2023 Stoker Awards Final Ballot

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• “Silk”, L.E. Daniels (Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster: Stories Inspired by Stephen King)
• “The Sound of Children Screaming”, Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare 10/23)
• “If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak”, Sam J. Miller (The Dark 7/23)
• “Quondam”, Cindy O’Quinn (The Nightmare Never Ends)
• “An Inherited Taste”, Nadine Aurora Tabing (No Trouble at All)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• 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)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• Shakespeare Unleashed, James Aquilone, ed. (Crystal Lake)
• 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)

Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction

• 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)
• 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)

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)
• “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)
• “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

• Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums, Maxwell Ian Gold (Hex)
• The Quiet Ways I Destroy You, Jessica McHugh (Apokrupha)
• 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)
• Tombs, Junji Ito (Viz Media)
• H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Gou Tanabe (Dark Horse)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• Black Mirror: “Beyond the Sea”
• Godzilla Minus One
• Huesera: The Bone Woman
• No One Will Save You
• When Evil Lurks

Note: the iniital ballot was amended to move Camp Damascus from the YA to the Novel category, and You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight was added to the YA category.

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.

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