It’s awards season this year, and we at the Library are thrilled to bring you all the winners–not just from last night’s Academy Awards, but from this year’s Bram Stoker Awards, which were handed out this weekend in Providence Rhode Island!
Each year, the Horror Writer’s Association presents the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, named in honor of Bram Stoker, author of the horror novel to beat all horror novels (and Free For All favorite), Dracula. The Bram Stoker Awards were instituted immediately after the organization’s incorporation in 1987. The first awards were presented in 1988 (for works published in 1987), and they have been presented every year since. The award itself, designed by sculptor Steven Kirk, is a stunning haunted house, with a door that opens to reveal a brass plaque engraved with the name of the winning work and its author.
The Stoker Awards specifically avoid the word “best”, because it recognizes that horror itself is a genre that is constantly moving, changing, and pushing its own boundaries (and can often be very specific to a place, or a generation). Instead, it uses the words “Superior Achievement”. The categories of award have changed over the years, as well, as the genre has evolved, but since 2011, the eleven Bram Stoker Award categories are: Novel, First Novel, Short Fiction, Long Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction Collection, Poetry Collection, Anthology, Screenplay, Graphic Novel and Non-Fiction.
We’ll have some more information regarding Stokercon, the annual meeting of the Horror Writers of America from one of our library staff who attended part of convention, but for now, let’s celebrate the winners (and maybe find some new books to enjoy?)!
Here is a selection of the nominees and winners of the 2017 Bram Stoker Awards, with links to the Library Catalog in the title of each book where applicable:
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Winner: Ararat by Christopher Golden
Also nominated:
Sleeping Beauties by Stephen & Owen King
Black Mad Wheel by Josh Malerman
I Wish I Was Like You by S.P. Miskowski (access this title via ComCat–check with your friendly reference staff!)
Ubo by Steve Rasnic Tem
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Winner: Cold Cuts by Robert Payne Cabeen
Also nominated:
In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson
What Do Monsters Fear? by Matt Hayward
The Boulevard Monster by Jeremy Hepler (access this title via ComCat–check with your friendly reference staff!)
Kill Creek by Scott Thomas
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Winner: The Last Harvest by Kim Liggett
Also nominated:
The Door to January by Gillian French
Hellworld by Tom Leveen
The Ravenous by Amy Lukavics
When I Cast Your Shadow by Sarah Porter
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Winner: Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damian Duffy and Octavia E. Butler
Also nominated:
Darkness Visible by Mike Carey and Ethan David Arvind
My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
The Black Monday Murders by Jonathan Hickman (access this title via ComCat–check with your friendly reference staff!)
Monstress Volume 2 by Marjorie Liu
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Winner: Get Out by Jordan Peele
Also nominated:
The Shape of Water by Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
Stranger Things: MadMax (Episode 2:01) by Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer (Season 2 isn’t available yet, but once it is, we’ll have it for you!)
Twin Peaks, Part 8 by Mark Frost and David Lynch
It by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Winner: Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of the ’70’s and ’80’s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix
Also nominated:
Horror in Space: Critical Essays on a Film Subgenre by Michele Brittany (access this title via ComCat–check with your friendly reference staff!)
Searching for Sycorax: Black Women’s Hauntings of Contemporary Horror by Kinitra D. Brooks
The Art of Horror Movies: An Illustrated History by Stephen Jones (access this title via ComCat–check with your friendly reference staff!)
Where Nightmares Come From: The Art of Storytelling in the Horror Genre edited by Joe Mynhardt and Eugene Johnson
Check out all the winners of the 2017 Bram Stoker Awards here!