The Australasian Horror Writers Association announced the Australian Shadows Awards 2022 finalists on May 8.

The juried award is given in eight categories for the finest in horror and dark fiction published by an Australasian within the calendar year.

 Eligible genres/sub-genres include horror, dark fiction, dark fantasy, and paranormal fiction.

Winners will be announced at a live awards ceremony at Asylumfest on Saturday October 28.

The 2022 Australian Shadows Awards finalists are:

POETRY

• “Hip Gnomes” by P S Cottier (Antipodean SF)
• “Night Terrors” by L. E. Daniels (HWA)
• “How Does Your Garden Grow?” by Gene Flynn (Hybrid: Misfits, Monsters and Other Phenomena)
• “If I Touch You, You’ll Know” by Rebecca Fraser (Nightmare Fuel Magazine)

GRAPHIC NOVEL

• Gorilla My Dreams Team-Up #1: When Freaks Collide by Big Tim Stiles (Big Tim’s Funny Books)
• How to Win a Raid by Emmet O’Cuana (Bird’s Eye Comics)
• Batrisha and the Creepy Caretaker by Dillon Naylor (Comicoz)

NON-FICTION

• “The Slow Burn Brilliance of Midnight Mass” by Kris Ashton (Aurealis Magazine)
• “I Don’t Read Horror (and other weird tales)” by Lee Murray (Interstellar Flight Magazine)
• “Vampire, the Ageless Monster” by Tim Hawken (Aurealis Magazine)
• “No Horror Without the Body” by Tabatha Wood (Self-published)

EDITED WORKS

• Death in the Mouth: An Anthology of Original Horror by People of Colour, edited by Cassie Hart & Sloane Leong (Self-published)
• Found: An Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories, edited by Andrew Cull & Gabino Iglesias (Vermillion2One Press)
• Midnight Echo Issue 17, edited by Greg Chapman (AHWA)

COLLECTED WORKS

• Cut to Care: A Collection of Little Hurts by Aaron Dries (IFWG Australia)
• Liminal Spaces: Horror Stories by Deborah Sheldon (IFWG Australia)
• Hard Places by Kirstyn McDermott (Trepidation Publishing)
• The Devil Took Her: Tales of Horror by Michael Botur (The Sager Group)
• Reflections by Tabatha Wood (Wild Wood Books)

SHORT FICTION

• “Break the Skin If You Have To” by Emma Osborne (co-written with Cadwell Turnbull and Jess Essey) (Nightmare Magazine)
• “They Call Me Mother” by Geneve Flynn (Classic Monsters Unleashed, Crystal Lake Publishing & Black Spot Books)
• “Little Balloons” by Aaron Dries (Cut To Care: A Collection of LIttle Hurts, IFWG Australia)
• “The Tub” by J. Ashley Smith (Midnight Echo 17, AHWA)

LONG FICTION

• “Among The Faded Woods” by Faith Mudge (The Art of Being Human, FableCroft Publishing)
• And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin (Tor.com)
• “Kookaburra Cruel” by Aaron Dries (Damnation Games, Clan Destine Press)

NOVEL

• The Stone Road by Trent Jamieson (Erewhon Books)
• The Path of Thorns by Angela Slatter (Titan Books)
• Denizen by James McKenzie Watson (Viking)
• Red Ruin by Ian J. Middleton and Denver Grenell (Self-published)