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The Horror Writers Association recently announced the preliminary ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards®, the details of which you can find below. While Chiral Mad 4: An Anthology of Collaborations (the final anthology by Written Backwards) did not survive the great culling, there are many great anthologies competing this year for Superior Achievement in an Anthology. But hey, Lucy and I gave it our best, and it’s a great book full of collaborations that hopefully brought the writing community together. Check it out if you haven’t already!

The anthology co-editors made the cut for different categories, however. Garden of Eldritch Delights by Lucy A. Snyder is on the list for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection, and my own novelette, Our Children, Our Teachers, for Long Fiction.

Kudos to those on the preliminary ballot, lots of friends in the genre, no doubt, and also kudos to those whose work did not make the cut. There are many works I’d personally add to this list, but lists can only be so long. And 2018 was a great year for horror!

 

Superior Achievement in a Novel

The Shape of Water – Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus

Dark Mary – Paolo Di Orazio

The Hunger – Alma Katsu

The Outsider – Stephen King

Glimpse – Jonathan Maberry

Unbury Carol – Josh Malerman

Naraka – Alessandro Manzetti

Hazards of Time Travel – Joyce Carol Oates

Foe – Iain Reid 

Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Novel  – Ahmed Saadawi

Dracul  – Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker

The Cabin at the End of the World  – Paul Tremblay

 

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

The Garden of Blue Roses – Michael Barsa

What Should Be Wild – Julia Fine

Breaking the World – Jerry Gordon

I Am the River – T.E. Grau

The Rust Maidens – Gwendolyn Kiste

Fiction – Ryan Lieske

The Honey Farm – Harriet Alida Lye 

The War in the Dark – Nick Setchfield 

The Nightmare Room – Chris Sorensen

Baby Teeth – Zoje Stage

The Moore House – Tony Tremblay

 

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Pitch Dark – Courtney Alameda

The Wicked Deep – Shea Ernshaw 

Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower – Christian McKay Heidicker 

Dread Nation – Justina Ireland

Wormholes: Book One of Axles and Allies – Dani Kane

Sawkill Girls – Claire Legrand 

Broken Lands – Jonathan Maberry

The Night Weaver – Monique Snyman

The Wren Hunt – Mary Watson

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein – Kiersten White

 

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Abbott – Saladin Ahmed 

Cursed Comics Cavalcade – Alex Antone and and Dave James Wielgosz

Moonshine Vol. 2: Misery Train – Brian Azzarello

Redlands Volume 1: Sisters by Blood – Jordie Bellaire

Bone Parish – Cullen Bunn

Denver Moon: Metamorphosis – Warren Hammond and Joshua Viola

Destroyer – Victor LaValle 

Gideon Falls Volume 1: The Black Barn – Jeff Lemire

Monstress Volume 3: Haven – Marjorie Liu

Infidel – Pornsak Pichetshote 

 

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Our Children, Our Teachers – Michael Bailey

The Barrens – Stephanie Feldman

Shiloh – Philip Fracassi

You Are Released – Joe Hill

Cruce Roosters  – Brent Michael Kelley

Black’s Red Gold – Ed Kurtz

Dead Lovers on Each Blade, Hung – Usman T. Malik

The Devil’s Throat  – Rena Mason

Body of Christ – Mark Matthews

Bitter Suites – Angela Yuriko Smith

Shape Shifting Priestess of the 1,000 Year War  – Todd Sullivan

 

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

“All Summers End” – Tom Deady

“Life After Breath” – Tori Eldridge

“Cold, Silent, and Dark” – Kary English

“The Gods in Their Seats, Unblinking” – Kurt Fawver

“The Woman in the Blue Dress” – Heather Herrman

“Mutter” – Jess Landry

“Dead End Town” – Lee Murray

“Glove Box” – Annie Neugebauer

“Fish Hooks” – Kit Power

“Her Royal Counsel” – Andrew Robertson

“A Winter’s Tale” – John F.D. Taff

“And in Her Eyes the City Drowned” – Kyla Lee Ward

 

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked  – Christa Carmen

Spectral Evidence – Gemma Files

That Which Grows Wild  – Eric J. Guignard

Coyote Songs  – Gabino Iglesias

Octoberland  – Thana Niveau

Frozen Shadows: And Other Chilling Stories – Gene O’Neill

Apple and Knife – Intan Paramaditha

Occasional Beasts: Tales – John Claude Smith

Garden of Eldritch Delights  – Lucy A. Snyder

Little Black Spots – John F.D. Taff

Dark and Distant Voices: A Story Collection – Tim Waggoner

 

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Hereditary – Ari Aster

The Haunting of Hill House: The Bent-Neck Lady, Episode 01:05 – Meredith Averill

The Haunting of Hill House: Screaming Meemies, Episode 01:09 – Meredith Averill

Mandy – Panos Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn 

Ghost Stories – Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman

Halloween – Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green

Annihilation – Alex Garland

Bird Box – Eric Heisserer 

Overlord – Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith

A Quiet Place – Bryan Woods, Scott Beck and John Krasinski

 

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

A New York State of Fright: Horror Stories from the Empire State – James Chambers, April Grey and Robert Masterson 

The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea – Ellen Datlow

Suspended in Dusk II – Simon Dewar

A World of Horror – Eric J. Guignard

Welcome to the Show – Doug Murano and Matt Hayward

Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror – Lee Murray

The Fiends in the Furrows: An Anthology of Folk Horror – David T. Neal and Christine M. Scott

Phantoms: Haunting Tales from Masters of the Genre – Marie O’Regan

Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road – Alexander D. Ward

Quoth the Raven – Lyn Worthen

 

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Horror Express – John Connolly

Adapting Frankenstein: The Monster’s Eternal Lives in Popular Culture – Dennis Cutchins and Dennis R. Perry

The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film  – Lee Gambin

Woman at the Devil’s Door: The Untold True Story of the Hampstead Murderess  – Sarah Beth Hopton

We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror – Howard David Ingham

Sleeping with the Lights On: The Unsettling Story of Horror – Darryl Jones

It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life – Joe Mynhardt and Eugene Johnson

A Place of Darkness: The Rhetoric of Horror in Early American Cinema – Kendall R. Phillips

Wasteland: The Great Ward and the Origins of Modern Horror – W. Scott Poole

Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series – Kevin J. Wetmore Jr.

 

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Artifacts – Bruce Boston

The Comfort of Screams – G.O. Clark 

Bleeding Saffron – David E. Cowen 

The Hatch – Joe Fletcher

Witches – Donna Lynch

Thirteen Nocturnes – Oliver Shepard

War – Marge Simon and Alessandro Manzetti  

The Devil’s Dreamland – Sara Tantlinger  

Candle and Pins: Poems on Superstitions – Jacqueline West

Gwendolyn Witch and Other Macabria – Twyla Wren