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Bram Stoker Awards
"The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing. The Awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA." Click here to visit the official website.
Bram Stoker Awards
Best Novel
Ararat by Call Number: HORROR GOLDENWhile climbing Mount Ararat in Turkey, an avalanche forces a couple to seek shelter inside a massive cave uncovered by the snow fall. The cave is actually an ancient, buried ship that they speculate is really Noah's Ark. But when a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark for the first time, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses; the cadaver within is an ugly, misshapen thing with horns. Now a massive blizzard has them trapped in the cave thousands of meters up the side of a remote mountain... but the team is not alone.
Finalists
- Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King & Owen King
- Black Mad Wheel by Josh Malerman
- I Wish I Was Like You by S.P. Miskowski
- Ubo by Steve Rasnic Tem
Best First Novel
Cold Cuts by Two environmental scientists, one who takes his work and himself seriously, the other a pop culture geek with a junk food habit, struggle for survival when Québécois paramilitary fanatics demolish their remote science station in the frozen wasteland at the bottom of the world. Drs. Pratt and Eaton uncover The Order of the Red Wolf's Cold War Era nuclear reactor, but not before it has irradiated the Antarctic fauna and created hordes of ravenous mutations.
Finalists
- In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson
- What Do Monsters Fear by Matt Hayward
- The Boulevard Monster by Jeremy Hepler
- Kill Creek by Scott Thomas
Best Young Adult Novel
The Last Harvest by “I plead the blood.” Those were the last words seventeen-year-old golden boy quarterback Clay Tate heard rattling from his dad's throat when he discovered him dying on the barn floor of the Neely Cattle Ranch, clutching a crucifix to his chest. Now, on the first anniversary of the Midland, Oklahoma slaughter, the whole town's looking at Clay like he might be next to go over the edge. Clay wants to forget the past, but the sons and daughters of the Preservation Society—a group of prominent farmers his dad accused of devil worship—won't leave him alone. Even as Clay tries to reassure himself, creepy glances turn to sinister stares and strange coincidences build to gruesome rituals—but when he can never prove that any of it happened, Clay worries he might be following his dad down the path to insanity...or that something far more terrifying lies in wait around the corner.
Finalists
Best Fiction Collection
Strange Weather by Call Number: HORROR HILLPublication Date: October 24, 2017A collection of four chilling novels, ingeniously wrought gems of terror from the brilliantly imaginative, Joe Hill. Masterfully exploring classic literary themes through the prism of the supernatural, Strange Weather is a stellar collection from a top-notch artist.
Finalists
- And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe by Gwendolyn Kiste
- Goblin by Josh Malerman
- The Carp-Faced Boy and Other Tales by Thersa Matsuura
- Writing Madness by Patrick McGrath
Best Anthology
Behold! Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders by Embrace the odd. Satisfy your curiosity. Surrender to wonder. Witness as the finest talents of our time bring you tales of the strangeness at the edges of existence.
Finalists
- Sycorax's Daughters by Kinitra Brooks, PhD. & others (eds.)
- Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales by Ellen Datlow (ed)
- Nights of the Living Dead by Jonathan Maberry & George Romero
- The Beauty of Death Vol. 2: Death by Water by Alessandro Manzetti & Jodi Renee Lester
Best Nonfiction
Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s by Take a tour through the horror paperback novels of the 1970s and ’80s . . . if you dare. Page through dozens and dozens of amazing book covers featuring well-dressed skeletons, evil dolls, and knife-wielding killer crabs! Read shocking plot summaries that invoke devil worship, satanic children, and haunted real estate! Horror author and vintage paperback book collector Grady Hendrix offers killer commentary and witty insight on these trashy thrillers that tried so hard to be the next Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby.
Finalists
- Horror in Space: Critical Essays on a Film Subgenre by Michele Brittany
- Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror by Kinitra D. Brooks
- The Art of Horror Movies: An Illustrated History by Stephen Jones
- Where Nightmares Come From: The Art of Storytelling in the Horror Genre by Joe Mynhardt & Eugene Johnson
Best Poetry Collection
A Collection of Nightmares by Hold your screams and enter a world of seasonal creatures, dreams of bones, and confessions modeled from open eyes and endless insomnia. Christina Sng’s A Collection of Nightmares is a poetic feast of sleeplessness and shadows, an exquisite exhibition of fear and things better left unsaid. Here are ramblings at the end of the world and a path that leads to a thousand paper cuts at the hands of a skin carver. There are crawlspace whispers, and fresh sheets gently washed with sacrifice and poison, and if you’re careful in this ghost month, these poems will call upon the succubus to tend to your flesh wounds and scars.
