On Saturday, June 6th, the Horror Writers Association announced the winners of the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards, which recognize superior achievement in horror. The Stokers are voted on by the members of the Horror Writers Association and announced each year at StokerCon, which this year took place in Pittsburgh.
Congratulations to the winners!
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
- Day, Julie C.; Bissett, Carina; and Gidney, Craig Laurance, eds. — Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology (Essential Dreams Press)
- Golden, Christopher and Keene, Brian, eds. — The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand (Gallery Books)
- WINNER: Kulski, Kristy Park, ed. — Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora (Bad Hand Books)
- Murray, Lee and Jeffery, Dave, eds. — This Way Lies Madness: Stories from the Edge of Darkness (Flame Tree Publishing)
- Ryan, Lindy and Wytovich, Stephanie M., eds. — HOWL: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women-in-Horror (Black Spot Books)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
- Chapman, Clay McLeod — Acquired Taste (Titan Books)
- Files, Gemma — Little Horn: Stories (Shortwave)
- WINNER: Langan, John — Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions (Word Horde)
- Piper, Hailey — Teenage Girls Can Be Demons (Titan Books)
- Tantlinger, Sara — Cyanide Constellations (Dark Matter INK)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
- Daly, Grace — The Scald-Crow (Creature Publishing)
- Karella, Bitter — Moonflow (Run For It)
- Pell, Tanya — Her Wicked Roots (Gallery Books)
- Steel, Hester — The Faceless Thing We Adore (Page Street Horror)
- Tennison, Kathryn — Molting (Uncomfortably Dark Horror)
- Viel, Neena — Listen to Your Sister (St. Martin’s Griffin / Titan Books)
- WINNER: Wehunt, Michael — The October Film Haunt (St. Martin’s Press)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
- Bunn, Cullen (writer) and Luckert, Danny (artist) – Jumpscare (Dark Horse Comics)
- King, Sandy (editor) – John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight, Volume 11 (Storm King Comics)
- Kraus, Daniel (writer) and Dani (artist) – Athanasia (VAULT Comics)
- WINNER: Mignola, Mike – Bowling With Corpses and Other Tales from Lands Unknown (Dark Horse Comics)
- Tynion IV, James (writer), Foxe, Steve (writer), and Kowalski, Piotr (artist) – Let This One Be a Devil (Dark Horse Comics & Tiny Onion Studios)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
- WINNER (tie): Ballingrud, Nathan — Cathedral of the Drowned (Tor Nightfire / Titan Books)
- Ha, Thomas — “Uncertain Sons” (Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Undertow Publications)
- Langan, Sarah — “Squid Teeth” (Reactor)
- Langan, Sarah — Pam Kowolski Is a Monster! (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
- WINNER (tie): Wise, A.C. — “Wolf Moon, Antler Moon” (Reactor)
Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction
- Borwein, Naomi Simone, ed. — Global Indigenous Horror (University Press of Mississippi)
- Grafius, Brandon R. and Morehead, John W., eds. — The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters (Oxford University Press)
- Hieber, Leanna Renee and Janes, Andrea — America’s Most Gothic (Kensington Publishing)
- Scrivner, Coltan — Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away (Penguin Random House)
- WINNER: Spratford, Becky Siegel, ed. — Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction (Saga Press)
Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel
- WINNER: Dawson, Delilah S. — Ride or Die (Delacorte Press)
- Kuyatt, Meg Eden — The Girl in the Walls (Scholastic Press)
- Malinenko, Ally — Broken Dolls (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
- Oh, Ellen — The House Next Door (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
- Russell, Ally — Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave (Delacorte Press)
Superior Achievement in a Novel
- Hendrix, Grady — Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (Berkley)
- Hill, Joe — King Sorrow (William Morrow)
- WINNER: Jones, Stephen Graham — The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (Saga Press / Titan Books)
- Moreno-Garcia, Silvia — The Bewitching (Del Rey)
- Wagner, Wendy N. — Girl in the Creek (Tor Nightfire)
Superior Achievement in Poetry (Collection and Long Form)
- WINNER: Addison, Linda D. and Hodge, Jamal — Everything Endless (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
- Gold, Maxwell I. — Songs of Enough: An Inferno All My Own (Hippocampus Press)
- Kearns, Shannon — The Uterus is an Impossible Forest (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
- Peebles, Cate — The Haunting (Tupelo Press)
- Raguso, MarieAnn C., PhD — Allegories of Beauty & Violence: A Collection of Gothic Romance Poems (Analyze This)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
- WINNER: Coogler, Ryan — Sinners (Warner Bros. / Domain / Proximity)
- Cregger, Zach — Weapons (New Line Cinema / Domain / Subconscious)
- Garland, Alex — 28 Years Later (Sony / Columbia Pictures / TSG Entertainment)
- Hancock, Drew — Companion (New Line Cinema / BoulderLight Pictures / Vertigo Entertainment)
- Philippou, Danny and Hinzman, Bill — Bring Her Back (Causeway Films / Salmira Productions / The South Australian Film Corporation)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
- Daniels, L.E. — “Stomata” (Darkness Most Fowl, The Godmother of Horror Press)
- WINNER: Joseph, RJ – “Inheritance” (Full Throttle: A Dark Dozen Anthology, Uncomfortably Dark Publishing)
- Szczepaniak-Gillece, Jocelyn — “Saint Dymphna’s School for Borderland Girls” (Weird Horror #10, Undertow Publications)
- Taborska, Anna — “[Ir]reversible” (Witches and Witchcraft: An Anthology of Stories, Poems, and Essays, Hippocampus Press)
- Wongsatayanont, Champ – “Autogas Ferryman” (Nightmare Magazine #156, Adamant Press)
Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction
- Barb, Patrick — “Deathwish Wolf Man: The Tragic Hero at the Heart of the Universal Monster” (Interstellar Flight Magazine, Interstellar Flight Press)
- WINNER: Due, Tananarive — “My Long Road to Horror” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)
- Jones, Stephen Graham — “Why Horror” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)
- Moshaty, Mo — “Haunted Thresholds: Liminal Horror and the Psychological Disintegration of Women from Post-Partum, Grief, Trauma and Religious Fanaticism” (Darkest Margins: 24 Essays on Liminality and Liminal Spaces in the Horror Genre, 1428 Publishing Ltd)
- Pelayo, Cynthia — “My Mother Was Margaret White” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
- WINNER: Chapman, Clay McLeod – Shiny Happy People (Delacorte Press)
- Cheng, Linda — Beautiful Brutal Bodies (Roaring Brook Press)
- Chupeco, Rin — We’re Not Safe Here (Sourcebooks)
- Rodriguez Wallach, Diana — The Silenced (Delacorte Press)
- Roux, Madeleine — A Girl Walks Into the Forest (Quill Tree Books)
Specialty Awards
Specialty Press Award: Bad Hand Books
Richard Laymon President’s Award: Marc L. Abbott
Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award: Sarah Read
Mentor of the Year Award: Eric Guignard
Lifetime Achievement Award Winners: Lisa Morton, Jonathan Maberry
