Tag Archives: virtual convention

Los Angeles, May 22, 2021

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), the premier organization of writers and publishers of horror and dark fantasy, announces this year’s Bram Stoker Awards® winners at a virtual ceremony during StokerCon™ 2021. “This year’s winners reflect a deep range of works from a competitive field,” said John Palisano, HWA President. “The winners and finalists truly represent a broad spectrum of titles in horror and dark fantasy. HWA members and awards juries have shown dedication and objectivity to the selection process for outstanding works of literature, cinema, non-fiction, and poetry.”

We proudly provide the list of talented winners along with the finalist nominees. 

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Winner: Stephen Graham Jones – The Only Good Indians (Gallery/Saga Press)

Also nominated:

Alma Katsu – The Deep (G.P. Putnum’s Sons)

Todd Keisling – Devil’s Creek (Silver Shamrock Publishing)

Josh Malerman – Malorie (Del Ray)

Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Mexican Gothic (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Winner: EV Knight – The Fourth Whore (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Also nominated:

Polly Hall – The Taxidermist’s Lover (CamCat Publishing, LLC)

Rachel Harrison – The Return (Berkley)

Ross Jeffery – Tome (The Writing Collective)

Kate Reed Petty – True Story (Viking)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Winner: Adam Cesare – Clown in a Cornfield (HarperTeen)

Also nominated:

Daniel Kraus – Bent Heavens (Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan)

Monique Snyman – The Bone Carver (Vesuvian Books)

Aiden Thomas – Cemetery Boys (Swoon Reads/Macmillan)

Erica Waters – Ghost Wood Song (HarperTeen)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Winner: Nancy Holder, Chiara Di Francia, and Amelia Woo – Mary Shelley Presents Tales of the Supernatural (Kymera Press)

Also nominated:

Steven Archer – The Masque of the Red Death (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Jennifer Brody and Jules Rivera – Spectre Deep 6 (Turner)

Rich Douek and Alex Cormack – Road of Bones (IDW Publishing)

Alessandro Manzetti and Stephano Cardoselli – Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein)Independent Legions Publishing)

Steve Niles, Salvatore Simeone, and Syzmon Kudranski – Lonesome Days, Savage Nights(TKO Studios)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Winner: Stephen Graham Jones – “Night of the Mannequins” (Tor.com)

Also nominated:

Gabino Iglasias – “Beyond the Reef”(Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror)(Wicked Run Press)

Gwendolyn Kiste – “The Invention of Ghosts” (Nightscape Press)

Jess Landry – “I Will Find You, Even in the Dark” (Dim Shores Presents Vol. I)(Dim Shores)

Sarah Pinsker – “Two Truths and a Lie” (Tor.com)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Winner: Josh Malerman – “One Last Transformation”(Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors)(Written Backwards)

Also nominated:

Meghan Arcuri – “Am I Missing the Sunshine?” (Borderlands 7) (Borderlands Press)

Kurt Fawver – “Introduction to the Horror Story: Day 1” (Nightmare Magazine Nov. 2020, Issue 98)

Cindy O’Quinn – “The Thing I Found Along a Dirt Patch Road” (Shotgun Honey Presents, Vol. 4: Recoil) (Down and Out Books)

Kyla Lee Ward – “Should Fire Remember the Fuel?”(Oz is Burning) (B Cubed Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Winner: Lee Murray – Grotesque: Monster Stories (Things in the Well)

Also nominated:

Kathe Koja – Velocities: Stories (Meerkat Press)

John Langan – Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies (Word Horde)

Patricia Lillie – The Cuckoo Girls (Trepidatio Publishing)

Anna Taborska – Bloody Britain (Shadow Publishing)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Winner: Leigh Whannell – The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Goalpost Pictures, Nervous Tick Productions)

Also nominated:

Scarlett Amaris and Richard Stanley – Color Out of Space (SpectreVision)

Misha Green – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 1: “Sundown” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)

Misha Green and Ihuoma Ofordire – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 8: “Jig-a-Bobo” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)

Angela LaManna – The Haunting of Bly Manor, Season 1, Episode 5: “The Altar of the Dead” (Intrepid Pictures, Amblin Television, Paramount Television Studios)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Winner: Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn – Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women(Omnium Gatherum Media)

Also nominated:

Michael Bailey and Doug Murano – Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors(Written Backwards)

Samantha Kolesnik – Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror (Grindhouse Press)

Sara Tantlinger – Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror (Rooster Republic Press)

Mercedes M. Yardley – Arterial Bloom (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Winner: Tim Waggoner – Writing in the Dark (Guide Dog Books/Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Also nominated:

Florence Kelly and Meg Hafdahl – The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films (Skyhorse)

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas – 1000 Women in Horror (BearManor Media)

Brian Keene – End of the Road(Cemetery Dance Publications)

Alison Peirse – Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre (Rutgers University Press)

Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. – The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaption(McFarland)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-FictionWinner: Tim Waggoner – “Speaking of Horror” (The Writer)

Also nominated:

Rhonda Jackson Joseph – “The Beloved Haunting of Hill House: An Examination of Monstrous Motherhood” (The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaptation)(McFarland)

Cynthia Pelayo – “I Need to Believe” (Southwest Review Vol. 105.3) 

Kelly Robinson – “Lost, Found, and Finally Unbound: The Strange History of the 1910 Edison Frankenstein” (Rue Morgue Magazine, June 2020)

Christina Sng – “Final Girl: A Life in Horror” (Interstellar Flight Magazine, October 2020)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Winner: Christina Sng – A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Also nominated:

Alessandro Manzetti – Whitechapel Rhapsody: Dark Poems (Independent Legions Publishing)

Jessica McHugh – A Complex Accident of Life (Apokrupha)

Cynthia Pelayo – Into the Forest and All the Way Through (Burial Day Books)

Sara Tantlinger – Cradleland of Parasites (Rooster Republic Press)

Named in honor of the author of the seminal horror novel Dracula, the Bram Stoker Awards® are presented annually for superior writing in eleven categories including traditional fiction of various lengths, poetry, screenplays and non-fiction. Previous winners include Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, Joyce Carol Oates and Neil Gaiman. 

So, as you can see from the above, StokerCon was a smashing success!!! Four hundred eighty five people attended the virtual convention with a ninety percent turn out!! Two thousand eight hundred people have subscribed to the Horror Writers Association Quick Bites newsletter. The Bram Stoker Awards Ceremony had a grand total of twelve hundred views with over four hundred people who watched!! There were 18,000 views and chats during the whole convention. There were a total of one hundred forty votes for the Film Competition. These shy high statistics reveal a growing enthusiasm for horror in all its ravenous blood thirsty forms. Horror has not died! The beast is alive and well and tugging at its’ Damascus steel chains!

I hope this continues into the future, however horrifying that may be!!

Horror was never meant to be compartmentalized, confined, or stamped, shipped and packeged into one solid predefined shape. I now know that like the fanged vampire, a convulsing werewolf or mummy in shreds it changes form, breaks out of its cage and along iwth the changing times, it changes. It pulses and breathes, drinks blood and yet invites us along as it keeps changing with the times.

Blessings, Spiderwitch