Finalists
- Visions of the Mutant Rain Forest by Robert Frazier & Bruce Boston
- No Mercy by Alessandro Manzetti
- Satan's Sweethearts by Marge Simon & Mary Turzillo
- Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare by Stephanie Wytovich
Best Graphic Novel
Octavia E. Butler's Kindred by Call Number: GRAPHIC NOVEL OCTAVIAAdapted by celebrated academics and comics artists Damian Duffy and John Jennings, this graphic novel powerfully renders Butler's mysterious and moving story, which spans racial and gender divides in the antebellum South through the 20th century. Butler's most celebrated, critically acclaimed work tells the story of Dana, a young black woman who is suddenly and inexplicably transported from her home in 1970s California to the pre-Civil War South.
Finalists
- Darkness Visible by Mike Carey & Ethan David Arvind
- My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
- The Black Monday Murders by Jonathan Hickman
- Monstress, Vol. 2 by Marjorie Liu
Best Screenplay
Get Out by Call Number: DVD HORA young black man meets his white girlfriend's parents at their estate, only to find out that the situation is much more sinister than it appears.
Finalists
- The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor
- Stranger Things Season 2, Ep. 1 by Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer
- Twin Peaks Part 8 by Mark Frost & David Lynch
- It by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman
- Split by M. Night Shyamalan
Best Novel
The Fisherman by In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman’s Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other’s company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It’s a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.
Finalists
- Hard Light - Elizabeth Hand
- Mongrels - Stephen Graham Jones
- Stranded - Bracken MacLeod
- Disappearance at Devil's Rock - Paul Tremblay
Best First Novel
Haven by In 1961, the small town of Haven thought they'd gotten rid of their monster. After a series of child killings, Paul Greymore was caught carrying a wounded girl. His face, disfigured from a childhood accident, seemed to confirm he was the monster the community hoped to banish. With Paul in prison, the killings stopped. For seventeen years, Haven was peaceful again. But Paul served his time and has now returned to Haven--the town where he grew up, and the scene of his alleged crimes. Paul insists he didn't commit those crimes, and several townspeople believe him including the local priest, a young boy named Denny, and his best friend Billy. Trouble is, now that Paul is back home, the bizarre killings have started again--and the patterns match the deaths from Haven's past. If Paul isn't the killer, who is?
Finalists
- The Apothecary's Curse - Barbara Barnett
- Hollow House - Greg Chapman
- Mayan Blue - Michelle Garza & Melissa Lason
- The Eighth - Stephanie M. Wytovich
Best Young Adult Novel
Snowed by harity Jones is a 16-year-old engineering genius who’s much-bullied for being biracial and a skeptic at her conservative school in Oak County, California. Everything changes when Charity’s social worker mother brings home a sweet teen runaway named Aidan to foster for the holidays. Matched in every way, Charity and Aidan quickly fall in love. But it seems he’s not the only new arrival: Charity soon finds the brutally slain corpse of her worst bully and she gets hard, haunting evidence that the killer is stalking Oak County. As she and her Skeptics Club investigate this death and others, they find at every turn the mystery only grows darker and more deadly. One thing’s for certain: there’s a bloody battle coming this holiday season that will change their lives – and human history – forever.
Finalists
- Last Days of Salton Academy - Jennifer Brozek
- Holding Smoke - Elle Cosimano
- When They Fade - Jeyn Roberts
- The Telling - Alexandra Sirowy
Best Fiction Collection
The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror by Call Number: HORROR OATESSix terrifying tales to chill the blood from the unique imagination of Joyce Carol Oates. A young boy plays with dolls instead of action figures. But as he grows older, his passion takes on a darker edge...A white man shoots dead a black boy creating a media frenzy. But could it be that it was self-defense as he claims? A nervous woman tries to escape her husband. He says he loves her, but she's convinced he wants to kill her...These quietly lethal stories reveal the horrors that dwell within us all.
