2021 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot Announced

Bram Stoker Award trophy

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has released the Preliminary Ballot for the 2021 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 (Bram Stoker Award® Nominees for the 2021 calendar year) will be announced on or around February 23, 2022.

The Bram Stoker Award winners are presently scheduled to be announced on May 14 at StokerCon 2022 in Denver.

The 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot 

Superior Achievement in a Novel

  • Castro, V. – The Queen of the Cicadas (Flame Tree Press)
  • Demchuk, David – Red X (Strange Light)
  • Hendrix, Grady – The Final Girl Support Group (Berkley)
  • Jones, Stephen Graham – My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Gallery/Saga Press)
  • Knight, EV – Children of Demeter (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • McLeod Chapman, Clay – Whisper Down the Lane (Quirk Books)
  • Pelayo, Cynthia – Children of Chicago (Agora Books)
  • Starling, Caitlin – The Death of Jane Lawrence (St. Martin’s Press)
  • Stred, Steve – Incarnate (Black Void Publishing)
  • Wendig, Chuck – The Book of Accidents (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

  • Desiree, Amanda – Smithy (Inkshares)
  • Fox, VK – Indie Saint (Aethon Books)
  • Jones, C.B. – The Rules of the Road (Ionosphere Press)
  • Martinez, S. Alessandro – Helminth (Omnium Gatherum)
  • McQueen, LaTanya – When the Reckoning Comes (Harper Perennial)
  • Miles, Terry – Rabbits (Del Rey)
  • Moreno, Gus – This Thing Between Us (MCD x FSG Originals)
  • Piper, Hailey – Queen of Teeth (Strangehouse Books)
  • Quigley, Lisa – The Forest (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
  • Willson, Nicole – Tidepool (The Parliament House)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

  • Ahmed, Saladin (author) and Kivelä, Sami (artist) – Abbott 1973 (BOOM! Studios)
  • Garcia, Kami (author); Suayan, Mico (artist); Badower, Jason (artist); and Mayhew, Mike (artist) – Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity (DC Comics)
  • Leong, Sloane (author) and Bowles, Anna (artist) – Graveneye (TKO Studios)
  • Manzetti, Alessandro (author) and Cardoselli, Stefano (artist) – The Inhabitant of the Lake (Independent Legions Publishing)
  • McCurdy, Bowen (author/artist) and Musto, Kaitlyn (author) – Specter Inspectors (BOOM! Box)
  • Morrison, Grant (author); Child, Alex (author); and Franquiz, Naomi (artist) – Proctor Valley Road (BOOM! Studios)
  • Moyer, Rich (author/artist) – Ham Helsing Vampire Hunter (Crown Books for Young Readers) 
  • Panosian, Dan (author) and Ignazzi, Marianna (artist) – An Unkindness of Ravens (BOOM! Studios)
  • Scott, Cavan (author) and Howell, Corin (artist) – Shadow Service: Dark Arts (Vault Comics)
  • Szym, Adam (author/artist) – A Cordial Invitation (Self-published)  

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

  • Ames, Alison – To Break a Covenant (Page Street Kids)
  • Blake, Kendare – All These Bodies (Quill Tree Books)
  • Boyle, R.L. – The Book of the Baku (Titan Books)
  • Craig, Erin A. – Small Favors (Delacorte Press)
  • Gould, Courtney – The Dead and the Dark (Wednesday Books) 
  • Lewis, Jessica – Bad Witch Burning (Delacorte Press)
  • Marshall, Kate Alice – Our Last Echoes (Viking Books for Young Readers)
  • Polydoros, Aden – The City Beautiful (Inkyard Press)
  • Sutherland, Krystal – House of Hollow (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
  • Waters, Erica – The River Has Teeth (HarperTeen)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

