2009 Shirley Jackson Awards Announced

In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards were established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

The 2009 Shirley Jackson Awards winners were announced on Sunday, July 11th 2010, at Readercon 21, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts. Congratulations to all winners! From the website:

NOVEL Winner:

BIG MACHINE, Victor LaValle
(Speigel & Grau)

Finalists:

• Last Days, Brian Evenson (Underland Press)
• The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters (Riverhead)
• The Owl Killers, Karen Maitland (Delacorte Press)
• The Red Tree, Caitlin R. Kiernan (Roc)
• White is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi (Nan A. Talese)

NOVELLA Winner:

Midnight Picnic, Nick Antosca
(Word Riot Press)

Finalists:

• The Language of Dying, Sarah Pinborough, (PS Publishing)
• “Sea-Hearts,” Margo Lanagan (X6, coeur de lion)
• Shrike, Quentin S. Crisp (PS Publishing)
• Vardøger, Stephen Volk (Gray Friar Press)
• The Witnesses are Gone, Joel Lane (PS Publishing)

NOVELETTE Winner:

“Morality,” Stephen King
(Esquire)

Finalists:

• “Catch Hell,” Laird Barron (Lovecraft Unbound, Dark Horse)
• “Each Thing I Show You Is a Piece of My Death,” Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer, (Clockwork Phoenix 2, Norilana Books)
• “Lonegan’s Luck,” Stephen Graham Jones (New Genre 6)
• The Night Cache, Andy Duncan (PS Publishing)

SHORT STORY Winner:

“The Pelican Bar,” Karen Joy Fowler
(Eclipse 3, Night Shade)

Finalists:

• “The Crevasse,” by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud (Lovecraft Unbound, Dark Horse)
• “Faces,” Aimee Bender (The Paris Review, Issue 191, Winter 2009)
• “The Jacaranda Smile,” Gemma Files (Apparitions, Undertow Publications)
• “Procedure in Plain Air,” Jonathan Lethem (The New Yorker, April 5, 2010)
• “Strappado,” Laird Barron (Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Solaris)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

Winners (Two Winners):

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, Kevin Wilson
(Harper Perennial)  & Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, Robert Shearman
(Big Finish Productions)

Finalists:

• Everland and Other Stories, Paul Witcover (PS Publishing)
• Fugue State, Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press)
• There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Penguin)
• Zoo, Otsuichi (Haikasoru/VIZ Media)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY Winner:

Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow
(Solaris)

Finalists:

• Apparitions, edited by Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications)
• British Invasion, edited by Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, and James A. Moore (Cemetery Dance)
• Exotic Gothic 3:  Strange Visitations, edited by Danel Olson (Ash Tree Press)
• Lovecraft Unbound, edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse)

Click here for a list of all past winners and nominees.