Finalists
- Swift to Chase - Laird Barron
- A Long December - Richard Chizmar
- Lethal Birds - Gene O'Neill
- American Nocturne - Hank Schwaeble
Best Anthology
Borderlands 6 by This non-themed anthology of horror features never-before-published works by: M. Louis Dixon, John McIlveen, Jack Ketchum, Rebecca J. Allred, Dan Waters, Michael Bailey, John Boden, Trent Zelazny & Brian Knight, Bob Pastorella, Peter Salomon, Carol Pierson Holding, Steve Rasnic Tem, Darren O. Godfrey, David Annandale, Anya Martin, G. Daniel Gunn & Paul Tremblay, Gordon White, Sean M. Davis, Tim Waggoner, Bradley Michael Zerbe, and Gary A. Braunbeck. Also included, one amazing previously published novelette by David Morrel.
Finalists
- Chiral Mad 3 - Michael Bailey (Ed.)
- The Beauty of Death - Alessandro Manzetti (Ed.)
- Fright Mare - Women Write Horror - Billie Sue Mosiman (Ed.)
- Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories - Doug Murano & D. Alexander Ward (Eds.)
Best Nonfiction
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Still known to millions primarily as the author of the The Lottery, Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) has been curiously absent from the mainstream American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense and psychological horror, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America more deeply than anyone. Now, biographer Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author of such classics as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
Finalists
- Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds - Leo Braudy
- Guillermo del Toro's "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth" - Daniel P. Olson
- In the Mountains of Madness: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of H.P. Lovecraft - W. Scott Poole
- Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula - David J. Skal
- The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub - John C. Tibbetts
Best Poetry Collection
Brothel by Wytovich plays madam in a collection of erotic horror that challenges the philosophical connection between death and orgasm. There's a striptease that happens in Brothel that is neither fact nor fiction, fantasy nor memory. It is a dance of eroticism, of death and decay. The human body becomes a service station for pain, for pleasure, for the lonely, the confused. Sexuality is hung on the door, and the act of love is far from anything that's decent. Her women spread their legs to violence then smoke a cigarette and get on all fours. They use their bodies as weapons and learn to find themselves in the climax of the boundaries they cross in order to define their humanity...or lack thereof.
Finalists
- Sacrificial Nights - Bruce Boston & Alessandro Manzetti
- Corona Obscura - Michael R. Collings
- Field Guide to the End of the World - Jeannine Hall Gailey
- Small Spirits - Marge Simon
Best Graphic Novel
Kolchak The Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe by From tell-tale hearts and premature burials, to black cats and the Red Death, reporter Carl Kolchak grapples with deepening horror and madness, as events from Edgar Allan Poe's tales of mystery and imagination come to life in modern day Baltimore. Kolchak teams with a street magician who performs tricks and escapes inspired by Poe to expose the supernatural power bringing the author's deadly visions to life, and solve a series of terrifying occurrences..
Finalists
- Blood Feud - Cullen Bunn
- No Mercy: Vol. 2 - Alex de Campi
- Outcast, Vol. 3: This Little Light - Robert Kirkman
- The Steam Man - Mark Alan Miller & Joe R. Lansdale
- Providence: Act 1 - Alan Moore
Best Screenplay
The Witch by Call Number: DVD HORA family in 1630s New England faces destruction by the forces of witchcraft, black magic, and possession. When one of their five children goes missing and their life-sustaining crops fail, they fall victim to paranoia and fear as they begin to turn on one another.
Finalists
- Penny Dreadful - Season 3, Episode 4: "A Blade of Grass"
- Stranger Things - Season 1, Episode 8: "The Upside Down"
- Stranger Things - Season 1, Episode 1: "The Vanishing of Will Byers"
- 10 Cloverfield Lane
Best Novel
A Head Full of Ghosts by Call Number: HORROR TREMBLAYWhen teenager Marjorie acts oddly, her parents decide she needs an exorcism and make the fateful decision to show it on reality television.
