If you live somewhere that, like Chicago, has been experiencing temperatures incompatible with human life recently, 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 2019 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot hot off the press from the 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.

Hazzah.

Named in honor of Dracula’s beloved Pappa, the Stokers are presented annually by the HWA for superior writing in eleven categories including traditional fiction of various lengths, poetry, screenplays and non-fiction. The HWA also presents a Lifetime Achievement Award to living individuals who have made a substantial and enduring contribution to the genre. 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 this year takes place in Scarborough, United Kingdom in April, and where the 2019 winners will be announced.

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

2019 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• Goingback, Owl – Coyote Rage (Independent Legions Publishing)
• Goodfellow, Cody – Unamerica (King Shot Press)
• Lawson, Curtis M. – Black Heart Boys’ Choir (Wyrd Horror)
• Little, John R. – The Murder of Jesus Christ (Bad Moon Books)
• Malerman, Josh – Inspection (Del Rey)
• Miskowski, S.P. – The Worst is Yet to Come (TrepidatioPublishing)
• Moore, Michael J – Highway Twenty (Hellbound BooksPublishing LLC)
• Murray, Lee – Into the Ashes (Severed Press)
• Nevill, Adam L.G. – The Reddening (Ritual Limited)
• Taff, John F.D. – The Fearing (Grey Matter Press)
• Wendig, Chuck – Wanderers (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• Amor, Gemma – Dear Laura (Independently Published)
• Cull, Andrew – Remains (IFWG Publishing International)
• Day, Nicholas – Grind Your Bones to Dust (Excession Press)
• Guignard, Eric J. – Doorways to the Deadeye (JournalStone)
• Hopstaken, Steven and Prusi, Melissa – Stoker’s Wilde (Flame Tree Press)
• Lane, Michelle Renee – Invisible Chains (Haverhill HousePublishing)
• Luff, Cody T – Ration (Apex Book Company)
• Moulton, Rachel Eve – Tinfoil Butterfly (MCD x FSG Originals)
• Read, Sarah – The Bone Weaver’s Orchard (TrepidatioPublishing)
• Starling, Caitlin – The Luminous Dead (Harper Voyager)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• Bérubé, Amelinda – Here There Are Monsters (Sourcebooks Fire)
• Dávila Cardinal, Ann – Five Midnights (Tor Teen)
• Ernshaw, Shea – Winterwood (Simon Pulse)
• Faring, Sara – The Tenth Girl (Imprint)
• Gardner, Liana – Speak No Evil (Vesuvian Books)
• Kurtagich, Dawn – Teeth in the Mist (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
• Marshall, Kate Alice – Rules for Vanishing (Viking Books for Young Readers)
• Nzondi – Oware Mosaic (Omnium Gatherum)
• Salomon, Peter Adam – Eight Minutes, Thirty-Two Seconds (PseudoPsalms Press)
• West, Jacqueline – Last Things (Greenwillow Books)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• Bunn, Cullen – Bone Parish Vol. 2 (BOOM! Studios)
• Bunn, Cullen – Bone Parish Vol. 3 (BOOM! Studios)
• Cates, Donny – Redneck Volume 3: Longhorns (Image Comics)
• Gaiman, Neil – Neil Gaiman’s Snow, Glass, Apples (Dark Horse Books)
• Guillory, Rob – Rob Guillory’s Farmhand Volume 1: Reap What Was Sown (Image Comics)
• Lemire, Jeff – Gideon Falls Book 2: Original Sins (Image Comics)
• Lemire, Jeff – Gideon Falls Volume 3: Stations of the Cross (Image Comics)
• Liu, Marjorie – Monstress Volume 4: The Chosen (Image Comics)
• Manzetti, Alessandro – Calcutta Horror (Independent Legions Publishing)
• Tanabe, Gou – P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Volume1 (Dark Horse Manga)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• Breukelaar, J.S. – Like Ripples on a Blank Shore (Collision: Stories) (Meerkat Press, LLC)
• Cluley, Ray – Adrenaline Junkies (The Porcupine Boy and Other Anthological Oddities) (Crossroad Press)
• Jones, Pam – Ivy Day (Spaceboy Books LLC)
• LaValle, Victor – Up from Slavery (Weird Tales Magazine#363) (Weird Tales Inc.)
• Manzetti, Alessandro – The Keeper of Chernobyl (Omnium Gatherum)
• Serafini, Matt – Rites of Extinction (Grindhouse Press)
• Smith, Farah Rose – Anonyma (Ulthar Press)
• Taborska, Anna –The Cat Sitter (Shadowcats) (Black Shuck Books)
• Tantlinger, Sara – To Be Devoured (Unnerving)
• Thomas, Richard – Ring of Fire (The Seven Deadliest) (Cutting Block Books)
• Warren, Kaaron – Into Bones Like Oil (Meerkat Shorts)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• Chapman, Greg – “The Book of Last Words” (This Sublime Darkness and Other Dark Stories) (Things in the Well Publishing)
