The Horror Writers Association announces its 2025 HWA Specialty Award recipients on April 16.

These awards will be presented during the Bram Stoker Awards Ceremony in Stamford, Connecticut in June.

SPECIALTY PRESS AWARD

The recipient of the Specialty Press Award is Mocha Memoirs Press.

The HWA Specialty Press Award is presented periodically to a specialty publisher whose work has substantially contributed to the horror genre, whose publications display general excellence, and whose dealings with authors have been fair and exemplary.

The award was instituted in 1997, largely due to the efforts of long-time HWA member and specialty press aficionado, Peter Crowther.

Nicole Givens Kurtz (she/her) – Publisher and Owner. Educator. Author. Mom. Nicole loves reading, writing, and anime. She enjoys reading works that promote women of color and futuristic settings. She also loves a good mystery. She started Mocha Memoirs to provide more diversity in speculative fiction. She’s also a scribbler of tales. Learn more about her at Other World Pulp.  She lives in Rock Hill with her family.

THE RICHARD LAYMON PRESIDENT’S AWARD

The recipient of the Richard Laymond President’s Award for Service is Maxwell I. Gold.

The Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service was instituted in 2001 and is named in honor of Richard Laymon, who died in 2001 while serving as HWA’s President. As its name implies, it is given by HWA’s sitting President.

The award is presented to a volunteer who has served the HWA in an especially exemplary manner and has shown extraordinary dedication to the organization.

Maxwell I. Gold is a Jewish-American author and poet with an extensive body of work comprising over 350 poems since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genre. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Maxwell’s work has been recognized with multiple nominations including the Eric Hoffer Award, Pushcart Prize, and Bram Stoker Awards. Find him and his work at www.thewellsoftheweird.com.

THE KAREN LANSDALE SILVER HAMMER AWARD

The recipient of the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award is Jonathan Lees.

In 2022, the Horror Writers Association renamed the Silver Hammer Award to the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award in honor of the tremendous amount of work Karen did starting the HWA.

The physical award has also been updated. Instead of a hammer, a new stylized sculpture has been designed and cast by the same company that mints the Bram Stoker Award statues.

The HWA periodically gives the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award to an HWA volunteer who has done a truly massive amount of work for the organization, often unsung and behind the scenes. It was instituted in 1996 and is decided by a vote of HWA’s Board of Trustees.

The award is so named because it represents the careful, steady, continuous work of building HWA’s “house”—the many institutional systems that keep the organization functioning on a day-to-day basis.

In addition to creating strategies and video series for media outlets, ranging from Complex Media to TIDAL, Jonathan Lees has spent decades championing independent cinema and filmmakers through his work with the New York Underground Film Festival, Troma, Tribeca Film, Anthology Film Archives, and now with the Final Frame Horror Short Film Competition at StokerCon. After twenty-five years working in NYC, he has apparated to the Hudson Valley to explore more personal rituals by inscribing arcane texts for grimoires such as Long Division [Bad Hand Books], Fear of Clowns [Kangas Kahn Publishing], Even In The Grave [eSpec Books], The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors [Bad Hand Books], and Other Terrors [Harper Collins].

MENTOR OF THE YEAR AWARD

The recipient of the Mentor of the Year Award is Gretchen McNeil.

The HWA’s Mentor Program is available to all members of the organization. This popular program pairs newer writers with established professionals for an intensive four-month-long partnership. For new writers, the Program offers mentees a personal, one-on-one experience with a seasoned writer, tailor-made to help them grow in their writing and better market their work. For experienced writers, it is an opportunity to pay forward the assistance and encouragement other writers gave them when they were starting out. In addition, there is the added benefit of growing as a writer oneself through the act of teaching others. In short, the Program benefits all who participate, regardless of their roles.

Established in 2014, the Mentor of the Year Award recognizes one mentor in the Program who has done an outstanding job of helping new writers. The award is chosen by the current manager of the Program.

Gretchen McNeil is the author of thirteen young adult novels for Disney*, Hyperion, and HarperCollins including the horror/comedy #Murdertrending. The #1 YALSA Teens’ Top Ten pick for 2019 Ten, which was adapted as the film Ten: Murder Island for Lifetime, and the Get Even series which was adapted as the series Get Even and Rebel Cheer Squad: a Get Even series for the BBC and Netflix. Gretchen’s adult horror debut They Fear Not Men in the Woods hits shelves on September 9, 2025, from DAW Books.

[Based on a press release.]