Horror Writers Association Announces Bram Stoker Finalists

Click here for the press release.

Today the Horror Writers Association announced the final ballot for the prestigious Stoker Awards. Please click here for the full press release, but below I did cut and paste the most relevant categories for libraries.

You will note many books and author who I talk about as great for libraries here.

This is a list you should be using both to help readers find good reads AND to for collection development.

Another reason to care even more about this list...I can personally vouch for the process. At least for the second category- Superior Achievement in a First Novel. I was on the jury to create the long list for that category and I am happy to say that the five nominees that made it through voting are all very deserving. I know the multi-tiered process worked because I was a part of it from day one.

As an Active Member of the HWA, I also get to vote. I wonder who will win?

Oh yeah, that's the second reason you should care. I will be at the banquet where the winners will be announced. From the press release:

The presentation of the Bram Stoker Awards® will occur during the second annualStokerCon aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California on the evening of April 29,2017. Tickets to the banquet and the convention are on sale to the public atwww.stokercon2017.org. The awards presentation will also be live-streamed online via the website.

I will be live Tweeting the entire banquet that night both because I love you all and because I don't have a date [he will be back in Chicago with the kids].

Can you tell that I am excited? Why not join the fun and try one of these novels, stories, or collections out for yourself. At the very least, hand a few out to patrons or make a display.

Bram Stoker Finalists

Note: This is a partial list. Please click here for the full details.]

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Hand, Elizabeth – Hard Light: A Cass Neary Crime Novel (Minotaur Books)

Jones, Stephen Graham – Mongrels (William Morrow)

Langan, John – The Fisherman (Word Horde)

MacLeod, Bracken – Stranded: A Novel (Tor Books)

Tremblay, Paul – Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Barnett, Barbara – The Apothecary’s Curse (Pyr Books)

Chapman, Greg – Hollow House (Omnium Gatherum Media)

Deady, Tom – Haven (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Garza, Michelle and Lason, Melissa – Mayan Blue (Sinister Grin Press)

Wytovich, Stephanie – The Eighth (Dark Regions Press)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Alexander, Maria – Snowed (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Brozek, Jennifer – Last Days of Salton Academy (Ragnarok Publishing)

Cosimano, Elle – Holding Smoke (Hyperion-Disney)

Roberts, Jeyn – When They Fade (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

Sirowy, Alexandra – The Telling (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Bunn, Cullen – Blood Feud (Oni Press)

Chambers, James – Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe

(Moonstone)

de Campi, Alex – No Mercy, Vol. 2 (Image Comics)

Kirkman, Robert – Outcast by Kirkman&Azaceta, Vol 3 This Little Light (Image Comics)

Miller, Mark Alan and Lansdale, Joe R. –The Steam Man (Dark Horse Books)

Moore, Alan – Providence, Act 1 (Avatar Press)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Cushing, Nicole – The Sadist’s Bible (01Publishing)

Edelman, Scott – That Perilous Stuff (Chiral Mad 3) (Written Backwards)

LaValle, Victor – The Ballad of Black Tom (Tor.com)

Malerman, Josh – The Jupiter Drop (You, Human) (Dark Regions Press)

Waggoner, Tim – The Winter Box (DarkFuse)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Bailey, Michael – Time is a Face on the Water (Borderlands 6) (Borderlands Press)

Bodner, Hal – A Rift in Reflection (Chiral Mad 3) (Written Backwards)

Golden, Christopher – The Bad Hour (What the #@&% is That?) (Saga Press)

Mannetti, Lisa – ArbeitMacht Frei(Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories) (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Oates, Joyce Carol – The Crawl Space (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Volume #2016/Issue#8) (Dell Magazines)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Barron, Laird – Swift to Chase (JournalStone)

Chizmar, Richard – A Long December (Subterranean Press)

Oates, Joyce Carol – The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror (Mysterious Press)

O’Neill, Gene – Lethal Birds (Omnium Gatherum Media)

Schwaeble, Hank – American Nocturne (Cohesion Press)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Bailey, Michael – Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards)

Manzetti, Alessandro – The Beauty of Death (Independent Legions Publishing)

Monteleone, Thomas F. and Monteleone, Oliva F. – Borderlands 6 (Samhain Publishing, Ltd.)

Mosiman, Billie Sue – Fright Mare-Women Write Horror (DM Publishing)

Murano, Doug and Ward, D. Alexander – Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories (Crystal Lake

Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Braudy, Leo – Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies and Other Monsters of the

Natural and Supernatural(Yale University Press)

Franklin, Ruth – Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (Liveright Publishing Corporation)

Olson, Danel P. – Guillermo del Toro’s “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”:

Studies in the Horror Film (Centipede Press)

Poole, W. Scott – In the Mountains of Madness: The Life, Death and Extraordinary Afterlife of H. P. Lovecraft (Soft Skull Press)

Skal, David J. – Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula (Liveright Publishing Corporation)

Tibbetts, John – The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub (McFarland)