The nominees for the 2022 Robert E. Howard Awards were announced today by the Robert E. Howard Foundation.

THE ATLANTEAN—OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT, BOOK

Requirements: Nonfiction work (print or digital), minimum 50,000 words, substantively devoted to the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard, published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Reprinted works without significant revisions are not eligible. Award goes to the author or authors.

Nominees:

• Fred Blosser: Exploring the Worlds of REH#2
• Fred Blosser: Exploring the Worlds of REH#3
• Dennis McHaney: Robert E. Howard and Weird Tales
• Roy Thomas: Barbarian Life: Volume Three: A Literary Biography of Conan the Barbarian
• Todd Vick: Renegades and Rogues

THE VALUSIAN—OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT, ANTHOLOGY/COLLECTION

Requirements: Nonfiction anthology or collection of essays (print or digital), nonfiction, minimum 50,000 words, substantively devoted to the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard, published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Reprinted works without significant revisions are not eligible. Award goes to the editor or editors.

Nominees:

• Dennis McHaney: REH Collector Vol. One
• Jason M. Waltz: REH Changed My Life

THE HYRKANIAN—OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT, ESSAY

Requirements: Nonfiction essays (print or digital), no minimum word count, substantively focused on the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard, published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Short blog posts, news, interviews, reviews, trip reports, and other minor works are not considered. Award goes to the author or authors.

Nominees:

• Jason Ray Carney: “Dehumanizing Violence and Compassion in Robert E. Howard’s ‘Red Nails’”
  ( https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/08/24/dehumanizing-violence-and-compassion-in-robert-e-howards-red-nails/  )
• Steven Erikson: REH : In a Dark Place : The Influence of Robert E. Howard on the Malazan World, from REH Changed My Life
• Brian Murphy: “Myth Manifesting in the Present: Robert E. Howard’s ‘Marchers of Valhalla’”
  ( https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2021/5/7/myth-manifesting-in-the-present-robert-e-howards-marchers-of-valhalla  )
• Scott Oden: Turlogh Dubh O’Brien : An Empire of Ghosts and Smoke, From REH Changed My Life
• Matthew Pungitore: “Gothic-Decadent Marks on Howard’s ‘Spear and Fang’”
  ( https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2021/7/15/gothic-decadent-marks-on-howards-spear-and-fang )
• Rob Roehm: “Robert E. Howard and the Later Weird Tales“, in The Weird Tales Story: Expanded and Enhanced
• C.L. Werner: REH : The Black Dog and Robert E. Howard, from REH Changed My Life

THE CIMMERIAN—OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT, SCHOLARSHIP (PEER-REVIEWED)

Requirements: Scholarly essays (print or digital), no minimum word count, substantively focused on the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard, published in the last calendar year in a peer-reviewed journal or collection.

Considerations: Can be awarded separately to an essay that appears in a book that wins the Valusian. Award goes to the author or authors.

Nominees:

• Gabriel Momola: “The Conscience of Solomon Kane: Robert E. Howard’s Rhetorics of Motive, World, and Race” (  https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol40/iss1/8/ )
• Willard M. Oliver: “A Study of Cultural Trends Related to Robert E. Howard”, in The Dark Man vol. 12, no. 1 (Jun 2021)

THE VENARIUM—EMERGING SCHOLAR

Requirements: Candidates must have recently begun making significant contributions to Howard scholarship through publications and/or presentations over the past few years.

Considerations: Previous winners are not eligible. Award goes to the individual.

