2023 Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot

Bram Stoker AwardsThe Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the preliminary ballot for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards.

Superior Achievement in a Novel

  • The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga)
  • How to Sell a Haunted House, Grady Hendrix (Berkley)
  • Don’t Fear the Reaper, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
  • A House with Good Bones, T. Kingfisher (Nightfire)
  • Lone Women, Victor LaValle (One World)
  • Graveyard of Lost Children, Katrina Monroe (Poisoned Pen)
  • The Vile Thing We Created, Robert P. Ottone (Hydra)
  • The Marigold, Andrew F. Sullivan (ECW)
  • Black River Orchard, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey)
  • Burn the Negative, Winning, Josh (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

  • The Daughters of Block Island, Christa Carmen (Thomas & Mercer)
  • The Spite House, Johnny Compton (Nightfire)
  • Monstrilio, Gerardo Sámano Córdova (Zando)
  • Everything the Darkness Eats, Eric LaRocca (CLASH)
  • Maeve Fly, CJ Leede (Nightfire)
  • The Mobius Door, Andrew Najberg (Wicked House)
  • Edenville, Sam Rebelein (William Morrow)
  • Tell Me I’m Worthless, Alison Rumfitt (Nightfire)
  • Chlorine, Jade Song (William Morrow)
  • The Girls in the Cabin, Caleb Stephens (Joffe)

Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel

  • Maybe There Are Witches, Jude Atwood (Fitzroy)
  • Grumbones, Jenn Bennett (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
  • Brick Dust and Bones, M.R. Fournet (Feiwel & Friends)
  • Monster Camp, Sarah Henning (Margaret K. McElderry)
  • Los Monstruos: Felice and the Wailing Woman, Diana López (Kokila)
  • Extra Normal, Kate Alice Marshall (Viking Books for Young Readers)
  • Don’t Want to Be Your Monster, Deke Moulton (Tundra)
  • The Nighthouse Keeper, Lora Senf (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
  • Frances and the Werewolves of the Black Forest, Refe Tuma (HarperCollins)
  • What Stays Buried, Suzanne Young (HarperCollins)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

  • Play the Game, Charlene Allen (Katherine Tegen)
  • You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight, Kalynn Bayron (Bloomsbury YA)
  • Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Cherie Dimaline (Tundra)
  • What Stalks Among Us, Sarah Hollowell (Clarion)
  • Swarm, Jennifer D. Lyle (Sourcebooks Fire)
  • Your Lonely Nights Are Over, Adam Sass (Viking Books for Young Readers)
  • Find Him Where You Left Him Dead, Kristen Simmons (Tor Teen)
  • Harvest House, Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick Press)
  • Camp Damascus, Chuck Tingle (Nightfire)
  • She Is a Haunting, Trang Thanh Tran (Bloomsbury YA)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

  • “You Are My Sunshine”, Octavia Cade (You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories)
  • “Rumpus Room”, Tananarive Due (The Wishing Pool and Other Stories)
  • Linghun, Ai Jiang (Dark Matter INK)
  • The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw, (Nightfire)
  • Sleep Alone, J.A.W. McCarthy  (Off Limits)
  • Despatches Lee Murray, (PS)
  • 8:59:29, Polly Schattel (Trepidatio)
  • “The Art of Devastation” Morgan Sylvia (In the Cold, Cold Ground: An Anthology of New England Horror)
  • Bitters, Kaaron Warren (Cemetery Dance)
  • The Open Book, L. Marie Wood (Falstaff)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

  • “Your Dasher Has Accidentally Awakened the Crawling Chaos by Gazing into the Loathsome Geometry of the Taco Pup Mega-muncher Meal Box”, David Anaxagoras (The Dread Machine 3.1)
  • “Silk” L.E. Daniels, (Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster: Stories Inspired by Stephen King)
  • “Sound of Children Screaming”, Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare 10/23)
  • “Chainsaw: As Is”, Gillian King-Cargile (PseudoPod 5/26/23)
  •  “Meat”, Kristin Kirby (Negative Space 2: A Return to Survival Horror)
  • “Giallo”, Robert Levy (No One Dies from Love: Dark Tales of Loss & Longing)
  • “If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak”, Sam J. Miller (The Dark 7/23)
  • “Quondam”, Cindy O’Quinn (The Nightmare Never Ends)
  • “I’ll See You in Forever”, Cindy O’Quinn & Nathan McCullough (Sudden Fictions #6)
  • “An Inherited Taste”, Nadine Aurora Tabing (No Trouble at All)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

  • You Are My Sunshine and Other Tales, Octavia Cade (Stelliform)
  • Midnight Masquerade, Greg Chapman (IFWG)
  • Have You Seen the Moon Tonight? & Other Rumors, Jonathan Louis Duckworth (JournalStone)
  • Blood from the Air, Gemma Files (Grimscribe)
  • Cold, Black, & Infinite, Todd Keisling (Cemetery Dance)
  • Spin a Black Yarn, Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
  • The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, Christi Nogle (Flame Tree)
  • Root Rot & Other Grim Tales, Sarah Read (Bad Hand)
  • The Inconsolables, Michael Wehunt (Bad Hand)
  • Gordon B. White Is Creating Haunting Weird Horror(s), Gordon B. White (Trepidatio)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

