2017 Shirley Jackson Award Nominees

The shortlists for the 2017 Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced.

The Shirley Jackson Awards are given for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. They are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics.

NOVEL

  • Ill Will, Dan Chaon (Ballantine Books)
  • The Bone Mother, David Demchuk (ChiZine Publications)
  • The Changeling, Victor Lavalle (Spiegel & Grau)
  • The Hole, Hye-young Pyun (Arcade Publishing)
  • The Night Ocean, Paul La Farge (Penguin Press)

NOVELLA

  • Fever Dream, Samantha Schweblin (Riverhead Books)
  • Mapping the Interior, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
  • The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, James Morrow (Tachyon Publications LLC)
  • The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, Margaret Killjoy (Tor.com)
  • The Lost Daughter Collective, Lindsey Drager (Dzanc Books)
  • The Murders of Molly Southbourne, Tade Thompson (Tor.com)

NOVELETTE

  • “Take the Way Home That Leads Back to Sullivan Street,” Chavisa Woods (Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country)
  • “The Resident,” Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties)
  • “Sun Dogs,” Laura Mauro (Shadows and Tall Trees Volume 7)
  • “The West Topeka Triangle,” Jeremiah Tolbert (Lightspeed Magazine)
  • “You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych,” Kathleen Kayembe (Nightmare Magazine)

SHORT FICTION

  • “Blur,” Carmen Maria Machado (Tin House, issue 72, Summer 2017)
  • “Live Through This,” Nadia Bulkin (Looming Low)
  • “The Convexity of Our Youth,” Kurt Fawver (Looming Low)
  • “The Mouse Queen,” Camilla Grudova (The Doll’s Alphabet)
  • “The Second Door,” Brian Evenson (Looming Low)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf Press)
  • She Said Destroy, Nadia Bulkin (Word Horde)
  • The Dark Dark, Samantha Hunt (FSG Originals)
  • The Doll’s Alphabet, Camilla Grudova (Coffee House Press)
  • Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country, Chavisa Woods (Seven Stories Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

  • Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales, edited by Ellen Datlow (Pegasus Books)
  • The Djinn Falls in Love, edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (Rebellion Publishing / Solaris Books)
  • Looming Low, edited by Justin Steele and Sam Cowan (Dim Shores)
  • Shadows and Tall Trees Volume 7, edited by Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications)
  • Tales From a Talking Board, edited by Ross E. Lockhart (Word Horde)

[Thanks to Mark Hepworth for the story.]

2016 Shirley Jackson Awards

The winners of the 2016 Shirley Jackson Awards were announced July 16 at Readercon.

The awards, given for the best psychological suspense, horror, or dark fantasy, are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics.

NOVEL

  • The Girls, Emma Cline (Random House)

NOVELLA

  • The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor.com)

NOVELETTE

  • “Waxy,” Camilla Grudova (Granta)

SHORT FICTION

  • “Postcards from Natalie,” Carrie Laben (The Dark)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • A Natural History of Hell, Jeffrey Ford (Small Beer Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

  • The Starlit Wood, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe (Saga Press )

The award jurors were Nadia Bulkin, Robert Levy, Helen Marshall, Robert Shearman and Chandler Klang Smith.

2016 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees

The contenders for the 2016 Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced.

The Shirley Jackson Awards, given for the best psychological suspense, horror, or dark fantasy, are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics.

NOVEL

  • Foxlowe, Eleanor Wasserberg (Fourth Estate-UK/Penguin Books-US)
  • The Girls, Emma Cline (Random House)
  • I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid (Gallery/Scout)
  • Lily, Michael Thomas Ford (Lethe)
  • Mongrels, Stephen Graham Jones (William Morrow)
  • The Wonder, Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown)

NOVELLA

  • The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor.com)
  • The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson (Tor.com)
  • Maggots,” Nina Allan (Five Stories High)
  • Muscadines, S.P. Miskowski (Dunhams Manor)
  • The Sadist’s Bible, Nicole Cushing (01 Publishing)
  • The Warren, Brian Evenson (Tor.com)

