Ron Breznay and Rena Mason, Co-Chairs, Bram Stoker Awards® Committee

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Preliminary Ballot for the 2015 Bram Stoker Awards (given out in 2016). The HWA (see www.horror.org) is the premiere writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see www.horror.org/awards/stokers.htm).

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

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Barker, Clive – The Scarlet Gospels (St. Martin’s Press)

Bates, Jeremy – The Catacombs (World’s Scariest Places: Book Two) (Ghillinnein Books)

Clines, Peter – The Fold (Crown)

Collings, Michaelbrent – The Deep (self-published)

Faherty, JG – The Cure (Samhain Publishing)

Ferrario, Keith – Monster (Samhain Publishing)

Freivald, Patrick – Black Tide (JournalStone Publishing)

Johnson, Jeremy Robert – Skullcrack City (Lazy Fascist Press)

Klavan, Andrew – Werewolf Cop (Pegasus)

Lane, Leigh M. – The Private Sector (Eldritch Press)

Talley, Brett J. – He Who Walks in Shadow (JournalStone Publishing)

Tremblay, Paul – A Head Full of Ghosts (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Alameda, Courtney – Shutter (Feiwel & Friends)

Cushing, Nicole – Mr. Suicide (Word Horde)

Erb, Thom – Heaven, Hell, or Houston: A Zombie Thriller (Severed Press)

Harmon, Kenneth W. – The Amazing Mr. Howard (JournalStone Publishing)

Hawkins, Scott – The Library at Mount Char (Crown)

Herrman, Heather – Consumption (Hydra)

Kirk, Brian – We Are Monsters (Samhain Publishing)

McIlveen, John – Hannahwhere (Crossroad Press)

Romines, Kyle Alexander – The Keeper of the Crows (Sunbury Press, Inc.)

Smith, John Claude – Riding the Centipede (Omnium Gatherum)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Brozek, Jennifer – Never Let Me Sleep (Permuted Press)

Chupeco, Rin – The Suffering (Sourcebooks Fire)

Collings, Michaelbrent – The Ridealong (self-published)

Dixon, John – Devil’s Pocket (Simon & Schuster)

Hill, Will – Department 19: Darkest Night (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Hurley, Tonya – Hallowed (Simon & Schuster)

Johnson, Maureen – The Shadow Cabinet (Penguin)

Sattin, Samuel – The Silent End (Ragnarok Publications)

Varley, Dax – Bleed (Garden Gate Press)

Welke, Ian – End Times at Ridgemont High (Omnium Gatherum)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Bunn, Cullen – Harrow County, Vol. 1: Countless Haints (Dark Horse Comics)

Gischler, Victor – Hellbound (Dark Horse Books)

Kipiniak, Chris – Behemoth (Monkeybrain Comics)

Kirkman, Robert – Outcast, Vol. 1: A Darkness Surrounds Him (Image Comics)

Lucarelli, David – The Children’s Vampire Hunting Brigade, Vol. 2: Age of the Wicked (Creator’s Edge Press)

Snyder, Scott – Wytches, Vol. 1 (Image Comics)

Tobin, Paul – Colder, Vol. 2: The Bad Seed (Dark Horse Comics)

Weller, Sam, Chris Ryall, Carlos Guzman and Mort Castle (editors) – Shadow Show: Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury (IDW Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Braunbeck, Gary A. – Paper Cuts (Seize the Night) (Gallery Books)

Eads, Ben – Cracked Sky (Omnium Gatherum)

Edelman, Scott – Becoming Invisible, Becoming Seen (Dark Discoveries #30)

Gunhus, Jeff – The Torment of Rachel Ames (Seven Guns Press)

Mannetti, Lisa – The Box Jumper (Smart Rhino Publications)

McGuire, Seanan – Resistance (The End Has Come) (Broad Reach Publishing)

O’Neill, Gene – At the Lazy K (Written Backwards)

Parent, Jason – Dia de los Muertos (Bad Apples 2) (Corpus Press)

Partridge, Norman – Special Collections (The Library of the Dead) (Written Backwards)

Yardley, Mercedes M. – Little Dead Red (Grimm Mistresses) (Ragnarok Publications)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Bailey, Dale – Snow (Nightmare Magazine #33)

Boston, Bruce – A Trader on the Border of the Mutant Rain Forest (Daily Science Fiction)

Braum, Daniel – An American Ghost in Zurich (Savage Beasts) (Grey Matter Press)

Gonzalez, Michael Paul – Choking Hazard (Winter Horror Days) (Omnium Gatherum)

Jonez, Kate – All the Day You’ll Have Good Luck (Black Static #47)

Manzetti, Alessandro – The Massacre of the Mermaids (The Massacre of the Mermaids) (Kipple Officina Libraria)

O’Neill, Gene – The Algernon Effect (White Noise Press)

Palisano, John – Happy Joe’s Rest Stop (18 Wheels of Horror) (Big Time Books)

Southard, Nate – The Cork Won’t Stay (Nightmare Magazine #34)

Walters, Damien Angelica – Sing Me Your Scars (Sing Me Your Scars) (Apex Publications)

Wong, Alyssa – Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers (Nightmare Magazine #37)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Benson, Justin – Spring (XYZ Films)

del Toro, Guillermo, & Matthew Robbins – Crimson Peak (Legendary Pictures)

Franz, Veronika, and Severin Fiala – Goodnight, Mommy (Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion)

