2021 Shirley Jackson Awards

The 2021 Shirley Jackson Awards were presented in-person on October 29 as part of the Boston Book Festival, in partnership with Readercon.

The juried award is given for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

NOVEL

  • My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press)

NOVELLA

  • Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn (Tordotcom)

NOVELETTE

  • “We, the Girls Who Did Not Make It” by E. A. Petricone (Nightmare Magazine, February 2021)

SHORT FICTION

  • “You’ll Understand When You’re a Mom Someday” by Isabel J. Kim (khōréō magazine, August 2021)

 SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons: Stories by Keith Rosson (Meerkat Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

[TIE]

  • Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World, edited by Eric J. Guignard (Dark Moon Books)
  • Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness, edited by dave ring (Neon Hemlock)

SPECIAL AWARD

  • Ellen Datlow, in recognition of the anthology When Things Get Dark: Stories inspired by Shirley Jackson (Titan Books, 2021).

HWA Announces Haunted Library of Horror Classics

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) and Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, will be publishing the Haunted Library of Horror Classics, a new reprint series. Now some of the genre’s seminal titles will be easily available to modern readers.

The series editors include Eric J. Guignard, past winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, and Leslie S. Klinger, editor of the Edgar® winning New Annotated Sherlock Holmes.

HWA’s President Lisa Morton said, “This is a project we’ve been working on behind the scenes at HWA for years, because keeping the genre’s classics alive is something I consider a key part of HWA’s core mission goals. I can’t imagine better choices to edit this series than Eric and Les, and I’m thrilled to be working with everyone at Poisoned Pen and Sourcebooks.”

Each volume will feature an introduction by a noted horror expert and/or author, and every book will close with a study guide for classroom use. The editions (quality trade paperback) are aimed to be reasonably priced for a mass market.

The first release, Gaston LeRoux’s Phantom of the Opera, will be introduced by New York Times-bestselling author and multiple Bram Stoker Award® winner Nancy Holder. The other initial titles selected are:

  • The Beetle by Richard Marsh
  • Vathek by William Beckford
  • House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
  • The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers.

[Based on a press release.]