NOVELETTE

  • “Andy Kaufman Creeping Through the Trees,” Laird Barron (Autumn Cthulhu)
  • “Angel, Monster, Man,” Sam J. Miller (Nightmare Magazine)
  • “Breaking Water,” Indrapramit Das (Tor.com)
  • “The Night Cyclist,” Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
  • “Presence,” Helen Oyeyemi (What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours)
  • “Waxy,” Camilla Grudova (Granta)

SHORT FICTION

  • “Animal Parts,” Irenosen Okojie (Speak, Gigantular)
  • “The Apartments,” Karen Heuler (Other Places)
  • “Postcards from Natalie,” Carrie Laben (The Dark)
  • “Red,” Katie Knoll (Masters Review)
  • “Things With Beards,” Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • Almost Insentient, Almost Divine, D.P. Watt (Undertow)
  • Furnace, Livia Llewellyn (Word Horde)
  • Greener Pastures, Michael Wehunt (Shock Totem)
  • A Natural History of Hell, Jeffrey Ford (Small Beer Press)
  • We Show What We Have Learned, Clare Beams (Lookout)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

  • Autumn Cthulhu, edited by Mike Davis (Lovecraft eZine Press)
  • The Madness of Dr. Caligari, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (Fedogan and Bremer )
  • The Starlit Wood, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe (Saga Press )
  • Those Who Make Us: Canadian Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories, edited by Kelsi Morris and Kaitlin Tremblay (Exile Editions)
  • An Unreliable Guide to London, edited by Kit Caless and Gary Budden (Influx Press)

2015 Shirley Jackson Awards

The winners of the 2015 Shirley Jackson Awards were presented July 10 at Readercon 27 at a ceremony hosted by convention guests of honor Catherynne M. Valente and Tim Powers.

The awards recognize outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic, and are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics. The 2015 jurors were Livia Llewellyn, Robert Shearman, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Bev Vincent, and Kaaron Warren.

NOVEL

  • Experimental Film, Gemma Files (ChiZine Publications)

NOVELLA

  • Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing-UK/Open Road Media-US)

NOVELETTE

  • “Even Clean Hands Can Do Damage,” Steve Duffy (Supernatural Tales #30, Autumn)

SHORT FICTION

  • “The Dying Season,” Lynda E. Rucker (Aickman’s Heirs)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Stephen King (Scribner)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

  • Aickman’s Heirs, edited by Simon Strantzas (Undertow Publications)

2015 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees

The shortlist for the 2015 Shirley Jackson Awards has been released. The awards recognize outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic, and are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics.

The awards will be presented on Sunday, July 10, 2016, at Readercon 27 in Quincy, Massachusetts.

NOVEL

  • Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press)
  • Experimental Film, Gemma Files (ChiZine Publications)
  • The Glittering World, Robert Levy (Gallery)
  • Lord Byron’s Prophecy, Sean Eads (Lethe Press)
  • When We Were Animals, Joshua Gaylord (Mulholland Books)

NOVELLA

  • The Box Jumper, Lisa Mannetti (Smart Rhino)
  • In the Lovecraft Museum, Steve Tem (PS Publishing)
  • Unusual Concentrations, S.J. Spurrier (Simon Spurrier)
  • The Visible Filth, Nathan Ballingrud (This Is Horror)
  • Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing-UK/Open Road Media-US)

NOVELETTE

  • “The Briskwater Mare,” Deborah Kalin (Cherry Crow Children, Twelfth Planet Press)
  • “The Deepwater Bride,” Tamsyn Muir (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July-August 2015)
  • “Even Clean Hands Can Do Damage,” Steve Duffy (Supernatural Tales #30, Autumn)
  • “Fabulous Beasts,” Priya Sharma (Tor.com, July 2015)
  • “The Thyme Fiend,” Jeffrey Ford (Tor.com, March 2015)

