Well, you can’t blame me for trying.

Every year around this time, The Horror Writers Association announces the nominees for the annual Bram Stoker Awards, which recognize superior achievement in horror and dark fiction. Also, every year, I go on an Internet search for one of these amazing awards for sale somewhere.

I mean come on, people have sold their Oscars, which admittedly are not this cool and are probably not this difficult to get. A general search got my heart racing a couple of times, only to discover the link sent me to a page where I could buy a Stoker award-winning book. eBay? Nope. Etsy? Someone has to have duplicated it on Etsy right? No joy, though I did find quite a lot of cool Dracula-related art, such as a bracelet with a quote from the book which reads, “I have crossed oceans of time to find you…”

Nice.

Still, knowing this particular group of people, the award, a miniature haunted house designed by Harlan Ellison and sculptor Steven Kirk, probably comes with a curse on anyone who tries to create a knock off. That, and as you can see, it’s amazingly intricate and darn right perfect in every way. So, knowing it’s unlikely I’ll ever have one of these beauties on my own shelf, I’m going to do what you can do – load up my 2022 reading list with a whole bunch of selections from this year’s ballot. Remember, these are just the nominees, with the final winners being announced on May 15th at StokerCon in Denver, Colorado.

Superior Achievement in a Novel

V. Castro – The Queen of the Cicadas (Flame Tree Press)
Grady Hendrix – The Final Girl Support Group (Berkley)
Stephen Graham Jones – My Heart is a Chainsaw (Gallery/Saga Press)
Cynthia Pelayo – Children of Chicago (Agora Books)
Chuck Wendig – The Book of Accidents (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel*

S. Alessandro Martinez – Helminth (Omnium Gatherum)
LaTanya McQueen – When the Reckoning Comes (Harper Perennial)
Terry Miles – Rabbits (Del Rey)
Hailey Piper – Queen of Teeth (Strangehouse Books)
Lisa Quigley – The Forest (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
Nicole Willson – Tidepool (The Parliament House)

*Due to a tie in fifth place, there are six nominees in this category.

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Saladin Ahmed (author) and Sami Kivelä (artist) – Abbott 1973 (BOOM! Studios)
Kami Garcia (author); Mico Suayan (artist); Jason Badower (artist); and Mike Mayhew (artist) – Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity (DC Comics)
Alessandro Manzetti (author) and Stefano Cardoselli (artist) – The Inhabitant of the Lake (Independent Legions Publishing)
Grant Morrison (author); Alex Child (author); and Naomi Franquiz (artist) – Proctor Valley Road (BOOM! Studios)
Dan Panosian (author) and Marianna Ignazzi (artist) – An Unkindness of Ravens (BOOM! Studios)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Kendare Blake – All These Bodies (Quill Tree Books)
R.L. Boyle – The Book of the Baku (Titan Books )
Jessica Lewis – Bad Witch Burning (Delacorte Press)
Krystal Sutherland – House of Hollow (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Erica Waters – The River Has Teeth (HarperTeen)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

V. Castro – Goddess of Filth (Creature Publishing, LLC)
Cassandra Khaw – Nothing But Blackened Teeth (Tor Nightfire)
Eric LaRocca – Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (Weirdpunk Books)
Hailey Piper – “Recitation of the First Feeding” (Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy) (The Seventh Terrace)
Jeff Strand – “Twentieth Anniversary Screening” (Slice and Dice) (Independently published)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Carol Gyzander – “The Yellow Crown” (Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign) (Hippocampus Press)
Lee Murray – “Permanent Damage” (Attack From the ’80s) (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Cindy O’Quinn – “A Gathering at the Mountain” (The Bad Book) (Bleeding Edge Books)
Anna Taborska -“Two Shakes Of A Dead Lamb’s Tail” (Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands) (Telos Publishing)
Kyla Lee Ward – “A Whisper in the Death Pit” (Weirdbook #44) (Wildside Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Gemma Files – In That Endlessness, Our End (Grimscribe Press)
Philip Fracassi – Beneath a Pale Sky (Lethe Press)
Jonathan Maberry – Empty Graves: Tales of the Living Dead (WordFire Press LLC)
Lisa Tuttle – The Dead Hours of Night (Valancourt Books)
A.C.  Wise – The Ghost Sequences (Undertow Publications)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

C. Henry Chaisson, Nick Antosca; and Scott Cooper – Antlers (Searchlight Pictures)
Hwang Dong-hyuk – Squid Game, Season 1, Episode 1: “Red Light, Green Light” (Siren Pictures)
Mike Flanagan, James Flanagan, and Jeff Howard – Midnight Mass, Season 1, Episode 6: “Book VI: Acts of the Apostles” (Intrepid Pictures)
Phil Graziadei and Leigh Janiak – Fear Street: Part One – 1994 (Chernin Entertainment)
Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, and Nia DaCosta – Candyman (Universal Pictures)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Joe R. Lansdale – Apache Witch and Other Poetic Observations (Independent Legions Publishing)
Jessica McHugh – Strange Nests (Apokrupha)
Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo – Victims (Weasel Press)
Christina Sng, Angela Yuriko Smith, Lee Murray, and Geneve Flynn – Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken. (Yuriko Publishing)
Lucy A. Snyder – Exposed Nerves (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

James Chambers – Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign (Hippocampus Press)
Ellen Datlow – When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (Titan Books)
Aaron J. French and Jess Landry – There is No Death, There are No Dead (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Eric J. Guignard – Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World (Dark Moon Books)
Eugene Johnson – Attack From the ’80s (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Michael Knost – Writers Workshop of Horror 2 (Hydra Publications)
Danel Olson – 9/11 Gothic: Decrypting Ghosts and Trauma in New York City’s Terrorism Novels (Lexington Books)
Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock and Regina M. Hansen – Giving the Devil His Due: Satan and Cinema (Fordham University Press)
Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. – Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters (Reaktion Books)
Kristopher Woofter – Shirley Jackson: A Companion (Peter Lang Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

Dejan Ognjanović – “The Three Paradigms of Horror” (Vastarien Vol. 4, Issue 2) (Grimscribe Press)
Cindy O’Quinn – “One and Done” (Were Tales: A Shapeshifter Anthology) (Brigids Gate Press)
Emily Ruth Verona – “A Horror Fan’s Guide to Surviving Womanhood” (thefinalgirls.co.uk)
Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. – “Devil’s Advocates: The Conjuring” (Auteur Publishing/Liverpool University Press)
Angela Yuriko Smith – “Horror Writers: Architects of Hope” (The Sirens Call, Halloween 2021, Issue 55) (Sirens Call Publications)