studios)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
- Color Out of Space
- The Haunting of Bly Manor, “The Altar of the Dead”
- The Invisible Man
- Lovecraft Country, “Jig-a-Bobo”
- Lovecraft Country, “Sundown”
Voting is now open to HWA members until March 15, 2021. Winners will be honored at a gala during StokerCon 2021, to be held May 20-23, 2021 at the Curtis Hotel in Denver CO. For more information, see the Stoker Awards website.
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