SHORT FICTION

  • “A Beautiful Memory,” Shannon Peavey (Apex Magazine)
  • “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” Alyssa Wong (Nightmare)
  • “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” Nadia Bulkin (Aickman’s Heirs)
  • “The Dying Season,” Lynda E. Rucker (Aickman’s Heirs)
  • “Wilderness,” Letitia Trent (Exigencies)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Stephen King (Scribner)
  • The End of the End of Everything, Dale Bailey (Arche Press)
  • Get in Trouble, Kelly Link (Random House)
  • Gutshot, Amelia Gray (FSG Originals)
  • The Nameless Dark – A Collection, T.E. Grau (Lethe Press)
  • You Have Never Been Here, Mary Rickert (Small Beer Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

  • Aickman’s Heirs, edited by Simon Strantzas (Undertow Publications)
  • Black Wings IV, edited by S.T. Joshi (PS Publishing)
  • The Doll Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
  • Exigencies, edited by Richard Thomas (Dark House Press)
  • Seize the Night, edited by Christopher Golden (Gallery)

2014 Shirley Jackson Awards

The winners of the 2014 Shirley Jackson Awards were announced at Readercon on July 11.

Given in recognition of outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic, the awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors.

NOVEL

  • Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals)

NOVELLA

  • We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory (Tachyon)

NOVELETTE

  •  “The End of the End of Everything,” Dale Bailey (Tor.com, April 2014)

SHORT FICTION

  •  “The Dogs Home,” Alison Littlewood (The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • Gifts for the One who Comes After, Helen Marshall (ChiZine Publications)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

  • Fearful Symmetries, edited by Ellen Datlow (ChiZine Publications)

2014 Shirley Jackson Awards Shortlist

The nominees for the 2014 Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced.

The awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors.

NOVEL

  • Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals)
  • Bird Box, Josh Malerman (Ecco)
  • Broken Monsters, Lauren Beukes (Mulholland)
  • Confessions, Kanae Minato (Mulholland)
  • The Lesser Dead, Christopher Buehlman (Berkley)
  • The Unquiet House, Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher Books)

NOVELLA

  • The Beauty, Aliya Whiteley (Unsung Stories)
  • Ceremony of Flies, Kate Jonez (DarkFuse)
  • The Good Shabti, Robert Sharp (Jurassic London)
  • The Mothers of Voorhisville, Mary Rickert (Tor.com, April 2014)
  • We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory (Tachyon)

NOVELETTE

  • “The Devil in America,” Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com, April 2014)
  • “The End of the End of Everything,” Dale Bailey (Tor.com, April 2014)
  • “The Husband Stitch,” Carmen Maria Machado (Granta)
  • “Newspaper Heart,” Stephen Volk (The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)
  • “Office at Night,” Kate Bernheimer and Laird Hunt (Walker Art Center/ Coffee House Press)
  • “The Quiet Room,” V H Leslie (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, Undertow Publications/ChiZine Publications)

SHORT FICTION

  • “Candy Girl,” Chikodili Emelumadu (Apex Magazine, November 2014)
  • “The Dogs Home,” Alison Littlewood (The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)
  • “The Fisher Queen,” Alyssa Wong (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
  • “Shay Corsham Worsted,” Garth Nix (Fearful Symmetries, ChiZine Publications)
  • “Wendigo Nights,” Siobhan Carroll (Fearful Symmetries, ChiZine Publications)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • After the People Lights Have Gone Off, Stephen Graham Jones (Dark House)
  • Burnt Black Suns:  A Collection of Weird Tales, Simon Strantzas (Hippocampus)
  • Gifts for the One who Comes After, Helen Marshall (ChiZine Publications)
  • They Do The Same Things Different There, Robert Shearman (ChiZine Publications)
  • Unseaming, Mike Allen (Antimatter Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

  • Letters to Lovecraft, edited by Jesse Bullington (Stone Skin Press)
  • Fearful Symmetries, edited by Ellen Datlow (ChiZine Publications)
  • The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, edited by Mark Morris (Spectral Press)
  • Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, edited by Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications/ChiZine Publications)
  • The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron, edited by Ross E. Lockhart and Justin Steele (Word Horde)