• Kiste, Gwendolyn – “The Eight People Who Murdered Me (Excerpt from Lucy Westenra’s Diary)” (Nightmare MagazineNov. 2019, Issue 86)
• Landry, Jess – “Bury Me in Tar and Twine” (Tales of the LostVolume 1: We All Lose Something!) (Things in the Well Publishing)
• Little, John R. – “Anniversary” (Dark Tides: A Charity Horror Anthology) (Gestalt Media)
• MacKenzie, Brooke – “The Elevator Game” (Who Knocks? Magazine Issue #2)
• O’Quinn, Cindy – “Lydia” (The Twisted Book of Shadows) (Twisted Publishing)
• Serna-Grey, Ben – “Where Gods Dance” (Apex Magazine Issue #118)
• Waggoner, Tim – “A Touch of Madness” (The Pulp Horror Book of Phobias) (LVP Publications)
• Westlake, Jack – “Glass Eyes in Porcelain Faces” (Black Static Issue #70) (TTS Press)
• White, Gordon B. – “Birds of Passage” (Twice-Told: A Collection of Doubles) (Chthonic Matter)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• Chambers, James – On the Night Border (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Chiang, Ted – Exhalation: Stories (Knopf)
• Evenson, Brian – Song for the Unraveling of the World (Coffee House Press)
• Hodson, Brad C. – Where Carrion Gods Dance (Washington Park Press)
• Howard, Kat – A Cathedral of Myth and Bone: Stories (Gallery/Saga Press)
• Johnson, L.S. – Rare Birds: Stories (Traversing Z Press)
• Jonez, Kate – Lady Bits (Trepidatio Publishing)
• Langan, John – Sefira and Other Betrayals (Hippocampus Press)
• Read, Sarah – Out of Water (Trepidatio Publishing)
• Tremblay, Paul – Growing Things and Other Stories (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• Aster, Ari – Midsommar (B-Reel Films, Square Peg)
• Busick, Guy and Murphy, Ryan – Ready or Not (Mythology Entertainment)
• Duffer Brothers, The – Stranger Things (Season 3, Chapter Eight: The Battle of Starcourt) (Netflix)
• Eggers, Robert and Eggers, Max – The Lighthouse (A24, New Regency Pictures, RT Features)
• Flanagan, Mike – Doctor Sleep (Warner Bros., Intrepid Pictures/Vertigo Entertainment)
• Gilroy, Dan – Velvet Buzzsaw (Netflix)
• Hageman, Dan and Hageman, Kevin – Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1212 Entertainment, CBS Films, DDY, Entertainment One, Rolling Hills Productions, Sean Daniel Company, Starlight International Media)
• López, Issa – Tigers Are Not Afraid (Filmadora Nacional, Peligrosa)
• Peele, Jordan – Us (Monkeypaw Productions, Perfect World Pictures, Dentsu, Fuji Television Network, Universal Pictures)
• Sutherland, Teresa – The Wind (Soapbox Films, Divide/Conquer, Mind Hive Films)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• Beltran, Patrick and Ward, D. Alexander – The Seven Deadliest (Cutting Block Books)
• Brhel, John and Sullivan, Joe – Other Voices, Other Tombs (Independently Published)
• Brozek, Jennifer – A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods (Pulse Publishing)
• Cade, Octavia – Sharp & Sugar Tooth: Women Up to No Good (Upper Rubber Boot Books)
• Datlow, Ellen – Echoes (Gallery/Saga Press)
• Golden, Christopher and Moore, James A. – The Twisted Book of Shadows (Twisted Publishing)
• Guignard, Eric J. – Pop the Clutch: Thrilling Tales of Rockabilly, Monsters, and Hot Rod Horror (Dark Moon Books)
• Johnson, Eugene and Dillon, Steve – Tales of the Lost Volume 1: We All Lose Something! (Things in the Well Publishing)
• Schweitzer, Darrell – Mountains of Madness Revealed (PS Publishing)
• Wilson, Robert S. – Nox Pareidolia (Nightscape Press)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• Beal, Eleanor and Greenaway, Jonathan– Horror and Religion: New Literary Approaches to Theology, Race, and Sexuality (University of Wales Press)
• Earle, Harriet E.H. – Gender, Sexuality, and Queerness in American Horror Story: Critical Essays (McFarland)
• Eighteen-Bisang, Robert and Miller, Elizabeth – Drafts of Dracula (Tellwell Talent)
• Grafius, Brandon R. – Reading the Bible with Horror (Lexington Books/Fortress Academic)
• Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra – Masks in Horror Cinema: Eyes Without Faces (University of Wales Press)
• Kachuba, John B. – Shapeshifters: A History (Reaktion Books)
• Kröger, Lisa and Anderson, Melanie R. – Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction (Quirk Books)
• Stobbart, Dawn – Videogames and Horror: From Amnesia to Zombies, Run! (University of Wales Press)
• Tibbetts, John C. – The Furies of Marjorie Bowen (McFarland)
• Volk, Stephen – Coffinmaker’s Blues: Collected Writings on Terror (PS Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