Finalists
- The Scarlet Gospels - Clive Barker
- The Deep - Michaelbrent Collings
- The Cure - J.G. Faherty
- Black Tide - Patrick Freivald
Best First Novel
Mr. Suicide by How many times in your life have you wanted to slap someone? Really, literally strike them? You can’t even begin to count the times. Maybe the impulse flashed through your brain for only a moment, like lightning, when someone tried to skip ahead of you in line at the cafeteria. Hell, at more than one point in your life you’ve wanted to kill someone; really, literally kill someone. Then it was gone and replaced by the civilized thought: You can’t do that. Not out in public. But you’ve had the thought…
Finalists
- Shutter - Courtney Alameda
- We Are Monsters - Brian Kirk
- Hannahwhere - John McIlveen
- Riding the Centipede - John Claude Smith
Best Young Adult Novel
Devil's Pocket by With a chip in his head and hundreds more throughout his body, sixteen-year-old Carl Freeman was turned from an orphan with impulse control issues into a super-soldier. Forced into the mercenary Phoenix Force group, he begins to fear he'll never escape. Sent to a volcanic island to fight for them, he'll compete in a combat tournament that awards teens with survival for merciless brutality. But just when all looks lost, he spies a friendly face...and possibly a way out.
Finalists
- Never Let Me Sleep - Jennifer Brozek
- The Ridealong - Michaelbrent Collings
- Hallowed - Tonya Hurley
- The Shadow Cabinet - Maureen Johnson
- End Times at Ridgemont High - Ian Welke
Best Graphic Novel
Shadow ShowCall Number: GRAPHIC NOVEL SHADOWIn Shadow Show, acclaimed writers andartists such as Joe Hill, Mort Castle, Audrey Niffeneffer, Charles Paul WilsonIII, Maria Frohlich, Eddie Campbell, Neil Gaiman, and more come together to paytribute to the work of the one and only Ray Bradbury.
Finalists
- Harrow County, Vol. 1: Countless Haints - Cullen Bunn
- Hellbound - Victor Gischler
- Outcast, Vol. 1: A Darkness Surrounds Him - Robert Kirkman
- Wytches, Vol. 1 - Scott Snyder
Best Screenplay
It Follows by Call Number: DVD HORFor nineteen-year-old Jay, the fall should be about school, boys and weekends at the lake. Yet, after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter she suddenly finds herself plagued by nightmarish visions; she can't shake the sensation that someone, or something, is following her. As the threat closes in, Jay and her friends must somehow escape the horrors that are only a few steps behind.
Finalists
Best Anthology
The Library of the Dead by The Library of the Dead is an anthology of literary fiction inspired by Chapel of the Chimes, a crematory and columbarium founded in 1909 in Oakland, California, and one of the area's most beautiful historic buildings. Thousands are entombed in golden books (urns) shelved from floor to ceiling in a glowing labyrinth of nearly countless rooms. The stories within The Library of the Dead represent a few of those golden books, and when opened, reveal the stories of those inside.
Finalists
- The Doll Collection: Seventeen Brand-New Tales of Dolls - Ellen Datlow (Ed.)
- Seize the Night - Christopher Golden (Ed.)
- nEvermore! - Nancy Kilpatrick & Caro Soles (Eds.)
- The X-Files: Trust No One - Jonathan Maberry (Ed.)
- Midian Unmade - Joseph Nassise & Del Howison (Ed.)
Best Fiction Collection
While the Black Stars Burn by Lucy A. Snyder's latest collection features a spellbinding mix of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Her stories will carry you away to the sinister heart of the Deep South, the mind-bending reaches of outer space, and the terrifying desolation of Carcosa. As the follow-up to the Bram Stoker Award winning collection Soft Apocalypses, this book's darkly imaginative tales inexorably draw the reader in. Whether you're a connoisseur of Lovecraftian and King in Yellow fiction or a fan of adventures through time and space, crossing this collection's event horizon will open your mind to unearthly enchantments.
Finalists
- Halfway Down the Stairs - Gary A. Braunbeck
- The Mirrors - Nicole Cushing
- The Dark at the End of the Tunnel - Taylor Grant
- The Hitchhiking Effect - Gene O'Neill
Best Nonfiction
The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History by Amazingly, there has never been a book quite like The Art of Horror a celebration of frightful images, compiled and presented by some of the genre's most respected names. It's all here: from early engravings via dust jackets, book illustrations, pulp magazines, movie posters, comic books, and paintings to today's artists working entirely in the digital realm.
Finalists
- The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror - Justin Everett & Jeffrey H. Shanks (Eds.)
