The nominating process for the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards is officially underway, with the Horror Writers Association (HWA) releasing the preliminary ballot for each category. HWA’s 1,800+ members will select the finalists and eventual nominees from this list, which is scheduled to be released on or about February 23, 2023.
Here are the works on the 2022 Bram Stoker Awards preliminary ballot. Voting is open until February 15, 2023 for HWA members, and the winners will be announced at StokerCon 2023, which takes place June 15-18, 2023.
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Sallow Bend, Alan Baxter (Cemetery Dance)
The Devil Takes You Home, Gabino Iglesias (Mullholland)
The Fervor, Alma Katsu (Putnam)
Fairy Tale, Stephen King (Scribner)
Reluctant Immortals, Gwendolyn Kiste (Saga)
The Ghost That Ate Us: The Tragic True Story of the Burger City Poltergeist, Daniel Kraus (Raw Dog Screaming)
Daphne, Josh Malerman (Del Rey)
I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Came, Gwendolyn Nix (Crystal Lake)
The Exorcist’s House, Nick Roberts (Crystal Lake)
Ask for Andrea, Noelle W. Ihli (Dynamite)
Sundial, Catriona Ward (Nightfire)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Jackal, Erin Adams (Bantam)
The Hacienda, Isabel Cañas (Berkley)
Cursed Among Us, John Durgin (self-published)
Shutter, Ramona Emerson (SoHo Crime)
Beneath the Stairs, Jennifer Fawcett (Atria)
The Desecrated, John Gray (Ellysian)
Entomophobia, Sarah Hans (Omnium Gatherum)
Black Tide, KC Jones (Nightfire)
Beulah, Christi Nogle (Cemetery Gates)
All the White Spaces, Ally Wilkes (Emily Bestler/Atria)
Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel
The Vanquishers, Kalynn Bayron (Bloomsbury Childrens)
Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Roseanne A. Brown (Rick Riordan Presents)
Ravenous Things, Derrick Chow (Disney Hyperion)
What We Saw, Mary Downing Hahn (Clarion)
They Stole Our Hearts, Daniel Kraus (Holt)
This Appearing House, Ally Malinenko (Katherine Tegen)
Tales to Keep You Up at Night, Dan Poblocki (Penguin)
Camp Scare, Delilah S. Dawson (Delacorte)
The Clackity, Lora Senf (Antheneum for Young Readers)
A Comb of Wishes, Lisa Stringfellow (Quill Tree)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Kolchak: The Night Stalker: 50th Anniversary, James Aquilone, ed. (Moonstone)
Killadelphia Vol. 4, Rodney Barnes (author), Jason Shawn Alexander (artist), Luis NCT (artist), and Chris Mitten (artist) (Image Comics)
Eat the Rich, Sarah Gailey (author), Pius Bak (artist) (Boom!)
Little Monsters Vol. 1, Jeff Lemire (author), Dustin Nguyen (artist) (Image Comics)
Kraken Inferno: The Last Hunt, Alessandro Manzetti (author), Stefano Cardoselli (artist) (Independent Legions)
House of Slaughter Vol. 1, James Tynion IV and Tate Bromba (authors)l, Chris Shehan (artist) (Boom!)
The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 1, James Tynion IV (author), Alvaro Martinez Bueno (artist) (DC)
Something is Killing the Children Vol. 4, James Tynion IV (author), Werther Dell’Edera (artist) (Boom!)
The Closet Vol. 1, James Tynion IV (author), Gavin Fullerton and Chris O’Halloran (artists) (Image Comics)
The Me You Love in the Dark, Skottie Young (author), Jorge Corona (artist) (Image Comics)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Scout’s Honor, Lily Anderson (Holt)
What We Harvest, Ann Fraistat (Delacorte)
The Weight of Blood, Tiffany D. Jackson (Katherine Tegen)
The Depths, Nicole Lesperance (Razorbill)
These Fleeting Shadows, Kate Alive Marshall (Viking)
The Triangle, Robert P. Ottone (Raven Tale)
Flight 171, Amy Christine Parker (Underlined)
Gallant, V.E. Schwab (Greenwillow)
Burn Down, Rise Up, Vincent Tirado (Sourcebooks Fire)
Hell Followed With Us, Andrew Joseph White (Peachtree)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Skin Grows Over, Lucy Elizabeth Allan (Ghost Orchid)
And in Her Smile, the World, Rebecca J. Allred and Gordon B. White (Trepidatio)
The Talosite, Rebecca Campbell (Undertow)
“Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell,” Christa Carmen (Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror)
Below, Laurel Hightower (Ghoulish)
The Wehrwolf, Alma Katsu (Amazon Original)
Three Days in the Pink Tower, EV Knight (Creature)
House of Pungsu, K.P. Kulski (Bizarro Pulp)
Helpmeet, Naben Ruthnum (Undertow)
One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve, M. Shaw (Tenebrous)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
“They Could Have Been Yours,” Joy Baglio (The Missouri Review, No. 45.1)
“Blame,” Warren Benedetto (The Dread Machine)
“Nona Doesn’t Dance,” Aaron Dries (Cut to Care: A Collection of Little Hurts)
“Poppy’s Poppy,” Douglas Gwilym (Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine Vol. V, No. 6)
“That’s What Friends Are For,” Larry Hinkle (Dark Recesses Press, Vol. 6, No. 16)
“The Only Thing Different Will Be the Body,” J.A.W McCarthy (A Woman Built by Man)
“The Bear Across the Way,” Emily Rigole (PsuedoPod )
“A Song for Barnaby Jones,” Anna Taborska (Zagava)
“The Star,” Anna Taborska (Great British Horror 7: Major Arcane)
“Fracture,” Mercedes M. Yardley (Mother: Tales of Love and Terror)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
We Are Here to Hurt Each Other, Paula D. Ashe (Nictitating)
The Puppet King and Other Atonements, Justin A. Burnett (Trepidatio)
The Box, Scott J Couturier (Hybrid Sequence)
