The Bram Stoker Awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot from the active members of the Horror Writers Association (HWA). Several members of the HWA were originally reluctant to endorse such writing awards, fearing it would incite competitiveness rather than friendly admiration. The HWA has therefore gone to great lengths to avoid mean-spirited competition by specifically seeking out new or overlooked writers and works, and officially issuing awards not based on “best of the year” criteria but for “superior achievement,” which allows for ties.

Any work of horror first published in the English language may be considered for an award during the year of its publication. The categories for which a Bram Stoker Award may be presented have varied over the years, reflecting the state of the publishing industry and the horror genre and the twelve current award categories are: Novel, First Novel, Short Fiction, Long Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction Collection, Poetry Collection, Anthology, Screenplay, Graphic Novel, Nonfiction, and Short Nonfiction.

On May 24th the HWA announced the winners for the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards.

Black Gate and Goth Chick News would like to congratulate the following authors and editors for their superior achievements and suggest you start loading up your Amazon wish list immediately.

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• WINNER: The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
  • The Deep, Alma Katsu (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
  • Devil’s Creek, Todd Keisling (Silver Shamrock)
  • Malorie, Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
  • Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• WINNER: The Fourth Whore, EV Knight (Raw Dog Screaming)
  • The Taxidermist’s Lover, Polly Hall (CamCat)
  • The Return, Rachel Harrison (Berkley)
  • Tome, Ross Jeffery (The Writing Collective)
  • True Story, Kate Reed Petty (Viking)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• WINNER: Clown in a Cornfield, Adam Cesare (HarperTeen)
  • Bent Heavens, Daniel Kraus (Holt)
  • The Bone Carver, Monique Snyman (Vesuvian)
  • Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas (Swoon)
  • Ghost Wood Song, Erica Waters (HarperTeen)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• WINNER: Night of the Mannequins, Stephen Graham Jones (Tordotcom)
  • “Beyond the Reef”, Gabino Iglesias (Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror)
  • The Invention of Ghosts, Gwendolyn Kiste (Nightscape)
  • “I Will Find You, Even in the Dark”, Jess Landry (Dim Shores Presents Volume 1)
  • Two Truths and a Lie, Sarah Pinsker (Tordotcom)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• WINNER: “One Last Transformation”, Josh Malerman (Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors)
  • “Am I Missing the Sunlight?”, Meghan Arcuri (Borderlands 7)
  • “Introduction to the Horror Story, Day 1”, Kurt Fawver (Nightmare 11/20)
  • “The Thing I Found Along a Dirt Patch Road”, Cindy O’Quinn (Shotgun Honey Presents Volume 4: Recoil)
  • “Should Fire Remember the Fuel?”, Kyla Lee Ward (Oz is Burning)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• WINNER: Grotesque: Monster Stories, Lee Murray (Things in the Well)
  • Velocities: Stories, Kathe Koja (Meerkat)
  • Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies, John Langan (Word Horde)
  • The Cuckoo Girls, Patricia Lillie (Trepidatio)
  • Bloody Britain, Anna Taborska (Shadow)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• WINNER: Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Geneve Flynn & Lee Murray, eds. (Omnium Gatherum)
  • Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors, Michael Bailey & Doug Murano, eds. (Written Backwards)
  • Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror, Samantha Kolesnik, ed. (Grindhouse)
  • Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror, Sara Tantlinger, ed. (Rooster Republic)
  • Arterial Bloom, Mercedes M. Yardley, ed. (Crystal Lake)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• WINNER: Writing in the Dark, Tim Waggoner (Guide Dog)
  • The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films, Kelly Florence & Meg Hafdahl (Skyhorse)
  • 1000 Women in Horror, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (BearManor)
  • End of the Road, Brian Keene (Cemetery Dance)
  • Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre, Alison Peirse, ed. (Rutgers University Press)
  • The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaption, Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., ed.  (McFarland)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

• WINNER: “Speaking of Horror”, Tim Waggoner (The Writer 11/20)
  • “The Beloved Haunting of Hill House: An Examination of Monstrous Motherhood”, Rhonda Jackson Joseph (The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaptation)
  • “I Need to Believe”, Cynthia Pelayo (Southwest Review 105.3)
  • “Lost, Found, and Finally Unbound: The Strange History of the 1910 Edison Frankenstein”, Kelly Robinson (Rue Morgue 6/20)
  • “Final Girl: A Life in Horror”, Christina Sng (Interstellar Flight 10/20)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• WINNER: A Collection of Dreamscapes, Christina Sng (Raw Dog Screaming)
  • Whitechapel Rhapsody: Dark Poems, Alessandro Manzetti (Independent Legions)
  • A Complex Accident of Life, Jessica McHugh (Apokrupha)
  • Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Cynthia Pelayo (Burial Day)
  • Cradleland of Parasites, Sara Tantlinger (Rooster Republic)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• WINNER: Mary Shelley Presents, Nancy Holder, Chiara Di Francia & Amelia Woo (Kymera)
  • The Masque of the Red Death, Steven Archer (Raw Dog Screaming)
  • Spectre Deep 6, Jennifer Brody & Jules Rivera (Turner)
  • Road of Bones, Rich Douek & Alex Cormack (IDW)
  • Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein), Alessandro Manzetti & Stefano Cardoselli (Independent Legions)
  • Lonesome Days, Savage Nights, Steve Niles, Salvatore Simeone & Szymon Kudranski (TKO Studios)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• WINNER: The Invisible Man
• Color Out of Space
• The Haunting of Bly Manor, “The Altar of the Dead”
• Lovecraft Country, “Jig-a-Bobo”
• Lovecraft Country, “Sundown”