- Author's Guide to Marketing With Teeth - Michael Knost
- Horror 201: The Silver Scream - Joe Mynhardt & Emma Audsley
- Studies in the Horror Film: Stanley Kubrick's The Shining - Daniel Olson
Best Poetry Collection
Eden Underground by A surreal journey into obsessions and aberrations of the modern world
and the darker side, which often takes control of the situation. Madness, violence, aberrant sex, war, hallucinations, sadism, disturbing archetypes. These are the black fruits of human loneliness. These are the bloody roots of Eden Underground
Finalists
- Resonance Dark and Light - Bruce Boston
- Dark Energies - Ann Schwader
- Naughty Ladies - Marge Simon
- An Exorcism of Angels - Stephanie M. Wytovich
Best Novel
Blood Kin by Blood Kin is told from the dual points of view of Michael Gibson and of his grandmother Sadie. Michael has returned to the quiet Appalachian home of his forebears following a suicide attempt and now takes care of his grandmother; old and sickly but with an important story to tell about growing up poor and Melungeon (a mixed race group of mysterious origin) while bedeviled by a snake-handling uncle and empathic powers she but barely understands. In a field not far from the Gibson family home lies an iron-bound crate within a small shack buried four feet deep under Kudzu vine. Michael somehow understands that hidden inside that crate is potentially his own death, his grandmother's death, and perhaps the deaths of everyone in the valley if he does not come to understand her story well enough.
Finalists
- Suffer the Children - Craig DiLouie
- Jade Sky - Patrick Freivald
- Beautiful You - Chuck Palahniuk
- The Vines - Christopher Rice
Best First Novel
Mr. Wicker by Alicia Baum is missing a deadly childhood memory. Located beyond life, The Library of Lost Childhood Memories holds the answer. The Librarian is Mr. Wicker—a seductive yet sinister creature with an unthinkable past and an agenda just as lethal. After committing suicide, Alicia finds herself before the Librarian, who informs her that her lost memory is not only the reason she took her life, but the cause of every bad thing that has happened to her. Alicia spurns Mr. Wicker and attempts to enter the hereafter without the Book that would make her spirit whole. But instead of the oblivion she craves, she finds herself in a psychiatric hold at Bayford Hospital, where the staff is more pernicious than its patients.
Finalists
- Forsaken - J.D. Barker
- Consumed - David Cronenberg
- Return of the Mothman - Michael Knost
- Bird Box - Josh Malerman
Best Young Adult Novel
Phoenix Island by Call Number: YA FICTION DIXONWhen a tough sixteen-year-old boxing champ sentenced to an isolated boot camp discovers it is actually a mercenary training facility turning "throwaway children" into scientifically enhanced killers, he risks everything to save his friends and stop a madman bent on global destruction.
Finalists
- Intentional Haunting - Jake Bible
- Unmarked - Kami Garcia
- Passionaries - Tonya Hurley
- All Those Broken Angels - Peter Adam Salomon
Best Graphic Novel
Bad Blood by Call Number: GRAPHIC NOVEL BADLife was hard enough for Trick Croft as a college student and a cancer patient--then the vampires attacked and slaughtered his best friend. Now Trick knows that his blood is poison to the bloodsuckers, and he will stop at nothing to eradicate them.
Finalists
- Through the Woods - Emily Carroll
- Locke & Key, Vol. 6 - Joe Hill
- I Tell You It's Love - Joe R. Lansdale & Daniele Sierra
- The Witcher - Paul Tobin
Best Screenplay
The BabadookCall Number: DVD HORAmelia is a single mother plagued by the violent death of her husband. When a disturbing storybook called Mister Babadook turns up at her house, she is forced to battle with her son's deep seated fear of a monster. Soon she discovers a sinister presence all around her.
Finalists
- The Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 14: The Grove - Scott M. Gimple
- Penny Dreadful, Season 1, Episode 2: Seance - John Logan
- Doctor Who: Season 8, Episode 4: Listen - Steven Moffat
- American Horror Story: Season 3, Episode 10: The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks - James Wong
Best Anthology
Fearful Symmetries by So what can you look forward to in Fearful Symmetries? There are monsters—human and non-human. There are children—those who victimize, and those who are victims. There are supernatural horrors, psychological terrors, nourish dark fantasies, and downright weird fictions.
Finalists
- Qualia Nous - Michael Bailey (Ed.)
- A Darke Phantastique - Jason V. Brock (Ed.)
- Burnt Tongues - Chuck Palahniuk, Richard Thomas, & Dennis Widmyer (Eds.)
- Limbus, Inc., Book II - Brett J. Talley (Ed.)