Nominees:

• Angeline B. Adams:—Gave a talk on Disability and Heroic Fantasy at OctoCon 2021, and posts reviews and analyses of Howard’s work on her blog https://turniplanterns.wordpress.com/
• Marco Antonio Collares—Doctoral student focusing on Robert E. Howard (his 2017 master’s thesis was on Robert E. Howard as well) and associated with Fórum Conan o Bárbaro (https://www.conanobarbaro.com/), where he has conducted interviews and written articles furthering Howard studies.
• Ståle Gismervik:—Administrator of The World of Robert E. Howard ( https://reh.world/ ), a website that collects in one place a number of scholarly materials related to Robert E. Howard, his life, work, and the study thereof.
• Brian Murphy:–wrote Flame & Crimson: A History of Sword & Sorcery, articles on Robert E. Howard including “Myth Manifesting in the Present: Robert E. Howard’s ‘Marchers of Valhalla’” and “The Great Debate: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard”
• Willard M. Oliver:–essays on Robert E. Howard, including “A Study of Cultural Trends Related to Robert E. Howard” & “Public Opinion of the Police in 1930s America: A Qualitative Historiographical Study”

THE BLACK LOTUS—OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT, WEB-BASED

Requirements: Web-based content (i.e. digital magazine, journals, websites, blogs, podcasts, audiovisual/multimedia presentations, internet sites, etc.), substantively focused on the life and/or work of Robert E. Howard, new content must have been published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Non-static social media like Facebook and Twitter would not be eligible. Award goes to site owner/administrator.

Nominees:

• The Cromcast:  ( http://thecromcast.blogspot.com/ ): for making available recordings of Howard Days 2020 and producing the Cromcast Chronicle #2
• Ståle Gismervik: For the REH World (https://REH.world) website and associated articles, interviews, and resources hosted there.
• Midnight’s Edge: King of all things Conan: A Barbarian Conversation with Fredrik Malmberg – YouTube
• Rob Roehm: for the Howard History ( https://howardhistory.com ) blog, and the articles and resources hosted there.
• Keith West: for the Adventures Fantastic ( http://adventuresfantastic.com/ ) website, and the articles, reviews, and resources hosted there.

THE COSTIGAN—LITERARY ACHIEVEMENT

Awarded for original creative writing that carries on the spirit and tradition of Robert E. Howard, to better recognize and celebrate his influence on future generations of writers.

Requirements: Fiction (i.e. short fiction, novels, comic books, etc.), in the spirit and tradition of Robert E. Howard, published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Work must be substantial and original in content; translations and adaptations will not be considered. Award goes to the individual writer or writing team.

Nominees:

• Angeline B. Adams and Remco van Straten: “The Red Man and Others”,
• Jason Ray Carney, (Editor): Whetstone: Amateur Magazine of Pulp Sword and Sorcery, ( https://whetstonemag.blogspot.com/ )
• Charles Gramlich: writing as A.W. Hart (author) : The Ranger. Wolfpack Publishing 2021
• David Pinault (author): Providence Blue: A Fantasy Quest
• Frank Schildiner (author): The Last Days of Atlantis: The Soul of Soroe
• David C. Smith (author): Sometime Lofty Tower (Pulp Hero Press, 2021)

THE RANKIN—ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT

Requirements: Visual media (painting, comics art & covers, film, etc.), directly related to the depiction of Robert E. Howard’s life, characters, or fictional worlds; published in the last calendar year.

Considerations: Work must be substantial and original in content. Award goes to the individual artist.

Nominees:

• Mahmud A. Asar: artist for King Conan #1 (2021, Marvel)
• Bill Cavalier: 2021 Howard Days Poster
• Gess: THE MAN-EATERS OF ZAMBOULA 1 & 2
• E. M. Gist: cover artist for Conan the Barbarian #18 (2021, Marvel)
• Didier Normand: Cover art for REH Changed My Life
• Valentin Secher: artist for Conan le Cimmerien, L’Heure du Dragon (2021, Glenat)
• Geoff Shaw: cover artist for Conan the Barbarian #19-25 (2021, Marvel)
• Mark Wheatley: cover of The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard volume 1: 1923-1929, the ultimate edition

Only current members of the Robert E. Howard Foundation can vote on the winners. Two other awards, the Crom and Black Circle awards, will only be voted on by the Foundation Board of Directors.