Hell Hath No Sorrow Like a Woman Haunted, RJ Joseph (The Seventh Terrace)
Breakable Things, Cassandra Khaw (Undertow)
Extinction Hymns, Eric Raglin (Brigids Gate)
Moonless Nocturne, Hank Schwaeble (Esker & Riddle)
If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror, Caleb Stephens (Salt Heart)
Spontaneous Human Combustion, Richard Thomas (Keylight)
The Black Maybe, Attila Veres (Valancourt)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Orphan: First Kill, David Coggeshall (Dark Castle Entertainment, Eagle Vision, Entertainment One)
The Pale Blue Eye, Scott Cooper (Cross Creek Pictures, Grisbi Productions, Streamline Global Group)
The Black Phone, Scott Derrickson and Robert C. Cargill (Blumhouse Productions, Crooked Highway, Universal Pictures)
Stranger Things Episode 401 “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club,” the Duffer Brothers (21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre, Netflix, Upside Down Pictures)
Men, Alex Garland (DNA Films)
Pearl, Ti West and Mia Goth (A24, Bron Creative, Little Lamb, New Zealand Film Commission)
Fresh, Lauryn Kahn (Hyberobject Industries, Legendary Entertainment, Searchlight Pictures)
From Episode 107 “All Good Things,” John Griffin and Vivian Lee (AGBO, Epix Studios, MGM, Midnight Radio)
Speak No Evil, Mads Tafdrup and Christian Tafdrup (Det Danske Filminstitut, FilmFyn, Netherlands Film Production Incentive, Oak Motion Pictures, Profile Pictures)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Sifting the Ashes, Michael Bailey and Marge Simon (Crystal Lake)
Ballads for the Witching Hour, Adam Bolivar (Hippocampus)
The Hand That Wounds, David E. Cowen (Weasel)
Girls from the County, Donna Lynch (Raw Dog Screaming)
Kubrick Rhapsody, Alessandro Manzetti and Karen Runge (Independent Legions)
The Saint of Witches, Avra Margariti (Weasel)
Venomous Words, Jeff Oliver and Gordon Reilly (Hellbound)
Foundlings, Cindy O’Quinn and Stephanie Ellis (self-published)
Crime Scene, Cynthia Pelayo (Raw Dog Screaming)
The Rat King: A Book of Dark Poetry, Sumiko Saulson (self-published)
The Sibil, Hamant Singh (Partridge Publishing Singapore)
The Gravity of Existence, Christina Sng (Interstellar Flight)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
We Are Providence: Tales of Horror from the Ocean State, Christa Carmen and L.E. Daniels, eds. (Weird House)
The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Volume 2, James D. Jenkins and Ryan Cagle, eds. (Valancourt)
Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Nightfire)
Human Monsters: A Horror Anthology, Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Saywers, eds. (Dark Matter Ink)
Nightmare Sky: Stories of Astronomical Horror, Red Lago, ed. (Death Knell)
The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors, Doug Murano, ed. (Bad Hand)
Mother: Tales of Love and Terror, Christi Nogle and Willow Becker, eds. (Weird Little Worlds)
Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga, Lindy Ryan, ed. (Black Spot)
Dark Stars, John F.D. Taff, ed. (Nightfire)
Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror, Sara Tantlinger, ed. (Strangehouse)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
What the Daemon Said: Essays on Horror Fiction, Film, and Philosophy, Matt Cardin (Hippocampus)
Weird Fiction: A Genre Study, Michael Cisco (Palgrave)
Dark Scenes from Damaged Earth: The Gothic Anthropocene, Justin D. Edwards, Rune Grauland, and John Höglund (University of Minnesota)
Lurking Under the Surface: Horror, Religion, and the Questions that Haunt Us, Brandon R. Grafius (Broadleaf)
A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America’s Ghosts, Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes (Citadel)
Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult, Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson (Quirk)
The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters, J.W. Ocker (Quirk)
The Cambridge Companion to American Horror, Stephen Shapiro and Mark Storey (Cambridge University)
Writing in the Dark: The Workbook, Tim Waggoner (Guide Dog)
Writing Poetry in the Dark, Stephanie M. Wytovich (Raw Dog Screaming)
Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction
“Polychromatic Perversity: Hypercolor, Vice, and Violence in Horror,” Chelsea Davis (Tor Nightfire)
“Dracula: Bram Stoker’s Love Letter to the Human Race,” Katherine Kerestman (Penumbra no. 3)
“I Don’t Read Horror (& Other Weird Tales),” Lee Murray (Interstellar Flight Magazine)
“When Writing About Mental Illness, Handle with Care,” Nzondi (Books & Buzz Magazine No. 9)
“The Lingering Terror of Silent Hill,” Robert P. Ottone (Weird House Magazine No. 1)
“This is Not a Poem,” Cynthia Pelayo (Writing Poetry in the Dark)
“The H Word: A Celebration of Sonic Horror,” Eric Ranglin (Nightmare Magazine No. 123)
“A Clown in the Living Room: The Sinister Clown on Television,” Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. (The Many Lives of Scary Clowns: Essays on Pennywise, Twisty, the Joker, Krusty and More)
“African American Horror Authors and Their Craft: The Evolution of Horror Fiction from African Folklore,” Marie L. Wood (Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook for Middle and High School Students)
“The H Word: The Horror of Hair,” Marie L. Wood (Nightmare Magazine No. 118)
Congratulations to all of those on the preliminary ballot!