Best Fiction Collection
Soft Apocalypses by Lucy A. Snyder proves once again that she is fearless in mapping every corner of the literary landscape. Not content to be confined to any single region, she guides readers through dark realms of fantasy into the churning industry of steampunk, from the dizzying heights of science fiction down to the most desolate depths of horror.
Finalists
- After the People Lights Have Gone Off - Stephen Graham Jones
- Little by Little - John R. Little
- Gifts For the One Who Comes After - Helen Marshall
- The End in All Beginnings - John F.D. Taff
Best Nonfiction
Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit: A Writer's Survival Guide by Join award-winning author Lucy A. Snyder for this guide to working, surviving and thriving as a writer in a world that often doesn't properly value creative professionals. Snyder - who's authored ten books and over 200 stories, poems, and articles - shares her no-nonsense advice on writing and publishing. You'll also get her interviews with luminary authors such as Clive Barker, Chuck Palahniuk and Ursula K. Le Guin along with valuable information on the various subgenres of fantasy and horror.
Finalists
- Disorders of Magnitude - Jason V. Brock
- Lovecraft and a World in Transition - S.T. Joshi
- The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft - Leslie S. Klinger
- Horror 101: The Way Forward - Joe Mynhardt & Emma Audsley
Best Poetry Collection
Forgiving Judas by Tom Piccirilli's third poetry collection is his most intensely personal, using the loss of his friends and family, forgiveness and guilt.
Finalists
- Fearworms: Selected Poems - Robert Payne Cabeen
- Venus Intervention - Corrine de Winter & Alessandro Manzetti
- Sweet Poison - Marge Simon & Mary Turzillo
- Mourning Jewelry - Stephanie Wytovich
Best Novel
Doctor Sleep by Call Number: HORROR KINGStephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.
Finalists
- NOS4A2 - Joe Hill
- Malediction - Lisa Morton
- A Necessary End - Sarah Pinborough & F. Paul Wilson
- The Heavens Rise - Christopher Rice
Best First Novel
The Evolutionist by Waking nightly to her own screams, Stacy is convinced she’s on the brink of a mid-life crisis and begins secretly seeing a psychiatrist. But as eerie as Dr. Light may be, his treatments work and her circumstances improve. Until the nightmares return with a vengeance taking on a life of their own. Still uncertain what to believe, Stacy carries on living the only life she remembers. But her other, nocturnal world refuses to die. The images it shows her hold clues that lead her to a shocking discovery, threatening to unravel the last thread of her sanity and Stacy must make a heartrending decision…Before her post-apocalyptic nightmares come true.
Finalists
- Candy House - Kate Jonez
- The Year of the Storm - John Mantooth
- Redheads - Jonathan Moore
- Stoker's Manuscript - Royce Prouty
Best Young Adult Novel
Dog Days by It's the summer of 1983 and the suburbs of Houston are reeling from a disastrous hurricane. But the storm brought more than wind and floodwaters. In the swamps that surround Clear Lake a brutal and possibly supernatural killer is gathering strength, and waiting for the full moon. The focus of his bloodlust is fifteen year old Mark Eckert. Reckless to a fault, with a knack for making spectacularly bad decisions, Mark had planned to spend that last summer before high school wandering the swamps with his friends and his beloved dog Max. But after a chance encounter with the lunatic, Mark's summer becomes a time of terror and tragedy.
Finalists
- Special Dead - Patrick Freivald
- Unbreakable - Kami Garcia
- Project Cain - Geoffrey Girard
- In the Shadow of Blackbirds - Cat Winters
Best Graphic Novel
Alabaster: Wolves by For nearly as long as she can remember, Dancy Flammarion has fought monsters, cutting a bloody swath through the demons and dark things of the world, aimed like a weapon by forces beyond her control or questioning. But now, for the first time, Dancy finds herself alone--and the wolves are closing in.
Finalists
- Fatale, Book 3: West of Hell - Ed Brubaker
- Witch Doctor, Vol. 2: Mal Practice - Brandon Seifert
- Sin Titulo - Cameron Stewart
- Colder - Paul Tobin
Best Screenplay
The Walking Dead: "Welcome to the Tombs"Call Number: DVD TVPolice officer Rick Grimes leads a group of survivors in a world overrun by zombies. The series explores how the living are changed by the realization that those who survive can be far more dangerous than the walking dead.
