2022 Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• “They Could Have Been Yours”, Joy Baglio (The Missouri Review Spring ’22)
• “Blame”, Warren Benedetto (The Dread Machine 5/22)
• “Nona Doesn’t Dance”, Aaron Dries (Cut to Care: A Collection of Little Hurts)
• “Poppy’s Poppy”, Douglas Gwilym (Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine 6/21-4/22)
• “That’s What Friends Are For”, Larry Hinkle (Dark Recesses 7/22)
• “The Only Thing Different Will Be the Body”, J.A.W McCarthy (A Woman Built by Man)
• “The Bear Across the Way”, Emily Rigole (PsuedoPod 3/11/22)
• “A Song for Barnaby Jones”, Anna Taborska (Zagava)
• “The Star”, Anna Taborska (Great British Horror 7: Major Arcane)
• “Fracture”, Mercedes M. Yardley (Mother: Tales of Love and Terror)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• We Are Here to Hurt Each Other, Paula D. Ashe (Nictitating)
• The Puppet King and Other Atonements, Justin A. Burnett (Trepidatio)
• The Box, Scott J Couturier (Hybrid Sequence)
• Hell Hath No Sorrow Like a Woman Haunted, RJ Joseph (The Seventh Terrace)
• Breakable Things, Cassandra Khaw (Undertow)
• Extinction Hymns, Eric Raglin (Brigids Gate)
• Moonless Nocturne, Hank Schwaeble (Esker & Riddle)
• If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror, Caleb Stephens (Salt Heart)
• Spontaneous Human Combustion, Richard Thomas (Keylight)
• The Black Maybe, Attila Veres (Valancourt)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• We Are Providence: Tales of Horror from the Ocean State, Christa Carmen & L.E. Daniels, eds. (Weird House)
• The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Volume 2, James D. Jenkins & Ryan Cagle, eds. (Valancourt)
• Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Nightfire)
• Human Monsters: A Horror Anthology, Sadie Hartmann & Ashley Saywers, eds. (Dark Matter Ink)
• Nightmare Sky: Stories of Astronomical Horror, Red Lago, ed. (Death Knell)
• The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors, Doug Murano, ed. (Bad Hand)
• Mother: Tales of Love and Terror, Christi Nogle & Willow Becker, eds. (Weird Little Worlds)
• Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga, Lindy Ryan, ed. (Black Spot)
• Dark Stars, John F.D. Taff, ed. (Nightfire)
• Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror, Sara Tantlinger, ed. (Strangehouse)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• What the Daemon Said: Essays on Horror Fiction, Film, and Philosophy, Matt Cardin (Hippocampus)
• Weird Fiction: A Genre Study, Michael Cisco (Palgrave)
• Dark Scenes from Damaged Earth: The Gothic Anthropocene, Justin D. Edwards, Rune Grauland, & John Höglund (University of Minnesota)
• Lurking Under the Surface: Horror, Religion, and the Questions that Haunt Us, Brandon R. Grafius (Broadleaf)
• A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America’s Ghosts, Leanna Renee Hieber &  Andrea Janes (Citadel)
• Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult, Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson (Quirk)
• The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters, J.W. Ocker (Quirk)
• The Cambridge Companion to American Horror, Stephen Shapiro & Mark Storey (Cambridge University)
• Writing in the Dark: The Workbook, Tim Waggoner (Guide Dog)
• Writing Poetry in the Dark, Stephanie M. Wytovich (Raw Dog Screaming)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

• “Polychromatic Perversity: Hypercolor, Vice, and Violence in Horror”, Chelsea Davis (tornightfire.com)
• “Dracula: Bram Stoker’s Love Letter to the Human Race”, Katherine Kerestman (Penumbra 9/22)
• “I Don’t Read Horror (& Other Weird Tales)”, Lee Murray (Interstellar Flight Magazine 10/24/22)
• “When Writing About Mental Illness, Handle with Care”, Nzondi (Books & Buzz Magazine 6/22)
• “The Lingering Terror of Silent Hill”, Robert P. Ottone (Weird House Magazine 7/22)
• “This is Not a Poem”, Cynthia Pelayo (Writing Poetry in the Dark)
• “The H Word: A Celebration of Sonic Horror”, Eric Ranglin (Nightmare Magazine 12/22)
• “A Clown in the Living Room: The Sinister Clown on Television”, Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. (The Many Lives of Scary Clowns: Essays on Pennywise, Twisty, the Joker, Krusty and More)
• “African American Horror Authors and Their Craft: The Evolution of Horror Fiction from African Folklore” , Marie L. Wood (Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook for Middle and High School Students)
• “The H Word: The Horror of Hair”, Marie L. Wood (Nightmare Magazine 7/22)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• Sifting the Ashes, Michael Bailey & Marge Simon (Crystal Lake)
• Ballads for the Witching Hour, Adam Bolivar (Hippocampus)
• The Hand That Wounds, David E. Cowen (Weasel)
• Girls from the County, Donna Lynch (Raw Dog Screaming)
• Kubrick Rhapsody, Alessandro Manzetti & Karen Runge (Independent Legions)
• The Saint of Witches, Avra Margariti (Weasel)
• Venomous Words, Jeff Oliver & Gordon Reilly (Hellbound)
• Foundlings, Cindy O’Quinn & Stephanie Ellis (self-published)
• Crime Scene, Cynthia Pelayo (Raw Dog Screaming)
• The Rat King: A Book of Dark Poetry, Sumiko Saulson (self-published)
• The Sibyl, Hamant Singh (Partridge Publishing Singapore)
• The Gravity of Existence, Christina Sng (Interstellar Flight)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• Kolchak: The Night Stalker: 50^th Anniversary, James Aquilone, ed. (Moonstone)
• Killadelphia Vol. 4, Rodney Barnes, art by Jason Shawn Alexander, Luis NCT & Chris Mitten (Image Comics)
• Eat the Rich, Sarah Gailey, art by Pius Bak (Boom!)
• Little Monsters Vol 1, Jeff Lemire, art by Dustin Nguyen (Image Comics)
• Kraken Inferno: The Last Hunt, Alessandro Manzetti, art by Stefano Cardoselli (Independent Legions)
• House of Slaughter Vol. 1, James Tynion IV & Tate Brombal, art by Chris Shehan (Boom!)
• The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 1, James Tynion IV, art by Alvaro Martinez Bueno (DC)
• Something is Killing the Children Vol 4, James Tynion IV, art by Werther Dell’Edera (Boom!)
• The Closet Vol. 1, James Tynion IV, art by Gavin Fullerton & Chris O’Halloran (Image Comics)
• The Me You Love in the Dark, Skottie Young, art by Jorge Corona (Image Comics)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• The Black Phone
• Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, “Please Don’t Go”
• Fresh
• From, “All Good Things”
• Men
• Orphan: First Kill
• The Pale Blue Eye
• Pearl
• Speak No Evil
• Stranger Things, “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club”

Voting is now open to HWA members until February 15, 2023. The final ballot will be announced on February 23. Winners will be honored at a gala during StokerCon 2023, to be held June 15-18, 2023 at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Hotel at Station Square in Pittsburgh PA. For more information, see the Stoker Awards website.

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