The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has released the Preliminary Ballot for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards®.

This is not the list of finalists, nor are they called nominees: it is the list which HWA members will choose from when they vote to determine the finalists. The final ballot will be revealed next month. The Bram Stoker Award winners will be announced in April at StokerCon 2019 in Grand Rapids, MI.

2018 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• The Shape of Water – Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus
• Dark Mary – Paolo Di Orazio
• The Hunger – Alma Katsu
• The Outsider – Stephen King
• Glimpse – Jonathan Maberry
• Unbury Carol – Josh Malerman
• Naraka – Alessandro Manzetti
• Hazards of Time Travel – Joyce Carol Oates
• Foe – Iain Reid 
• Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Novel  – Ahmed Saadawi
• Dracul  – Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker
• The Cabin at the End of the World  – Paul Tremblay

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• The Garden of Blue Roses – Michael Barsa
• What Should Be Wild – Julia Fine
• Breaking the World – Jerry Gordon
• I Am the River – T.E. Grau
• The Rust Maidens – Gwendolyn Kiste
• Fiction – Ryan Lieske
• The Honey Farm – Harriet Alida Lye 
• The War in the Dark – Nick Setchfield 
• The Nightmare Room – Chris Sorensen
• Baby Teeth – Zoje Stage
• The Moore House – Tony Tremblay

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• Pitch Dark – Courtney Alameda
• The Wicked Deep – Shea Ernshaw 
• Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower – Christian McKay Heidicker 
• Dread Nation – Justina Ireland
• Wormholes: Book One of Axles and Allies – Dani Kane
• Sawkill Girls – Claire Legrand 
• Broken Lands – Jonathan Maberry
• The Night Weaver – Monique Snyman
• The Wren Hunt – Mary Watson
• The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein – Kiersten White

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• Abbott – Saladin Ahmed 
• Cursed Comics Cavalcade – Alex Antone and Dave James Wielgosz
• Moonshine Vol. 2: Misery Train – Brian Azzarello
• Redlands Volume 1: Sisters by Blood – Jordie Bellaire
• Bone Parish – Cullen Bunn
• Denver Moon: Metamorphosis – Warren Hammond and Joshua Viola
• Destroyer – Victor LaValle 
• Gideon Falls Volume 1: The Black Barn – Jeff Lemire
• Monstress Volume 3: Haven – Marjorie Liu
• Infidel – Pornsak Pichetshote 

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• Our Children, Our Teachers – Michael Bailey
• The Barrens – Stephanie Feldman
• Shiloh – Philip Fracassi
• You Are Released – Joe Hill
• Cruce Roosters  – Brent Michael Kelley
• Black’s Red Gold – Ed Kurtz
• Dead Lovers on Each Blade, Hung – Usman T. Malik
• The Devil’s Throat  – Rena Mason
• Body of Christ – Mark Matthews
• Bitter Suites – Angela Yuriko Smith
• Shape Shifting Priestess of the 1,000 Year War  – Todd Sullivan

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• “All Summers End” – Tom Deady
• “Life After Breath” – Tori Eldridge
• “Cold, Silent, and Dark” – Kary English
• “The Gods in Their Seats, Unblinking” – Kurt Fawver
• “The Woman in the Blue Dress” – Heather Herrman
• “Mutter” – Jess Landry
• “Dead End Town” – Lee Murray
• “Glove Box” – Annie Neugebauer
• “Fish Hooks” – Kit Power
• “Her Royal Counsel” – Andrew Robertson
• “A Winter’s Tale” – John F.D. Taff
• “And in Her Eyes the City Drowned” – Kyla Lee Ward

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked  – Christa Carmen
• Spectral Evidence – Gemma Files
• That Which Grows Wild  – Eric J. Guignard
• Coyote Songs  – Gabino Iglesias
• Octoberland  – Thana Niveau
• Frozen Shadows: And Other Chilling Stories – Gene O’Neill
• Apple and Knife – Intan Paramaditha
• Occasional Beasts: Tales – John Claude Smith
• Garden of Eldritch Delights  – Lucy A. Snyder
• Little Black Spots – John F.D. Taff
• Dark and Distant Voices: A Story Collection – Tim Waggoner

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• Hereditary – Ari Aster
• The Haunting of Hill House: The Bent-Neck Lady, Episode 01:05 – Meredith Averill
• The Haunting of Hill House: Screaming Meemies, Episode 01:09 – Meredith Averill
• Mandy – Panos Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn 
• Ghost Stories – Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman
• Halloween – Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green
• Annihilation – Alex Garland
• Bird Box – Eric Heisserer 
• Overlord – Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith
• A Quiet Place – Bryan Woods, Scott Beck and John Krasinski

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• A New York State of Fright: Horror Stories from the Empire State – James Chambers, James, April Grey and Robert Masterson 
• The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea – Ellen Datlow
• Suspended in Dusk II – Simon Dewar
• A World of Horror – Eric J. Guignard
• Welcome to the Show – Doug Murano
• Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror – Lee Murray
• The Fiends in the Furrows: An Anthology of Folk Horror – David T. Neal and Christine M. Scott
• Phantoms: Haunting Tales from Masters of the Genre – Marie O’Regan
• Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road – Alexander D. Ward
• Quoth the Raven – Lyn Worthen

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• Horror Express – John Connolly
• Adapting Frankenstein: The Monster’s Eternal Lives in Popular Culture – Dennis Cutchins and Dennis R. Perry
• The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film  – Lee Gambin
• Woman at the Devil’s Door: The Untold True Story of the Hampstead Murderess  – Sarah Beth Hopton
• We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror – Howard David Ingham
• Sleeping with the Lights On: The Unsettling Story of Horror – Darryl Jones
• It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life – Joe Mynhardt and Eugene Johnson
• A Place of Darkness: The Rhetoric of Horror in Early American Cinema – Kendall R. Phillips
• Wasteland: The Great Ward and the Origins of Modern Horror – W. Scott Poole
• Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series – Kevin J. Wetmore Jr.

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• Artifacts – Bruce Boston
• The Comfort of Screams – G.O. Clark 
• Bleeding Saffron – David E. Cowen 
• The Hatch – Joe Fletcher
• Witches – Donna Lynch
• Thirteen Nocturnes – Oliver Shepard
• War – Marge Simon and Alessandro Manzetti  
• The Devil’s Dreamland – Sara Tantlinger  
• Candle and Pins: Poems on Superstitions – Jacqueline West
• Gwendolyn Witch and Other Macabria – Twyla Wren