Finalists
- The Returned: Season 1, Episode 8: The Horde - Fabien Adda & Fabrice Gobert
- American Horror Story: Season 2, Episode 11: Spilt Milk - Brad Falchuk
- Hannibal: Season 1, Episode 1: Aperitif - Bryan Fuller
- Dracula: Season 1, Episode 2: A Whiff of Sulfur - Daniel Knauf
Best Anthology
After Death by Death. Who has not considered their own mortality and wondered at what awaits, once our frail human shell expires? What occurs after the heart stops beating, after the last breath is drawn, after life as we know it terminates? Included within this critically acclaimed anthology are answers to these queries alongside tales and suppositions relating from traditional ghosts to the afterlife of e-coli. Explore the afterworld of an Australian cowboy. Discover what the white light really means to the recently departed. Consider the impact of modern, or future, technology on the dead. Follow the karmic path of reincarnation. Travel from the 999th level of Fengdu's Hell to the gates of Robot Heaven.
Finalists
- Horror Library, Vol. 5 - R.J. Cavender & Boyd E. Harris (Eds.)
- Barbers & Beauties - Michael Knost & Nancy Eden Siegel (Eds.)
- The Grimscribe's Puppets - Joseph S. Pulver (Ed.)
- Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror, Vol. 1 - Anthony Rivera & Sharon Lawson (Eds.)
Best Fiction Collection
The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Over the course of two award-winning collections and a critically acclaimed novel, The Croning, Laird Barron has arisen as one of the strongest and most original literary voices in modern horror and the dark fantastic. Melding supernatural horror with hardboiled noir, espionage, and a scientific backbone, Barron’s stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards.
Finalists
- North American Lake Monsters: Stories - Nathan Ballingrud
- The Tears of Isis - James Dorr
- The Ape's Wife and Other Stories - Caitlin R. Kiernan
- Dance of the Blue Lady - Gene O'Neill
- Bible Stories for Secular Humanists - S.P. Somtow
Best Nonfiction
Nolan on Bradbury by William F. Nolan knew the late great Ray Bradbury for more than sixty years, and during that entire span he has written perspicaciously about his mentor and friend, beginning with Ray Bradbury Review (1952) and continuing to the present day. This volume, published on the occasion of Nolan’s 85th birthday, is a celebration of his lifelong devotion to the master of fantasy and science fiction.
Finalists
- Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic - Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan (Eds.)
- Ramsey Campbell: Critical Essays on the Modern Master of Horror - Gary William Crawford (Ed.)
- The Intermedial Experience of Horror: Suspended Failures - Jarkko Toikkanen
- Lovecraft and Influence: His Predecessors and Successors - Robert H. Waugh (Ed.)
Best Poetry Collection
Four Elements by Four Bram Stoker Award winning poets join together to paint a rich, dark tapestry of evocative emotion in Four Elements. From modern interpretations to ancient mythology, they explore the magic and mystery of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Their vivid poetry and prose brings to life a universe in a grain of sand, taking the reader through a journey of discovery from the inside out.
Finalists
- Dark Roads: Selected Long Poems 1971-2012 - Bruce Boston
- The Sex Lives of Monsters - Helen Marshall
- Dangerous Dreams - Marge Simon & Sandy DeLuca
- Hysteria: A Collection of Madness - Stephanie M. Wytovich
Best Novel
The Drowning Girl by Call Number: FANTASY KIERNANImp, a struggling schizophrenic, fights to determine whether or not the strange mythological creatures she meets are due to her condition or are from something else entirely in this new novel from the award-winning author of The Red Tree.
Finalists
- Bottled Abyss - Benjamin Kane Ethridge
- NightWhere -John Everson
- Bentley Little - The Haunted
- Inheritence - Joe McKinney
Best First Novel
Life Rage by A mad man is on the loose, ripping people apart with his bare hands. The police have no clues. Those who see him and survive never seem to make out his face. All except for one…Colleen has led a wasted life, bringing home a new man to her bed every night. Until that night. Witnessing her friend torn to pieces right before her eyes, she sees the murderer’s face clearly. The number of murders keeps growing, until an eruption of rage begins to spread like an epidemic. Everywhere, crowds of people mindlessly rip each other apart. But not everyone will survive the explosive fury of Life Rage!
Finalists
- Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling - Michael Boccacino
- Wide Open - Deborah Coates
- The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief - Charles Day
- A Requiem for Dead Flies - Peter Dudar
- Bad Glass - Richard Gropp
Best Young Adult Novel
Flesh and Bone by Call Number: TEEN MABERRYBenny, Nix, Lou, and Lilah journey through a fierce wilderness that was once America searching for the jet they saw months ago, while evading fierce animals and a new kind of zombie.
