If you live somewhere that, like Chicago, has been experiencing temperatures incompatible with human life over the past couple months, then thinking about a lounge chair, a book and an umbrella drink wearing anything less than a Tauntaun skin is pretty darn appealing. And with perfect timing, here comes the 2018 Bram Stoker Award nominees hot off the press from the Horror Writers Association (HWA), providing a categorized list of reading material.

Now all you need is the lounge chair, an umbrella drink and a space heater.

Named in honor Dracula’s spiritual Daddy, the Bram Stoker Awards are presented each year for superior achievement in writing in eleven categories. It is also the coolest physical award ever. I mean, Oscar is just a naked gold guy while the Stoker looks like this:

Previous winners include Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, Joyce Carol Oates, and Neil Gaiman.

The HWA is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. The HWA formed in 1985 with the help of many of the field’s greats, including Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, and Joe R. Lansdale, and in addition to the Stoker, the HWA is the sponsor of the annual StokerCon horror convention which takes place in Grand Rapids, MI.

So grab a pen Black Gaters and get ready to make your list…

• Superior Achievement in a Novel
  • Katsu, Alma – The Hunger (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
  • Maberry, Jonathan – Glimpse (St. Martin’s Press)
  • Malerman, Josh – Unbury Carol (Del Rey)
  • Stoker, Dacre and Barker, J.D. – Dracul (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
  • Tremblay, Paul – The Cabin at the End of the World (William Morrow)

• Superior Achievement in a First Novel
  • Fine, Julia – What Should Be Wild (Harper)
  • Grau, T.E. – I Am the River (Lethe Press)
  • Kiste, Gwendolyn – The Rust Maidens (Trepidatio Publishing)
  • Stage, Zoje – Baby Teeth (St. Martin’s Press)
  • Tremblay, Tony – The Moore House (Twisted Publishing)

• Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
  • Ireland, Justina – Dread Nation (Balzer + Bray)
  • Legrand, Claire – Sawkill Girls (Katherine Tegen Books)
  • Maberry, Jonathan – Broken Lands (Simon & Schuster)
  • Snyman, Monique – The Night Weaver (Gigi Publishing)
  • White, Kiersten – The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (Delacorte Press)

• Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
  • Ahmed, Saladin – Abbott (BOOM! Studios)
  • Azzarello, Brian – Moonshine Vol. 2: Misery Train (Image Comics)
  • Bunn, Cullen – Bone Parish (BOOM! Studios)
  • LaValle, Victor – Victor LaValle’sDestroyer (BOOM! Studios)
  • Liu, Marjorie – Monstress Volume 3: Haven (Image Comics)

• Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
  • Bailey, Michael – Our Children, Our Teachers (Written Backwards)
  • Hill, Joe – “You Are Released” (Flight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales) (Scribner)
  • Malik, Usman T. – “Dead Lovers on Each Blade, Hung” (Nightmare Magazine Issue #74)
  • Mason, Rena – “The Devil’s Throat” (Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror) (Adrenaline Press)
  • Smith, Angela Yuriko – Bitter Suites (CreateSpace)

• Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
  • Landry, Jess – “Mutter” (Fantastic Tales of Terror) (Crystal Lake Publishing)
  • Murray, Lee – “Dead End Town”(Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 2) (IFWG Publishing International)
  • Neugebauer, Annie – “Glove Box” (The Dark City Crime & Mystery Magazine Volume 3, Issue 4-July 2018)
  • Taff, John F.D. – “A Winter’s Tale” (Little Black Spots) (Grey Matter Press)
  • Ward, Kyla Lee – “And in Her Eyes the City Drowned” (Weirdbook #39) (Wildside Press)

• Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
  • Files, Gemma – Spectral Evidence (Trepidatio Publishing)
  • Guignard, Eric J. – That Which Grows Wild (Cemetery Dance Publications)
  • Iglesias, Gabino – Coyote Songs (Broken River Books)
  • Snyder, Lucy A. – Garden of Eldritch Delights (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • Waggoner, Tim – Dark and Distant Voices: A Story Collection (Nightscape Press)

• Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
  • Aster, Ari – Hereditary (PalmStar Media)
  • Averill, Meredith – The Haunting of Hill House: The Bent-Neck Lady, Episode 01:05 (Amblin Television, FlanaganFilm, Paramount Television)
  • Garland, Alex – Annihilation (DNA Films, Paramount Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions, Skydance Media)
  • Heisserer, Eric – Bird Box (Bluegrass Films, Chris Morgan Productions, Universal Pictures)
  • Woods, Bryan, Beck, Scott, and Krasinski, John – A Quiet Place (Platinum Dunes, Sunday Night)

• Superior Achievement in an Anthology
  • Chambers, James, Grey, April, and Masterson, Robert – A New York State of Fright: Horror Stories from the Empire State (Hippocampus Press)
  • Datlow, Ellen – The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea (Night Shade Books)
  • Guignard, Eric J. – A World of Horror (Dark Moon Books)
  • Murray, Lee – Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror (Adrenaline Press)
  • Ward, D. Alexander – Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road (Crystal Lake Publishing)

• Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
  • Connolly, John – Horror Express (PS Publishing)
  • Gambin, Lee – The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film (Centipede Press)
  • Ingham, Howard David – We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror (Room 207 Press)
  • Mynhardt, Joe and Johnson, Eugene – It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life (Crystal Lake Publishing)
  • Wetmore Jr., Kevin J. – Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series (McFarland)

• Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
  • Boston, Bruce – Artifacts (Independent Legions Publishing)
  • Cowen, David E. – Bleeding Saffron (Weasel Press)
  • Lynch, Donna – Witches (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • Simon, Marge and Manzetti, Alessandro – War (Crystal Lake Publishing)
  • Tantlinger, Sara – The Devil’s Dreamland (Strangehouse Books)

The presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards will occur during the 4th annual StokerCon, being held this year at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids on Saturday night, May 11th. Tickets to the banquet and the convention are on sale to the public and the awards presentation will also be live-streamed online via the website.