The 2017 Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Horror writers will leave you screaming in your seat!
This past March the 3rd, 2018, the historic Biltmore Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island was the location for the presentation of this year’s Bram Stoker Awards. Since 1987, the prestigious Horror Writers Association has honored the creators of the most outstanding literary works of horror and dark fantasy to bless the world with their talent in the past year. Spanning eleven categories, the Bram Stoker Award covers the gambit of horror from novel and short story to screenplays and poetry.
Taking first place for Superior Achievement in a Novel, Christopher Golden’s ‘Ararat’ beat out even Stephen and Owen King’s ‘Sleeping Beauties,’ along with Josh Malerman’s ‘Black Mad Wheel’ and S.P. Miskowski’s ‘I Wish I Was Like You.’
The Superior Achievement Award for First Novel is always a herald for even greater things in the future so with Robert Payne Cabeen’s ‘Cold Cuts’ proving his talented beginnings there should be little doubt that he will collect many more laurels as time goes by.
For the Young Adult Novel category Kim Liggett took home the coveted Haunted House for ‘The Last Harvest;’ beating out such strong contenders as Gillian French, Tom Leveen, Amy Lukavics, and Sarah Porter.
The Graphic Novel award was captured by Damian Duffy and Octavia E. Butler with their ‘Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation.’ Among the nominations were also such delightful frights as Jonathan Hickman’s ‘The Black Monday Murders’ and Emil Ferris’ ‘My Favorite Thing is Monsters.’
The category for Long Fiction was taken by Stephen Graham Jones with ‘Mapping the Interior.’ over runner-up nominations such as Scott Edelman’s ‘Faking it Until Forever Comes’ and Lucy Taylor’s ‘Sweetlings.’
Lisa Mannetti once again topped the winner list at the Bram Stoker Awards by demonstrated just how terrifying Short Fiction can be with ‘Apocalypse Then’ from (Never Fear: The Apocalypse). She has previously won the First Novel Award in 2008 for ‘The Gentling Box.’
Joe Hill is no stranger to the Bram Stoker Awards as his first was for First Novel, ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ in 2007, ‘Horns’ in 2010, and’NOS4A2′ in 2013. This year he strutted his stuff in the Fiction Collection ‘Strange Weather;’ proving with the short story ‘Loaded’ that the greatest horrors don’t need supernatural elements to terrify.
Jordan Peele took the Screenplay Award for ‘Get Out;’ besting even Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’ and Matt and Ross Duffer’s ‘Stranger Things: MadMax’ Episode 02:01.
Anthology Editor Doug Murano won with ‘Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities & Undefinable Wonders’ over even the popularized Jonathan Maberry and George A. Romero’s ‘Nights of the Living Dead: An Anthology.’
The Non-Fiction winner was ‘Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and ‘80s Horror Fiction’ by Grady Hendrix, while the most horrific Poetry Collection Award went to Christina Sng for ‘A Collection of Nightmares.’
The nominations for the Bram Stoker Awards are voted on by the members of the Horror Writers Association. These winners, along with the other superlative works that made the Finalist Nominations, comprise a body of work that should leave you shivering all the way to next year’s event!