Final ballot for Bram Stoker Awards announced

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The Horror Writers Association has announced the finalists for the 2010 Bram Stoker Awards, which recognize achievement in the dark fantasy, horror and occult genres.

The nominees for Superior Achievement in a Novel, defined as a prose work of 40,000 words or more, include Horns (William Morrow), by Joe Hill; Rot and Ruin (Simon & Schuster), by Jonathan Maberry; Dead Love (Stone Bridge Press), by Linda Watanabe McFerrin; Apocalypse of the Dead (Pinnacle), by Joe McKinney; Dweller (Leisure/Dark Regions Press), by Jeff Strand; and A Dark Matter (Doubleday), by Peter Straub.

Superior Achievement in a First Novel nominees are Black and Orange (Bad Moon Books), by Benjamin Kane Ethridge; A Book of Tongues (ChiZine), by Gemma Files; Castle of Los Angeles (Gray Friar), by Lisa Morton; and Spellbent (Del Rey), by Lucy Snyder.

Nominees for the award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction, which is defined as a work of prose fiction at least 7,000 words long but no longer than 39,999 words in length, include The Painted Darkness (Cemetery Dance), by Brian James Freeman; Dissolution (Deathwatch), by Lisa Mannetti; Monsters Among Us (Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears), by Kirstyn McDermott; The Samhanach (Band Moon Books), by Lisa Morton; and Invisible Fences (Cemetery Dance), by Norman Prentiss.

Superior in Achievement in Short Fiction nominees, including prose works of no more than 7,499 words, are “Return to Mariabronn” (Haunted Legends), by Gary Braunbeck; “The Folding Man” (Haunted Legends), by Joe R. Lansdale; “1925: A Fall River Halloween” (Shroud Magazine #10), by Lisa Mannetti; “In the Middle of Poplar Street” (Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology), by Nate Southard; and “Final Draft” (Horror Library IV), by Mark W. Worthen.

In the category of Superior Achievement in an Anthology, which must contain at least three works by different authors and which must have a total length of at least 60,000 words, the nominees include Dark Faith (Apex Publications), Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon, editors; Horror Library IV (Cutting Block Press), R. J. Cavender and Boyd E. Harris, editors; Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears (Brimstone Press), Angela Challis and Marty Young, editors; Haunted Legends (Tor), Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas, editors; and The New Dead (St. Martin’s Griffin), Christopher Golden, editor.

Nominees for Superior Achievement in a Collection, at least three works of prose fiction by either a single author working alone or in collaboration with at least one other author, include Occultation (Night Shade Books), by Laird Barron; Blood and Gristle (Bad Moon Books), by Michael Louis Calvillo; Full Dark, No Stars (Simon and Schuster), by Stephen King; The Ones That Got Away (Prime Books), by Stephen Graham Jones; and A Host of Shadows (Dark Regions Press), by Harry Shannon.

The award for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction is open to works of criticism, scholarly analysis, commentary, opinion, reference, biography and autobiography that is factual and at least 40,000 words in length and may be either a single work or a collection of shorter works. The nominees in this category are To Each Their Darkness (Apex Publications), by Gary A. Braunbeck; The Conspiracy Against the Human Race (Hippocampus Press), by Thomas Ligotti; Wanted Undead or Alive (Citadel), by Jonathan Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman; and Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews (Melville House Publications), by Sam Weller.

Nominees for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection, which must consist of at least ten individual poems by an author or collaborating authors offered in a single package, include Dark Matters (Bad Moon Books), by Bruce Boston; Wild Hunt of the Stars (Sam’s Dot), by Ann K. Schwader; Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist (Anomalous Books), by Robin Spriggs; and Vicious Romantic (Needfire Poetry), by Wrath James White.

The winners of the Bram Stoker Awards, which have been awarded since 1987, will be announced during the Stoker Weekend, to be held on Long Island, in Uniondale, New York the weekend of 16 – 19 June 2011. The awards are voted by the active members of the Horror Writers Association.

Tags: Ellen Datlow, Peter Straub, stephen king