There are so many books to read and so little time... And despite the pandemic and the lockdown, TBR-lists are growing and growing to never-ending proportions.
So awards really come in handy for the despairing and a little lazy reader, who wants to read all the good books and lose no time with the less good ones. In other words, very proficient readers doing the work for you; reading a bunch of books, narrowing their selection to four or five chosen ones, from which in turn, they select a winner - unless, of course, they are readers' choice awards. So, besides the list of most-anticipated reads of the year and the season's readings on Christmas and Halloween, it is a popular project of thousands of genre readers to devour this top-of-the-crops-selection. And if you happen to have more time on your hands, you just go through past award-winners.
While the mention of a mere nomination to the Hugo, Nebula or Locus awards may fire the sales of previously not-so-known books in the SF/F realm, it is the Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson that rock the world of horror literature. Even though I don't nearly read as much science fiction as I once used to, I still do enjoy some good SF every now and then and make sure to check out the former accolades (and there's sometimes some good horror-SF mash up too), but it is the latter two that make my heart beat faster. When I first started reading horror they were a good guide for me, because, you know, you can do great things in horror but you can also go really wrong. And I want to read books with substance (well, most of the time anyway) and not destroy my psychological wellbeing, which you can totally do with the wrong author or book - horror can be powerful like that.That being said, let us take a look at horror's two principal awards and this year's nominees/winners!
The Bram Stoker Awards
- The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones (Gallery/Saga)👏👏👏 (That's Protean Depravity's best novel of the year too!)
- The Deep, Alma Katsu (Putnam's)
- Devil's Creek, Todd Keisling (Silver Shamrock)
- Malorie, Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
- Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
- Night of the Mannequins, Stephen Graham Jones (Tordotcom)👏👏👏 (Two awards in two major categories!!, Go SGJ)
- “Beyond the Reef”, Gabino Iglesias (Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction)
- “I Will Find You, Even in the Dark”, Jess Landry (Dim Shores Presents Volume 1)
- The Invention of Ghosts, Gwendolyn Kiste (Nightscape)
- “Two Truths and a Lie”, Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)
- Grotesque: Monster Stories, Lee Murray (Things in the Well)👏👏👏
- Bloody Britain, Anna Taborska (Shadow)
- Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies, John Langan (Word Horde)
- The Cuckoo Girls, Patricia Lillie (Trepidatio)
- Velocities: Stories, Kathe Koja (Meerkat)
- Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Geneve Flynn & Lee Murray, eds. (Omnium Gatherum)👏👏👏
- Arterial Bloom, Mercedes M. Yardley, ed. (Crystal Lake)
- Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors, Michael Bailey & Doug Murano, eds. (Written Backwards)
- Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror, Sara Tantlinger, ed. (Rooster Republic)
- Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror, Samantha Kolesnik, ed. (Grindhouse)
Shirley Jackson Awards
Having been established in 2007, the Shirley Jackson Awards are rather young compared to other accolades, still a teenager. They comprise works of superior (here we go again) achievements in psychological suspense, horror as well as dark fantasy and are presented during Readercon in August. The jury consists of seriously big and impressive names from the horror publishing industry.- Sisters by Daisy Johnson (Jonathan Cape)
- Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press)
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey / Penguin Random House)
- Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth (William Morrow)
- The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press, Gallery Books)
- True Story by Kate Reed Petty (Viking)
Novella
- The Best of Both Worlds by S. P. Miskowski (Trepidatio Publishing)
- History of an Executioner by Clancy McGilligan (Miami University Press)
- Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones (Tordotcom Publishing)
- Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom Publishing)
- Agatha’s Barn: A Carpenter’s Farm Story by Michael Bailey (Written Backwards)
- Her Mad Song by C J Halbard (Man on Fire Press)
Single-Author Collection
- Settling the World: Selected Stories by M. John Harrison (Comma Press)
- Mannequin and Wife by Jen Fawkes (LSU Press)
- Thin Places by Kay Chronister (Undertow Publications)
- Velocities: Stories by Kathe Koja (Meerkat Press)
- Moonflower, Nightshade, All the Hours of the Day by JD Scott (Lake Forest College Press)
- Aftermath of an Industrial Accident: Stories by Mike Allen (Mythic Delirium Books)
Edited Anthology
- After Sundown, edited by Mark Morris (Flame Tree Press)
- Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, edited by Lee Murray & Geneve Flynn (Omnium Gatherum)
- Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors, edited by Doug Murano & Michael Bailey (Written Backwards)
- The Night Bazaar Venice: Thirteen Tales of Forbidden Wishes and Dangerous Desires, edited by Lenore Hart (Northampton House Press)
- Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror, edited by Mark Matthews (Wicked Run Press)
- Shadows & Tall Trees, Vol. 8, edited by Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications)
- Tiny Nightmares, edited by Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto (Catapult)
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