What an absolute trip to wake up this morning and see this. The 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot was just announced and THE GULP is on there for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection. That’s fantastic! Now this most definitely isn’t the same as being nominated – the prelim ballot is now going to be voted on by Active and Lifetime Members of the HWA to determine a shortlist, and that list will be the official award nominees. But it’s such a joy to see my book get this far. Of course, I desperately hope to make the shortlist, but just look at the company I’m sharing on this preliminary ballot. Truly amazing. We’ll see what the future holds!
The full Preliminary Ballot is listed below. Massive congrats to everyone who’s made it this far. Horror is certainly healthy right now.
EDIT: The official Bram Stoker Awards® website has been updated with the Preliminary Ballot now. You can see it here.
The 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Castro, V. – The Queen of the Cicadas (Flame Tree Press)
Demchuk, David – Red X (Strange Light)
Hendrix, Grady – The Final Girl Support Group (Berkley)
Jones, Stephen Graham – My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Gallery/Saga Press)
Knight, EV – Children of Demeter (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
McLeod Chapman, Clay – Whisper Down the Lane (Quirk Books)
Pelayo, Cynthia – Children of Chicago (Agora Books)
Starling, Caitlin – The Death of Jane Lawrence (St. Martin’s Press)
Stred, Steve – Incarnate (Black Void Publishing)
Wendig, Chuck – The Book of Accidents (Del Rey)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Desiree, Amanda – Smithy (Inkshares)
Fox, VK – Indie Saint (Aethon Books)
Jones, C.B. – TheRules of the Road (Ionosphere Press)
Martinez, S. Alessandro – Helminth (Omnium Gatherum)
McQueen, LaTanya – When the Reckoning Comes (Harper Perennial)
Miles, Terry – Rabbits (Del Rey)
Moreno, Gus – This Thing Between Us (MCD x FSG Originals)
Piper, Hailey – Queen of Teeth (Strangehouse Books)
Quigley, Lisa – The Forest (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
Willson, Nicole – Tidepool (The Parliament House)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Ahmed, Saladin (author) and Kivelä, Sami (artist) – Abbott 1973 (BOOM! Studios)
Garcia, Kami (author); Suayan, Mico (artist); Badower, Jason (artist); and Mayhew, Mike (artist) – Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity (DC Comics)
Leong, Sloane (author) and Bowles, Anna (artist) – Graveneye (TKO Studios)
Manzetti, Alessandro (author) and Cardoselli, Stefano (artist) – The Inhabitant of the Lake (Independent Legions Publishing)
McCurdy, Bowen (author/artist) and Musto, Kaitlyn (author) – Specter Inspectors (BOOM! Box)
Morrison, Grant (author); Child, Alex (author); and Franquiz, Naomi (artist) – Proctor Valley Road (BOOM! Studios)
Moyer, Rich (author/artist) – Ham Helsing Vampire Hunter (Crown Books for Young Readers)
Panosian, Dan (author) and Ignazzi, Marianna (artist) – An Unkindness of Ravens (BOOM! Studios)
Scott, Cavan (author) and Howell, Corin (artist) – Shadow Service: Dark Arts (Vault Comics)
Szym, Adam (author/artist) – A Cordial Invitation (Self-published)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Ames, Alison – To Break a Covenant (Page Street Kids)
Blake, Kendare – All These Bodies (Quill Tree Books)
Boyle, R.L. – The Book of the Baku (Titan Books)
Craig, Erin A. – Small Favors (Delacorte Press)
Gould, Courtney – The Dead and the Dark (Wednesday Books)
Lewis, Jessica – Bad Witch Burning (Delacorte Press)
Marshall, Kate Alice – Our Last Echoes (Viking Books for Young Readers)
Polydoros, Aden – The City Beautiful (Inkyard Press)
Sutherland, Krystal – House of Hollow (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Waters, Erica – The River Has Teeth (HarperTeen)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Asman, Brian – Man, Fuck This House (Mutated Media)
Castro, V. – Goddess of Filth (Creature Publishing, LLC)
Deady, Tom – Of Men and Monsters (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Jeffery, Ross – Only The Stains Remain (Cemetery Gates Media)
Khaw, Cassandra – Nothing But Blackened Teeth (Tor Nightfire)
LaRocca, Eric – Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (Weirdpunk Books)
Marrs, Chris and O’Neill, Gene – “Entangled Soul” (Entangled Soul and Other Stories) (Omnium Gatherum)
Piper, Hailey – “Recitation of the First Feeding” (Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy) (The Seventh Terrace)
Strand, Jeff – “Twentieth Anniversary Screening” (Slice and Dice) (Independently published)
Tingle, Chuck – Straight (Self-published)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Gwilym, Douglas – “Year Six” (LampLight Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 1) (Apokrupha)
Gyzander, Carol – “The Yellow Crown” (Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign) (Hippocampus Press)
Joseph, R.J. – “I Just Want to Be Free” (Paranormal Contact: A Quiet Horror Confessional) (Cemetery Gates Media)
Joseph, R.J. – “Soulmates” (Dark Dispatch Issue #2: Deadly Love) (Dark Dispatch)
Murray, Lee – “Permanent Damage” (Attack From the ‘80s) (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
O’Quinn, Cindy – “A Gathering at the Mountain” (The Bad Book) (Bleeding Edge Books)
Oreto, Frank J. – “The Care and Feeding of Household Gods” (Beyond the Veil) (Flame Tree Press)