  • Asman, Brian – Man, Fuck This House (Mutated Media)
  • Castro, V. – Goddess of Filth (Creature Publishing, LLC)
  • Deady, Tom – Of Men and Monsters (Crystal Lake Publishing)
  • Jeffery, Ross – Only The Stains Remain (Cemetery Gates Media)
  • Khaw, Cassandra – Nothing But Blackened Teeth (Tor Nightfire)
  • LaRocca, Eric – Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (Weirdpunk Books)
  • Marrs, Chris and O’Neill, Gene – “Entangled Soul” (Entangled Soul and Other Stories) (Omnium Gatherum)
  • Piper, Hailey – “Recitation of the First Feeding” (Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy) (The Seventh Terrace)
  • Strand, Jeff – “Twentieth Anniversary Screening” (Slice and Dice) (Independently published)
  • Tingle, Chuck – Straight (Self-published)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

  • Gwilym, Douglas – “Year Six” (LampLight Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 1) (Apokrupha)
  • Gyzander, Carol – “The Yellow Crown” (Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign) (Hippocampus Press)
  • Joseph, R.J. – “I Just Want to Be Free” (Paranormal Contact: A Quiet Horror Confessional) (Cemetery Gates Media)
  • Joseph, R.J. – “Soulmates” (Dark Dispatch Issue #2: Deadly Love) (Dark Dispatch)
  • Murray, Lee – “Permanent Damage” (Attack From the ’80s) (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • O’Quinn, Cindy – “A Gathering at the Mountain” (The Bad Book) (Bleeding Edge Books)
  • Oreto, Frank J. – “The Care and Feeding of Household Gods” (Beyond the Veil) (Flame Tree Press)
  • Taborska, Anna -“Two Shakes Of A Dead Lamb’s Tail”(Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands) (Telos Publishing)
  • Ward, Kyla Lee – “A Whisper in the Death Pit” (Weirdbook #44) (Wildside Press)
  • Yates, Pauline – “The Best Medicine” (Midnight Echo Issue 16) (AHWA)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

  • Bailey, Michael – Psychotropic Dragon (Written Backwards)
  • Baxter, Alan – The Gulp (13th Dragon Books)
  • Files, Gemma – In That Endlessness, Our End (Grimscribe Press)
  • Fracassi, Philip – Beneath a Pale Sky (Lethe Press)
  • Landry, Jess – The Mother Wound (Independent Legions Publishing)
  • Maberry, Jonathan – Empty Graves: Tales of the Living Dead (WordFire Press LLC)
  • McCarthy, J.A.W. – Sometimes We’re Cruel and Other Stories (Cemetery Gates Media)
  • Tuttle, Lisa – The Dead Hours of Night (Valancourt Books)
  • Wise, A.C. – The Ghost Sequences (Undertow Publications)
  • Yap, Isabel – Never Have I Ever (Small Beer Press)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

  • Bailey-Bond, Prano and Fletcher, Anthony – Censor (Silver Salt Films)
  • Carolyn, Axelle – The Manor (Amazon Studios)
  • Chaisson, C. Henry; Antosca, Nick; and Cooper, Scott – Antlers (Searchlight Pictures)
  • Charles, Kathy; Steensland, Mark; and Stevens, Travis – Jakob’s Wife (AMP International)
  • Cushing, Aric and Thomas, Logan – There’s No Such Thing as Vampires (Ascent Releasing)
  • Dong-hyuk, Hwang – Squid Game, Season 1, Episode 1: “Red Light, Green Light” (Siren Pictures) 
  • Flanagan, Mike; Flanagan, James; and Howard, Jeff – Midnight Mass, Season 1, Episode 6: “Book VI: Acts of the Apostles” (Intrepid Pictures)
  • Graziadei, Phil and Janiak, Leigh – Fear Street: Part One – 1994 (Chernin Entertainment)
  • Peele, Jordan; Rosenfeld, Win; and DaCosta, Nia – Candyman (Universal Pictures)
  • Pisanthanakun, Banjong – The Medium (GDH 559)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