2013 Shirley Jackson Awards

The winners of the 2013 Shirley Jackson Awards were announced July 13, 2014 at Readercon 25 in Burlington, Massachusetts:

NOVEL
American Elsewhere, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)

NOVELLA
Burning Girls, Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com)

NOVELETTE
Cry Murder! In a Small Voice, Greer Gilman (Small Beer Press)

SHORT FICTION
“57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides,” Sam J. Miller (Nightmare Magazine, December 2013)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION (two winners)
Before and Afterlives, Christopher Barzak (Lethe Press)
North American Lake Monsters, Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY
Grimscribe’s Puppets, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (Miskatonic River Press)

2013 Shirley Jackson Award Nominees

The shortlist for the Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced. The award is given for the best work and outstanding achievement of the previous year in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

The 2013 nominees are:

NOVEL

  • The Accursed, Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco)
  • American Elsewhere, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
  • The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper (Orion-UK/ Simon & Schuster-US)
  • The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo (William Morrow)
  • Night Film, Marisha Pessl (Random House)
  • Wild Fell, Michael Rowe (ChiZine Publications)

NOVELLA

  • Burning Girls, Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com)
  • Children of No One, Nicole Cushing (DarkFuse)
  • Helen’s Story, Rosanne Rabinowitz (PS Publishing)
  • It Sustains, Mark Morris (Earthling Publications)
  • “The Gateway,” Nina Allan (Stardust, PS Publishing)
  • The Last Revelation of Gla’aki, Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)
  • Whom the Gods Would Destroy, Brian Hodge (DarkFuse)

NOVELETTE

  • Cry Murder! In a Small Voice, Greer Gilman (Small Beer Press)
  • “A Little of the Night,” Tanith Lee (Clockwork Phoenix 4, Mythic Delirium Books)
  • “My Heart is Either Broken,” Megan Abbott (Dangerous Women, Tor Books)
  • “Phosphorus,” Veronica Schanoes (Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, Tor Books)
  • “Raptors,” Conrad Williams (Subterranean Press Magazine, Winter 2013)

SHORT FICTION

  • “57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides,” Sam J. Miller (Nightmare Magazine, December 2013)
  • “Furnace,” Livia Llewellyn (Grimscribe’s Puppets, Miskatonic River Press)
  • “The Memory Book,” Maureen McHugh (Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, Tor Books)
  • “The Statue in the Garden,” Paul Park (Exotic Gothic 5, PS Publishing)
  • “That Tiny Flutter of the Heart,” Robert Shearman (Psycho-Mania!, Constable & Robinson)
  • “The Traditional,” Maria Dahvana Headley (Lightspeed, May 2013)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • Before and Afterlives, Christopher Barzak (Lethe Press)
  • Everything You Need, Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling Publications)
  • In Search of and Others, Will Ludwigsen (Lethe Press)
  • North American Lake Monsters, Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer Press)
  • The Story Until Now, Kit Reed (Wesleyan)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

  • The Book of the Dead, edited by Jared Shurin (Jurassic London)
  • End of the Road, Jonathan Oliver (Solaris)
  • Grimscribe’s Puppets, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (Miskatonic River Press)
  • Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor Books)
  • Where thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Steve Berman (Lethe Press)

The awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics and will be presented on July 13 at Readercon 25.

2011 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners

 The winners of the 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards were announced at Readercon 23 on July 15, 2012.

NOVEL
Witches on the Road Tonight, Sheri Holman (Grove Press)

NOVELLA
“Near Zennor,” Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)

NOVELETTE
“The Summer People,” Kelly Link (Tin House 49/Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, Candlewick Press)

SHORT FICTION
“The Corpse Painter’s Masterpiece,” M. Rickert (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept/Oct, 2011)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION
After the Apocalypse: Stories, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY
Ghosts by Gaslight, edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (Harper Voyager)