Yay!!! It’s time for the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards!!  The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition for “superior achievement” in horror writing presented annually by the HWA (Horror Writers Association.) They started when I was just a wee little bot back in 1988 and were dubbed the “stoker awards” to honor one of the most influential horror stories (and of course it’s author) of all time… Dracula! Now, the awards are not necessarily given for the best work of the previous year, but for “superior achievement and outstanding creative performance in the field of horror and dark fantasy.” Anyways…back in 2011 the awards were divided into eleven different categories: Novel, First Novel, Graphic Novel, Young Adult Novel, Long Fiction, Short Fiction, Fiction Collection,  Screenplay, Poetry Collection, Anthology, and non-fiction. I have listed 7 of those categories below along with links to the work so you can snatch them up and get to reading.

Side note: I’m especially proud of some of our KO alumni that made the list!! Laura Bickle, Libba Bray, Maggie Stiefvater & Kevin James Breaux!! Congrats!

 

 

2012 Bram Stoker Award Preliminary Ballot

 

 

 NOVEL

 

The Trouble with Hairy – Hal Bodner
14 – Peter Clines
Bottled Abyss – Benjamin Kane Ethridge
NightWhere – John Everson
Cemetery Club – JG Faherty
Coronation – Lee F. Jordan
The Drowning Girl – Caitlin R. Kiernan
The Haunted – Bently Little
Inheritance – Joe McKinney

 

 

 

 

FIRST NOVEL

 

Charlotte Markham and the House of Darklings – Michael Boccacino
Wide Open – Deborah Coates
The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief– Charles Day
A Requiem for Dead Flies – Peter Dudar
Bad Glass – Richard Gropp
Resurrection X: Zombie Evolution – Dane Hatchell
Dead Harvest – Chris Holm
The Sinner – K. Trap Jones
Life Rage – L.L. Soares
City Under the Moon – Hugh Sterbakov

 

 

 

YA NOVEL

 

The Hallowed Ones – Laura Bickle (My Review)
The Diviners – Libba Bray
FreeK Show – Steve Burt
Hooked: A True Faerie Tale – Michael Brent Collings
I Hunt Killers – Barry Lyga
Flesh & Bone – Jonathan Maberry
I Kissed A Ghoul – Michael McCarty
The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater
A Bad Day for Voodoo – Jeff Strand
 Break My Heart 1,000 Times – Daniel Waters
The Color of Evil – Connie Corcoran Wilson

 

 

 

LONG FICTION

 

Thirty Miles South of Dry County – Kealan Patrick Burke
The Cold Spot – JG Faherty
Sunfall Manor – Peter Giglio
I’m Not Sam – Lucky McGee & Jack Ketchum
The Mourning House – Ronald Malfi
Lost Girl of the Lake – Michael McCarty & Joe McKinney
Delphine Dodd – S.P. Miskowski
The Blue Heron – Gene O’Neill
The Fleshless Man – Norman Prentiss
When We Join Jesus in Hell – Lee Thompson

 

 

 

SHORT FICTION

 

Bootstrap – Michael Baily
Surrounded by the Mutant Rain Forest – Bruce Boston
The Journal of USS Indianapolis Survivor: Stefanos “Stevie” Georgiou – Kevin James Breaux
A Catechism for Aspiring Amnesiacs – Nicole Cushing
The Cancer Catechism – Jay Lake
Bury My Heart at Marvin Gardens – Joe McKinney
Righteous – Weston Ochse
Available Light – John Palisano
Magdala Amygdala – Lucy Snyder

 

 

 

ANTHOLOGY

 

Fear the Abyss – Eric Beebe
Shadow Show – Sam Weller & Mort Castle
Tales from the Yellow Rose Diner and Fill Station – Gallows Press
Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations – Eric J. Guignard
Hell Comes to Hollywood– Eric Miller
World’s Collider – Richard Salter
The Ghost IS the Machine – Patrick Scalisi
Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology – M. Scioneaux, R.J. Cavender & R. Wilson
Slices of Flesh – Stan Swanson

 

 

 

FICTION COLLECTION

 

These Old Tales: The Complete Collection – Kenneth W. Cain
Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories – Jonathan Carroll
New Moon on the Water – Mort Castle
Valentines for the Dead – Corrine De Winter
Errantry: Strange Stories – Elizabeth Hand
The Janus Tree – Glen Hirshberg
Where Furnaces Burn – Joel Lane
Ad Nauseam – C.W. LaSart
 Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories – Joyce Carol Oates
Christmas Ghost Stories – Mark Onspaugh
Beautiful Sorrows – Mercedes M. Yardley