  • Garza, Alexander P. – notsleepyyet (Weasel Press)
  • Lansdale, Joe R. – Apache Witch and Other Poetic Observations (Independent Legions Publishing)
  • Manzetti, Alessandro – Dancing with Maria’s Ghost (Independent Legions Publishing)
  • McHugh, Jessica – Strange Nests (Apokrupha)
  • O’Brien, Brandon – Can You Sign My Tentacle? (Interstellar Flight Press)
  • Simon, Marge and Turzillo, Mary – Victims (Weasel Press)
  • Sng, Christina; Yuriko Smith, Angela; Murray, Lee; and Flynn, Geneve – Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken. (Yuriko Publishing)
  • Snyder, Lucy A. – Exposed Nerves (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • Walrath, Holly Lyn – The Smallest of Bones (CLASH Books)
  • Wolfe, Jezzy – Monstrum Poetica (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

  • Chambers, James – Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign (Hippocampus Press)
  • Cluff, Michael and Becker, Willow – Humans are the Problem: A Monster’s Anthology (Weird Little Worlds)
  • Datlow, Ellen – When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (Titan Books) 
  • French, Aaron J. and Landry, Jess – There is No Death, There are No Dead (Crystal Lake Publishing)
  • Guignard, Eric J. – Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World (Dark Moon Books)
  • HOWL Society – Howls From Hell (HOWL Society Press)
  • Johnson, Eugene – Attack From the ’80s (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
  • Schlossberg, Josh – The Jewish Book of Horror (Denver Horror Collective) 
  • Showers, Brian J. – Uncertainties: Volume V (Swan River Press)
  • Thomas, Ben – Tales from Omnipark (House Blackwood)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

  • Abbott, Stacey and Jowett, Lorna – Global TV Horror (University of Wales Press)
  • Decker, Lindsey – Transnationalism and Genre Hybridity in New British Horror Cinema (University of Wales Press)
  • Falvey, Eddie; Hickinbottom, Joe; and Wroot, Jonathan – New Blood: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Horror (University of Wales Press)
  • Olson, Danel – 9/11 Gothic: Decrypting Ghosts and Trauma in New York City’s Terrorism Novels (Lexington Books)
  • Knost, Michael – Writers Workshop of Horror 2 (Hydra Publications)
  • Lester, Catherine – Horror Films for Children: Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema (Bloomsbury Academic)
  • Potts, Jim – Defending a Serial Killer: The Right to Counsel (Vesuvian Books)
  • Wetmore Jr., Kevin J. – Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters (Reaktion Books)
  • Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew and Hansen, Regina M. – Giving the Devil His Due: Satan and Cinema (Fordham University Press)
  • Woofter, Kristopher – Shirley Jackson: A Companion (Peter Lang Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

  • Clasen, Mathias – “Fear Not!” (Aeon)
  • Cowen, David E. – “Introduction” (Victims) (Weasel Press)
  • Ward, Kyla Lee – “Vampire Poetry” (Penumbra No. 2 (2021)) (Hippocampus Press)
  • Diak, Nicholas – “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth” (Academia Letters)
  • Ognjanovi?, Dejan – “The Three Paradigms of Horror” (Vastarien Vol. 4, Issue 2) (Grimscribe Press)
  • O’Quinn, Cindy – “One and Done” (Were Tales: A Shapeshifter Anthology) (Brigids Gate Press)
  • Tamásfi, László – “The Devil Flew Away” (Dracula’s Death)(Strangers from Nowhere)    
  • Verona, Emily Ruth – “A Horror Fan’s Guide to Surviving Womanhood” (thefinalgirls.co.uk)  
  • Wetmore, Kevin J. – “Devil’s Advocates: The Conjuring” (Auteur Publishing/Liverpool University Press)
  • Yuriko Smith, Angela – “Horror Writers: Architects of Hope” (The Sirens Call, Halloween 2021, Issue 55) (Sirens Call Publications)

3 thoughts on “2021 Bram Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot Announced

  1. Chuck Tingle plays it straight (cough), I mean, serious?! WUT. ROCK ON, MY DUDE!

    (And wow, he’s published over 350 books?!)

Comments are closed.