Horror Writers Association announces 2023 Bram Stoker Award Nominees

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Final Ballot for the 2023 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA is the premier writers’ organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 2,000 members. They have presented the  Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987.

The 2023 Bram Stoker Awards will be announced during the Annual Bram Stoker Awards Banquet held during StokerCon™ 2024 in San Diego, California. Bookings and information for StokerCon are available at StokerCon2024.com.

Note: Banquet Tickets (during which the awards are presented) are separate from the Convention Membership and should be purchased directly from  Eventbrite.

Learn more about membership in HWA—there are categories for supporters of the genre, so you don’t have to be an author.

Click on the links below to learn more about the nominated authors! 

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• James Aquilone – Shakespeare Unleashed (Crystal Lake Publishing, Monstrous Books)
• Christopher Golden and Brian Keene – The Drive-In: Multiplex (Pandi Press)
• Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. – Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (Vintage)
• Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams – Out There Screaming (Random House)
• Rebecca Rowland – American Cannibal (Maenad Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• Gemma Files – Blood from the Air (Grimscribe Press)
• Todd Keisling – Cold, Black, and Infinite (Cemetery Dance)
• Josh Malerman – Spin A Black Yarn (Del Rey)
• Christi Nogle – The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future (Flame Tree Press)
• Sarah Read – Root Rot & Other Grim Tales (Bad Hand Books)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• Christa Carmen – The Daughters of Block Island (Thomas & Mercer)
• Johnny Compton – The Spite House (Tor Nightfire/Macmillan)
• Eric LaRocca – Everything the Darkness Eats (CLASH Books/Titan)
• CJ Leede – Maeve Fly (Tor Nightfire/Macmillan/Titan)
• Sam Rebelein – Edenville (William Morrow/Titan)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• Cullen Bunn and Leomacs (artist) – Ghostlore Vol. 1 (BOOM! Studios)
• Adam Cesare and David Stoll (artist) – Dead Mall (Dark Horse Comics)
• Amy Chu and Soo Lee (artist) –  Carmila: The First Vampire (Dark Horse Comics)
• Junji Ito (author & artist) – Tombs (Viz Media)
• Gou Tanabe (author & artist) – H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Dark Horse Comics)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• Tananarive Due – “Rumpus Room”  (The Wishing Pool & Other Stories, Akashic Books)
• Ai Jiang –  Linghun (Dark Matter INK)
• Cassandra Khaw –  The Salt Grows Heavy (Tor Nightfire/Macmillan/Titan)
• J.A.W. McCarthy –  Sleep Alone (Off Limits Press)
• Lee Murray –  Despatches (PS Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction

• Robin R. Means-Coleman and Mark H. Harris – The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar (Gallery/Saga Press)
• Claire Fitzpatrick (Ed.) –  A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley (IFWG Publishing International)
• Sadie Hartmann – 101 Horror Books to Read before You’re Murdered (Page Street Publishing)
• Lisa Morton – The Art of the Zombie Movie (Applause Books)
• Lee Murray and Angela Yuriko-Smith – 

Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror (Black Spot Books)

Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel

• Sarah Henning –  Monster Camp (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
• Diana López – Los Monstruos: Felice & the Wailing Woman (Kokila)
• Lora Senf – The Nighthouse Keeper (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
• Refe Tuma – Frances & the Werewolves of the Black Forest (HarperCollins)
• Suzanne Young – What Stays Buried (HarperCollins)

 Superior Achievement in a Novel

• Tananarive Due – The Reformatory (Gallery/Saga Press/Titan)
• Grady Hendrix – How to Sell a Haunted House (Berkley/Titan)
• Stephen Graham Jones – Don’t Fear the Reaper (Gallery/Saga Press/Titan)
• Victor LaVelle – Lone Woman (One World)
• Chuck Tingle – Camp Damascus (Tor Nightfire/MacMillan/Titan)
• Chuck Wendig – Black River Orchard (Del Rey/Penguin Random House)

Superior Achievement in Poetry

• Maxwell Ian Gold – Bleeding Rainbows & Other Broken Spectrums (Hex Publishers)
• Jessica McHugh – The Quiet Ways I Destroy You (Apokrupha Press
• Marisca Pichette – Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair (Android Press)
• Holly Lyn Walrath – Numinous Stones (Aqueduct Press)
• Stephanie M. Wytovich – On the Subject of Blackberries (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

 Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• Charlie Brooker – Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea {Ep. 3, S6} (Zeppotron, Babieka, Banijay Entertainment, Broke & Bones, House of Tomorrow)
• Michelle Garza Cervera and Abia Castillo – Huesera: The Bone Woman (Disruptiva Films, Machete Producciones, Maligno Gorehouse)
• Brian Duffield – No One Will Save You (20^th Century Studios, Star Thrower Entertainment)
• Demián Rugna – When Evil Lurks (Machaco Films, Aramos Cine, Shudder)
• Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One (Robot Communications, Toho Studios)

 Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• L.E. Daniels –  “Silk” (Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster: Stories Inspired by Stephen King, Twisted Wing Productions)
• Rachael K. Jones –  “Sound of Children Screaming” (Nightmare Magazine)
• Sam J. Miller –  “If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak” (The Dark)
• Cindy O’Quinn –  “Quondam” (The Nightmare Never Ends, Exploding Head Fiction)
• Nadine Aurora Tabing –  “An Inherited Taste” (No Trouble At All, Cursed Morsels Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

• Carina Bissett –  “Words Wielded by Women” (Apex Magazine)
• Nadia Bulkin –  “Becoming Ungovernable: Latah, Amok, & Disorder in Indonesia” (Unique Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books)
• K.P. Kulski –  “100 Livers” (Unique Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books)
• Lee Murray –  “Displaced Spirits” (Unique Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books)
• Kevin Wetmore Jr. –  “A Theatre of Ghosts, A Haunted Cinema: The Japanese Gothic as Theatrical Tradition in Gurozuka” (The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture: Special Issue on Asian Gothic)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• Kalynn Bayron – You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight (Bloomsbury YA)
• Cherie Dimaline – Funeral Songs for Dying Girls (Tundra Book Group)
• Kristen Simmons – Find Him Where You Left Him Dead (Tor Teen)
• Cynthia Leitich Smith – Harvest House (Candlewick Press)
• Trang Thanh Tran – She Is A Haunting (Bloomsbury YA)