Fuller, Bryan, Steve Lightfoot & Nick Antosca – Hannibal: The Wrath of the Lamb (Dino De Laurentiis Company)

Gimple, Scott M. – The Walking Dead: Here’s Not Here (AMC)

Logan, John – Penny Dreadful: And Hell Itself My Only Foe (Showtime)

Logan, John – Penny Dreadful: Nightcomers (Showtime)

Mitchell, David Robert – It Follows (Northern Lights Films)

Waititi, Taika & Jemaine Clement – What We Do in the Shadows (Unison Films)

Zahler, S. Craig – Bone Tomahawk (Caliber Media Company)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Bailey, Michael – The Library of the Dead (Written Backwards)

Datlow, Ellen – The Doll Collection: Seventeen Brand-New Tales of Dolls (Tor Books)

Delany, Shannon, and Judith Graves – Beware the Little White Rabbit (Leap Books, LLC)

Golden, Christopher – Seize the Night (Gallery Books)

Jones, Stephen – Horrorology (Quercus Publishing)

Kilpatrick, Nancy, and Caro Soles – nEvermore! (Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)

Maberry, Jonathan – X-Files: Trust No One (IDW Publishing)

Miller, Eric – 18 Wheels of Horror (Big Time Books)

Murano, Doug, and D. Alexander Ward – Shadows Over Main Street (Hazardous Press)

Nassise, Joseph, and Del Howison – Midian Unmade (Tor Books)

Rector, Jeani – Shrieks and Shivers from the Horror Zine (Post Mortem Press)

Thomas, Richard – Exigencies (Dark House Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Braunbeck, Gary – Halfway Down the Stairs (JournalStone Publishing)

Brozek, Jennifer – Apocalypse Girl Dreaming (Evil Girlfriend Media)

Cummings, Shane Jiraiya – The Abandonment of Grace and Everything After (Brimstone Press)

Cushing, Nicole – The Mirrors (Cycatrix Press)

Everson, John – Sacrificing Virgins (Samhain Publishing)

Grant, Taylor – The Dark at the End of the Tunnel (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Litherland, Neal F. – New Avalon: Love and Loss in the City of Steam (James Ward Kirk Publishing)

O’Neill, Gene – The Hitchhiking Effect (Dark Renaissance Books)

Snyder, Lucy A. – While the Black Stars Burn (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Warner, Matthew – Dominoes in Time (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

Everett, Justin, and Jeffrey H. Shanks (ed.) – The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales: The Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)

Hutchinson, Sharla, and Rebecca A. Brown (ed.) – Monsters and Monstrosity from the Fin de Siècle to the Millennium (McFarland and Company)

Jones, Stephen – The Art of Horror (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books)

Knost, Michael – Author’s Guide to Marketing with Teeth (Seventh Star Press)

Mynhardt, Joe, & Emma Audsley (editors) – Horror 201: The Silver Scream (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Olson, Danel – Studies in the Horror Film: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (Centipede Press)

Soderlund, Sarah – Haunted by the Abyss: The Otherworldly Experiences of Paranormal (Llewellyn Publications)

Southall, Richard – Haunted Plantations of the South (Llewellyn Publications)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Boston, Bruce – Resonance Dark and Light (Eldritch Press)

Crum, Amanda – The Madness in our Marrow (Amanda Crum)

Gailey, Jeannine Hall – The Robot Scientist’s Daughter (Mayapple Press)

Hanson, Michael H. – Dark Parchments (MoonDream Press)

Manzetti, Alessandro – Eden Underground (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Opperman, K.A. – The Crimson Tome (Hippocampus Press)

Randolph, Michael – Poetic Allegories (Eldritch Press)

Schwader, Ann – Dark Energies (P’rea Press)

Simon, Marge – Naughty Ladies (Eldritch Press)

Wytovich, Stephanie M. – An Exorcism of Angels (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Our voting members will now vote on this Preliminary Ballot, with voting closing on February 15 (only Active and Lifetime Members are eligible to vote).

Works appearing on the Preliminary Ballot are NOT “Bram Stoker Award nominees” and authors, editors, publishers, and others should not refer to any of these works as such – doing so is a severe breach of etiquette – voting members tend to notice such breaches and may consider them when determining which works to vote for on the Ballot.

The Preliminary Ballot will be sent to Lifetime and Active Members on February 1. If you are an Active or Lifetime Member and do NOT receive your electronic Ballot link by February 2, please first check your spam/junk mail filter and then email admin@horror.org.

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 by advising the administrator of any changes at admin@horror.org. Late Ballots cannot be accepted under any circumstances.

If your work (you are the author, agent, editor, publisher, or publicist) appears on the ballot and you wish to provide a link allowing Voting Members to read the work there will be a SPECIAL PRELIMINARY BALLOT INTERNET MAILER issued on or about January 27.

Please email the Internet Mailer editor at imailer@horror.org with the details as soon as you can but no later than January 26 (links will not be accepted for this Special IM after January 26). You may offer to send electronic copies; provide reading copies on a website; or physical copies. Anyone validly representing a work appearing on the Preliminary 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://horrorwritersassociation.org/login-forum/index.php?board=12.0 (Bram Stoker Eligible Work). If you had already posted your work here prior to the announcement of the Preliminary Ballot you ARE entitled to post it again. 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.

The Final Ballot (Bram Stoker Award nominees for 2015 calendar year) will be announced on February 23. Winners will be announced on May 14th at the gala awards presentation held in the iconic Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, as part of the first annual StokerCon (see http://www.stokercon2016.com for more information).