Finalists
- The Diviners - Libba Bray
- I Hunt Killers - Barry Lyga
- I Kissed a Ghoul - Michael McCarty
- The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater
- A Bad Day for Voodoo - Jeff Strand
Best Graphic Novel
Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times by Call Number: GRAPHIC NOVEL WITCHThe graphic novel digs deeper into the issues with graphics and dialogue that bring the witch-hunts to life.
Finalists
- The Sixth Gun, Vol. 3: Bound - Cullen Bunn
- Rachel Rising, Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death - Terry Moore
- The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone - Ravi Thornton
- Behind These Eyes - Peter J. Wacks & Guy Anthony De Marco
Best Screenplay
The Cabin in the WoodsCall Number: BLU-RAY HORA rambunctious group of five college friends steal away for a weekend of debauchery in an isolated country cabin, only to be attacked by horrific supernatural creatures in a night of endless terror and bloodshed. As the teens begin to exhibit standard horror movie behavior, a group of technicians in a control room are scrutinizing and sometimes even controlling every move the terrified kids make. Do they have any chance of escape?
Finalists
- The Woman in Black - Jane Goldman
- The Walking Dead: Season 3, Episode 4 - The Killer Within - Sang Kyu Kim
- American Horror Story: Season 2, Episode 7 - Dark Cousin - Tim Minear
- The Hunger Games - Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, & Billy Ray
Best Anthology
Shadow Show by Call Number: FANTASY SHADOWRay Bradbury-peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America's most beloved authors-is a literary giant whose remarkable career has spanned seven decades. Now twenty-six of today's most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.
Finalists
- Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations - Eric J. Guignard (Ed.)
- Hell Comes to Hollywood - Eric Miller (Ed.)
- Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology - Mark C. Scioneaux, R.J. Cavender, & Robert S. Wilson (Eds.)
- Slices of Flesh - Stan Swanson (Ed.)
Best Fiction Collection
New Moon on the Water by In a smoky, after hours jazz joint where almost nobody ever dies, or the ranch house next door owned by a monster, or a high rise elevator in which raging terror awaits the next passenger, these brilliant stories discover a world you thought you knew--and a darker one you will never forget.
Black Dahlia and White Rose by Call Number: FICTION OATESIn this work the author offers a collection of 11 previously uncollected stories, including a title piece that tracks the friendship between Elizabeth Short, famously known as the Black Dahlia, the victim of a markedly brutal murder in 1940s Los Angeles that remains unsolved, and her roommate, Norma Jeane Baker who became Marilyn Monroe.
Finalists
- Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories - Jonathan Carroll
- Errantry: Strange Stories - Elizabeth Hand
- The Janus Tree - Glen Hirshberg
Best Nonfiction
Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween by In Trick or Treat, Halloween aficionado Lisa Morton provides a thorough history of this spooky day. She begins by looking at how holidays like the Celtic Samhain, a Gaelic harvest festival, have blended with the British Guy Fawkes Day and the Catholic All Souls’ Day to produce the modern Halloween, and she explains how the holiday was reborn in America, where costumes and trick-or-treat rituals have become new customs. Morton takes into account the influence of related but independent holidays, especially the Mexican Day of the Dead, as well as the explosion in popularity of haunted attractions and the impact of such events as 9/11 and the economic recession on the celebration today.
Finalists
- Writing Darkness - Michael Collings
- The Annotated Sandman, Volume 1 - Leslie S. Klinger
- The Undead & Theology - Kim Paffenroth & John W. Morehead
- Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film - Kendall R. Phillips
Best Poetry Collection
Vampires, Zombies, and Wanton Souls by Vampires, Zombies, & Wanton Souls features over 50 poems written by Marge Simon, each of which is accompanied by Sandy DeLuca's black-and-white and full-color illustrations. Also included are two stories, DeLuca's "Tricks of Light," and Simon's "Confessions of a Visually Challenged Vampire.
Finalists
- Dark Duet - Linda Addison & Stephen M. Wilson
- Notes From the Shadow City - Bruce Boston & Gary William Crawford
- A Verse to Horrors - Michael Collings
- Lovers & Killers - Mary A. Turzillo