Taborska, Anna -“Two Shakes Of A Dead Lamb’s Tail”(Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands) (Telos Publishing)
Ward, Kyla Lee – “A Whisper in the Death Pit” (Weirdbook #44) (Wildside Press)
Yates, Pauline – “The Best Medicine” (Midnight Echo Issue 16) (AHWA)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Bailey, Michael – Psychotropic Dragon (Written Backwards)
Baxter, Alan – The Gulp (13th Dragon Books)
Files, Gemma – In That Endlessness, Our End (Grimscribe Press)
Fracassi, Philip – Beneath a Pale Sky (Lethe Press)
Landry, Jess – The Mother Wound (Independent Legions Publishing)
Maberry, Jonathan – Empty Graves: Tales of the Living Dead (WordFire Press LLC)
McCarthy, J.A.W. – Sometimes We’re Cruel and Other Stories (Cemetery Gates Media)
Tuttle, Lisa – The Dead Hours of Night (Valancourt Books)
Wise, A.C. – The Ghost Sequences (Undertow Publications)
Yap, Isabel – Never Have I Ever (Small Beer Press)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Bailey-Bond, Prano and Fletcher, Anthony – Censor (Silver Salt Films)
Carolyn, Axelle – The Manor (Amazon Studios)
Chaisson, C. Henry; Antosca, Nick; and Cooper, Scott – Antlers (Searchlight Pictures)
Charles, Kathy; Steensland, Mark; and Stevens, Travis – Jakob’s Wife (AMP International)
Cushing, Aric and Thomas, Logan – There’s No Such Thing as Vampires (Ascent Releasing)
Dong-hyuk, Hwang – Squid Game, Season 1, Episode 1: “Red Light, Green Light” (Siren Pictures)
Flanagan, Mike; Flanagan, James; and Howard, Jeff – Midnight Mass, Season 1, Episode 6: “Book VI: Acts of the Apostles” (Intrepid Pictures)
Graziadei, Phil and Janiak, Leigh – Fear Street: Part One – 1994 (Chernin Entertainment)
Peele, Jordan; Rosenfeld, Win; and DaCosta, Nia – Candyman (Universal Pictures)
Pisanthanakun, Banjong – The Medium (GDH 559)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Garza, Alexander P. – notsleepyyet (Weasel Press)
Lansdale, Joe R. – Apache Witch and Other Poetic Observations (Independent Legions Publishing)
Manzetti, Alessandro – Dancing with Maria’s Ghost (Independent Legions Publishing)
McHugh, Jessica – Strange Nests (Apokrupha)
O’Brien, Brandon – Can You Sign My Tentacle? (Interstellar Flight Press)
Simon, Marge and Turzillo, Mary – Victims (Weasel Press)
Sng, Christina; Yuriko Smith, Angela; Murray, Lee; and Flynn, Geneve – Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken. (Yuriko Publishing)
Snyder, Lucy A. – Exposed Nerves (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Walrath, Holly Lyn – The Smallest of Bones (CLASH Books)
Wolfe, Jezzy – Monstrum Poetica (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Chambers, James – Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign (Hippocampus Press)
Cluff, Michael and Becker, Willow – Humans are the Problem: A Monster’s Anthology (Weird Little Worlds)
Datlow, Ellen – When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (Titan Books)
French, Aaron J. and Landry, Jess – There is No Death, There are No Dead (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Guignard, Eric J. – Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World (Dark Moon Books)
HOWL Society – Howls From Hell (HOWL Society Press)
Johnson, Eugene – Attack From the ‘80s (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Schlossberg, Josh – The Jewish Book of Horror (Denver Horror Collective)
Showers, Brian J. – Uncertainties: Volume V (Swan River Press)
Thomas, Ben – Tales from Omnipark (House Blackwood)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Abbott, Stacey and Jowett, Lorna – Global TV Horror (University of Wales Press)
Decker, Lindsey – Transnationalism and Genre Hybridity in New British Horror Cinema (University of Wales Press)
Falvey, Eddie; Hickinbottom, Joe; and Wroot, Jonathan – New Blood: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Horror (University of Wales Press)
Olson, Danel – 9/11 Gothic: Decrypting Ghosts and Trauma in New York City’s Terrorism Novels (Lexington Books)
Knost, Michael – Writers Workshop of Horror 2 (Hydra Publications)
Lester, Catherine – Horror Films for Children: Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema (Bloomsbury Academic)
Potts, Jim – Defending a Serial Killer: The Right to Counsel (Vesuvian Books)
Wetmore Jr., Kevin J. – Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters (Reaktion Books)
Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew and Hansen, Regina M. – Giving the Devil His Due: Satan and
Cinema (Fordham University Press)
Woofter, Kristopher – Shirley Jackson: A Companion (Peter Lang Publishing)
Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction
Clasen, Mathias – “Fear Not!” (Aeon)
Cowen, David E. – “Introduction” (Victims) (Weasel Press)
Ward, Kyla Lee – “Vampire Poetry” (Penumbra No. 2 (2021)) (Hippocampus Press)
Diak, Nicholas – “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth” (Academia Letters)
Ognjanović, Dejan – “The Three Paradigms of Horror” (Vastarien Vol. 4, Issue 2) (Grimscribe Press)
O’Quinn, Cindy – “One and Done” (Were Tales: A Shapeshifter Anthology) (Brigids Gate Press)
Tamásfi, László – “The Devil Flew Away”(Dracula’s Death)(Strangers from Nowhere)
Verona, Emily Ruth – “A Horror Fan’s Guide to Surviving Womanhood” (thefinalgirls.co.uk)
Wetmore, Kevin J. – “Devil’s Advocates: The Conjuring” (Auteur Publishing/Liverpool University Press)
Yuriko Smith, Angela – “Horror Writers: Architects of Hope” (The Sirens Call, Halloween 2021, Issue 55) (Sirens Call Publications)