  • Shakespeare Unleashed, James Aquilone, ed. (Crystal Lake)
  • Qualia Nous, Vol. 2, Michael Bailey, ed. (Written Backwards)
  • Soul Jar: 31 Fantastical Tales by Disabled Authors, Annie Carl, ed.(Forest Avenue)
  • Christmas and Other Horrors, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Titan)
  • Collage Macabre: An Exhibition of Art Horror, Future Dead Collective, ed. (Future Dead Collective)
  • The Drive-In: Multiplex, Christopher Golden & Brian Keene, eds. (Pandi)
  • Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr., eds. (Vintage)
  • Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Random House)
  • American Cannibal, Rebecca Rowland, ed. (Maenad)
  • Darkness Blooms, Alin Walker & Monica Louzon, eds. (The Dread Machine)

Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction

  • All Kinds of Scary: Diversity in Contemporary Horror, Jonina Anderson-Lopez (McFarland)
  • The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar, Robin R. Means Coleman & Mark H. Harris (Saga)
  • A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, Claire Fitzpatrick, ed. (IFWG)
  • God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible, Esther J. Hamori (Broadleaf)
  • 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, Sadie Hartmann (Page Street)
  • The Art of the Zombie Movie, Lisa Morton (Applause)
  • Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Lee Murray & Angela Yuriko Smith, eds. (Black Spot)
  • Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator, Heather O. Petrocelli (University of Wales Press)
  • The Color of Melancholy: An Examination of Andrew Pyper’s Novels as Intersected through My Life, Steve Stred (Black Void)
  • Gothic Things: Dark Enchantment and Anthropocene Anxiety, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (Fordham University Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

  • “Words Wielded by Women”, Carina Bissett (Apex 5/23)
  • “Becoming Ungovernable: Latah, Amok, and Disorder in Indonesia”, Nadia Bulkin (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror)
  • “Entering the Ecosystem: Human Identity, Biology, and Horror”, Octavia Cade (Horror and Philosophy: Essays on Their Intersection in Film, Television and Literature)
  • “Heterotopic Hell Ride on The Midnight Meat Train”, Ana Došen (Journeys into Terror: Essays from the Cinematic Intersection of Travel and Horror)
  • “The Gothic Shapeshifter: Man, Monster, Myth”, John Kachuba (The Gothique: Myriad Manifestations)
  • “Cats and the Occult: A Canthropology”, Katherine Kerestman (The Weird Cat)
  • “100 Livers”, K.P. Kulski (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror)
  • “Displaced Spirits”, Lee Murray (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror)
  • “Miasma Theory, Particulate Matter and Modern Horror”, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (Female Identity in Contemporary Purgatorial Worlds)
  • “A Theatre of Ghosts, a Haunted Cinema: The Japanese Gothic as Theatrical Tradition in Gurozuka”, Kevin Wetmore, Jr.(Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture: Special Issue on Asian Gothic 6/23)

Superior Achievement in Poetry

  • The Taste of Butter, Amanda Crum (self-published)
  • Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums, Maxwell Ian Gold (Hex)
  • The Patient Routine, Luna Rey Hall (Brigids Gate)
  • Lupine, Jenny Irish (Black Lawrence)
  • Ophelia, V.C. McCabe (Femme Salvé)
  • The Quiet Ways I Destroy You, Jessica McHugh (Apokrupha)
  • The Chimera, Michael Perret (Curious Corvid)
  • Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, Marisca Pichette (Android)
  • Numinous Stones, Holly Lyn Walrath (Aqueduct)
  • On the Subject of Blackberries, Stephanie M. Wytovich (Raw Dog Screaming)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

  • Ghostlore, Vol. 1, Cullen Bunn, art by Leomacs (BOOM! Studios)
  • Dead Mall, Adam Cesare, art by David Stoll (Dark Horse)
  • Carmilla: The First Vampire, Amy Chu, art by Soo Lee (Dark Horse)
  • The Sixth Sentinel: Graphic Novel, Alessandro Manzetti & Stefano Fantelli, art by Stefano Cardoselli (Independent Legions)
  • Past Tense, Jason McNamara, art by Alberto Massaggia (Dark Horse)
  • Tombs, Junji Ito (Viz Media)
  • The Ward: Welcome to the Madhouse, Cavan Scott, art by Andres Ponce (Dark Horse)
  • Where Monsters Lie, Kyle Stark, art by Piotr Kowalski (Dark Horse Comics)
  • Evil Cast, Kyle Stuck, art by Enrico Orlandi (Ominous Media)
  • H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Gou Tanabe (Dark Horse)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

  • Birth/Rebirth
  • Black Mirror: “Beyond the Sea”
  • Creepshow: “The Hat”
  • The Exorcist: Believer
  • Godzilla Minus One
  • Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor
  • Huesera: The Bone Woman
  • No One Will Save You
  • When Evil Lurks
  • Where the Devil Roams

Voting is now open to HWA members until February 15, 2024. The final ballot will be announced on February 23, 2024. Winners will be honored at a gala during StokerCon 2024, to be held May 30 – June 2, 2024 at the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley in San Diego CA. For more information, see the Stoker Awards website.


Locus Magazine, Science Fiction FantasyWhile you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.

©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *