Bram Stoker Awards Finalists w/ review links

I am very excited to present the The 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot. Below I have reprinted the entire ballot with the addition of my reviews where appropriate.

Now, I need to go figure out who I am going to vote for because this ballot is filled with some amazing choices.

The 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot Announced

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Final Ballot for the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see http://www.horror.org/) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 1,800 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/) 

Works appearing on this Ballot are Bram Stoker Award® Nominees for Superior Achievement in their Category, e.g., Novel, and everyone may refer to them as such immediately after the announcement.

The HWA Board and the Bram Stoker Awards® Committee congratulate all those appearing on the Final Ballot. Notes about the voting process will appear after the ballot listing.

If your work appears on this ballot and you would like to offer it to voting members of the HWA in the Internet Mailer to be sent on or around February 25, please see important information following the ballot.
The 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® Final Ballot

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

Superior Achievement in a First Novel*

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

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

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

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

 
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

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

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

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

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

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

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

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

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

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

 
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

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

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

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

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

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

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

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

Important Notes for those Appearing on the Final Ballot:

If your work appears on the Final Ballot (i.e., you are the author, agent, editor, publisher, or publicist) and you wish to provide a link allowing Voting Members to read the work, there will be a SPECIAL FINAL BALLOT INTERNET MAILER issued on or about February 25.

If your work was listed on the Special Preliminary Ballot Internet Mailer it will be relisted automatically with your previously provided links and you need not email or query.

If links to your work were not included on the Special Preliminary Ballot IM and you want to include them on the Special Final Ballot IM, please email the Internet Mailer editor at imailer@horror.org with the details as soon as you can, but no later than February 24 (links will not be accepted for this Special IM after February 25). You may offer to send electronic copies; provide reading copies on a website; or provide physical copies. Anyone validly representing a work appearing on the Final Ballot may submit via this method, whether or not they are HWA members (this includes the author, agent, editor, publisher, or publicist of the work).

Do NOT spam Voting Members; this is a severe breach of etiquette – Active and Lifetime (voting) members tend to notice such breaches and may consider them when determining which works to vote for on the Ballot.

You may also post the fact that your work is available to be read for Bram Stoker Award consideration ONCE and only once here: http://www.horrorwritersassociation.org/login-forum/  (Bram Stoker Eligible Work). If you had already posted your work here prior to the announcement of the Final Ballot you ARE entitled to post it once more. Note: Only members may post at this Forum, but members are encouraged to post on behalf of non-members who may appear on the Ballot.

February 28: Stoker Final ballot dispatched – please note only Active and Lifetime Members can vote. If you are an Active or Lifetime Member and do NOT receive your electronic ballot link by March 1, please first check your spam/junk mail filter, make sure your email address is updated in Wild Apricot, and then email Brad C. Hodson at admin@horror.org with a brief message about the issue. Note that Ballots are sent to the same email address as the Newsletter and the Internet Mailer. It is the responsibility of Members to keep their email address up to date in Wild Apricot or by advising the administrator of any issues with your membership account at admin@horror.org. Late Ballots cannot be accepted under any circumstances.

March 15: The Bram Stoker Awards final ballot closes at midnight U.S. Pacific Time. Any ballots received after this time will be discarded.

March 15: The 2022 Bram Stoker Recommendation sheet goes live and the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards Juries open to Submissions. Members should hold any Recommendations for works published in the calendar year 2022 until the Sheet is live.

Members wishing to submit work published in 2022 to the relevant Jury should read the information at the Bram Stoker Awards website before doing so here: http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/submissions/

May 14: The 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® announced during the Annual Bram Stoker Awards Banquet held during StokerCon™ 2022 in Denver, Colorado. 

Bookings and information at: http://stokercon.com. Note: Banquet Tickets are separate from the Convention Membership and should be purchased directly from https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stokercon-2022-tickets-102847690210. Click “Tickets” to see the Banquet option as an add-on to your existing registration or an option for a new registration.

Please direct any questions to: stokerchair@horror.org

Bram Stoker Awards® Committee