• Clasen, Mathias – Evolution, Cognition, and Horror: A Précis of Why Horror Seduces (Journal of Cognitive Historiography Vol 4, No 2)
• Hurley, Gavin F. – Between Hell and Earth: Rhetorical Appropriation of Religious Space within Hellraiser (The Spaces and Places of Horror, Vernon Press)
• Kiste, Gwendolyn – Magic, Madness, and Women Who Creep: The Power of Individuality in the Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Vastarien: A Literary Journal Vol. 2, Issue 1)
• Liaguno, Vince A. – Slasher Films Made Me Gay: The Queer Appeal and Subtext of the Genre (LGBTQ+ Horror Month: 9/1/2019, Ginger Nuts of Horror)
• Mann, Craig Ian – The Beast Without: The Cinematic Werewolf as a (Counter)Cultural Metaphor (Horror Studies Journal Volume 10.1)
• Renner, Karen J.– The Evil Aging Women of American Horror Story (Elder Horror: Essays on Film’s Frightening Images of Aging, McFarland)
• Robinson, Kelly – Film’s First Lycanthrope: 1913’s The Werewolf (Scary Monsters Magazine #114)
• Waggoner, Tim – Riding Out the Storms (Writing in the Dark)
• Weich, Valerie E. – Lord Byron’s Whipping Boy: Dr. John William Polidori and the 200^thAnniversary of The Vampyre (Famous Monsters of Filmland, Issue #291)
• Worth, Aaron – From the Books of Wandering: Fin-De-Siècle Poetics of a Supernatural Figure (The Times Literary Supplement)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• Addison, Linda D. and Manzetti, Alessandro – The Place of Broken Things (Crystal Lake Publishing)
• Cade, Octavia – Mary Shelley Makes a Monster (Aqueduct Press)
• Coffman, Frank – The Coven’s Hornbook & Other Poems (Bold Venture Press)
• Crum, Amanda – Tall Grass (Independently Published)
• Davitt, Deborah L. – The Gates of Never (Finishing Line Press)
• Lynch, Donna – Choking Back the Devil (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Mitchell, Zoe – Hag (Indigo Dreams Publishing)
• Scalise, Michelle – Dragonfly and Other Songs of Mourning (LVP Publications)
• Simon, Marge and Dietrich, Bryan D. – The Demeter Diaries (Independent Legions Publishing)
• Ward, Kyla Lee – The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities (P’rea Press)
• Wytovich, Stephanie M. – The Apocalyptic Mannequin (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Update: See the 2020 Bram Stoker winners here, and 2019’s nominees here.