I’m happy to see my fiction collection, THE MOTHER WOUND, and the anthology I co-edited with Aaron J. French, THERE IS NO DEATH, THERE ARE NO DEAD, on the Preliminary Ballot of the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards. Seriously, what an honour, and what a list full of other amazing talents. The full ballot is below. Good luck to everyone!
The 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Castro, V. – The Queen of the Cicadas (Flame Tree Press)
Demchuk, David – Red X (Strange Light)
Hendrix, Grady – The Final Girl Support Group (Berkley)
Jones, Stephen Graham – My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Gallery/Saga Press)
Knight, EV – Children of Demeter (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
McLeod Chapman, Clay – Whisper Down the Lane (Quirk Books)
Pelayo, Cynthia – Children of Chicago (Agora Books)
Starling, Caitlin – The Death of Jane Lawrence (St. Martin’s Press)
Stred, Steve – Incarnate (Black Void Publishing)
Wendig, Chuck – The Book of Accidents (Del Rey)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Desiree, Amanda – Smithy (Inkshares)
Fox, VK – Indie Saint (Aethon Books)
Jones, C.B. – TheRules of the Road (Ionosphere Press)
Martinez, S. Alessandro – Helminth (Omnium Gatherum)
McQueen, LaTanya – When the Reckoning Comes (Harper Perennial)
Miles, Terry – Rabbits (Del Rey)
Moreno, Gus – This Thing Between Us (MCD x FSG Originals)
Piper, Hailey – Queen of Teeth (Strangehouse Books)
Quigley, Lisa – The Forest (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
Willson, Nicole – Tidepool (The Parliament House)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Ahmed, Saladin (author) and Kivelä, Sami (artist) – Abbott 1973 (BOOM! Studios)
Garcia, Kami (author); Suayan, Mico (artist); Badower, Jason (artist); and Mayhew, Mike (artist) – Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity (DC Comics)
Leong, Sloane (author) and Bowles, Anna (artist) – Graveneye (TKO Studios)
Manzetti, Alessandro (author) and Cardoselli, Stefano (artist) – The Inhabitant of the Lake (Independent Legions Publishing)
McCurdy, Bowen (author/artist) and Musto, Kaitlyn (author) – Specter Inspectors (BOOM! Box)
Morrison, Grant (author); Child, Alex (author); and Franquiz, Naomi (artist) – Proctor Valley Road (BOOM! Studios)
Moyer, Rich (author/artist) – Ham Helsing Vampire Hunter (Crown Books for Young Readers)
Panosian, Dan (author) and Ignazzi, Marianna (artist) – An Unkindness of Ravens (BOOM! Studios)
Scott, Cavan (author) and Howell, Corin (artist) – Shadow Service: Dark Arts (Vault Comics)
Szym, Adam (author/artist) – A Cordial Invitation (Self-published)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Ames, Alison – To Break a Covenant (Page Street Kids)
Blake, Kendare – All These Bodies (Quill Tree Books)
Boyle, R.L. – The Book of the Baku (Titan Books)
Craig, Erin A. – Small Favors (Delacorte Press)
Gould, Courtney – The Dead and the Dark (Wednesday Books)
Lewis, Jessica – Bad Witch Burning (Delacorte Press)
Marshall, Kate Alice – Our Last Echoes (Viking Books for Young Readers)
Polydoros, Aden – The City Beautiful (Inkyard Press)
Sutherland, Krystal – House of Hollow (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Waters, Erica – The River Has Teeth (HarperTeen)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Asman, Brian – Man, Fuck This House (Mutated Media)
Castro, V. – Goddess of Filth (Creature Publishing, LLC)
Deady, Tom – Of Men and Monsters (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Jeffery, Ross – Only The Stains Remain (Cemetery Gates Media)
Khaw, Cassandra – Nothing But Blackened Teeth (Tor Nightfire)
LaRocca, Eric – Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (Weirdpunk Books)
Marrs, Chris and O’Neill, Gene – “Entangled Soul” (Entangled Soul and Other Stories) (Omnium Gatherum)
Piper, Hailey – “Recitation of the First Feeding” (Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy) (The Seventh Terrace)
Strand, Jeff – “Twentieth Anniversary Screening” (Slice and Dice) (Independently published)
Tingle, Chuck – Straight (Self-published)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
Gwilym, Douglas – “Year Six” (LampLight Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 1) (Apokrupha)
Gyzander, Carol – “The Yellow Crown” (Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign) (Hippocampus Press)
Joseph, R.J. – “I Just Want to Be Free” (Paranormal Contact: A Quiet Horror Confessional) (Cemetery Gates Media)
Joseph, R.J. – “Soulmates” (Dark Dispatch Issue #2: Deadly Love) (Dark Dispatch)
Murray, Lee – “Permanent Damage” (Attack From the ‘80s) (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
O’Quinn, Cindy – “A Gathering at the Mountain” (The Bad Book) (Bleeding Edge Books)
Oreto, Frank J. – “The Care and Feeding of Household Gods” (Beyond the Veil) (Flame Tree Press)
Taborska, Anna -“Two Shakes Of A Dead Lamb’s Tail”(Terror Tales of the Scottish Lowlands) (Telos Publishing)
Ward, Kyla Lee – “A Whisper in the Death Pit” (Weirdbook #44) (Wildside Press)
Yates, Pauline – “The Best Medicine” (Midnight Echo Issue 16) (AHWA)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Bailey, Michael – Psychotropic Dragon (Written Backwards)
Baxter, Alan – The Gulp (13th Dragon Books)
Files, Gemma – In That Endlessness, Our End (Grimscribe Press)
Fracassi, Philip – Beneath a Pale Sky (Lethe Press)
Landry, Jess – The Mother Wound (Independent Legions Publishing)
Maberry, Jonathan – Empty Graves: Tales of the Living Dead (WordFire Press LLC)
McCarthy, J.A.W. – Sometimes We’re Cruel and Other Stories (Cemetery Gates Media)
Tuttle, Lisa – The Dead Hours of Night (Valancourt Books)
Wise, A.C. – The Ghost Sequences (Undertow Publications)
Yap, Isabel – Never Have I Ever (Small Beer Press)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Bailey-Bond, Prano and Fletcher, Anthony – Censor (Silver Salt Films)
Carolyn, Axelle – The Manor (Amazon Studios)
Chaisson, C. Henry; Antosca, Nick; and Cooper, Scott – Antlers (Searchlight Pictures)
Charles, Kathy; Steensland, Mark; and Stevens, Travis – Jakob’s Wife (AMP International)
Cushing, Aric and Thomas, Logan – There’s No Such Thing as Vampires (Ascent Releasing)
Dong-hyuk, Hwang – Squid Game, Season 1, Episode 1: “Red Light, Green Light” (Siren Pictures)
Flanagan, Mike; Flanagan, James; and Howard, Jeff – Midnight Mass, Season 1, Episode 6: “Book VI: Acts of the Apostles” (Intrepid Pictures)
Graziadei, Phil and Janiak, Leigh – Fear Street: Part One – 1994 (Chernin Entertainment)
Peele, Jordan; Rosenfeld, Win; and DaCosta, Nia – Candyman (Universal Pictures)
Pisanthanakun, Banjong – The Medium (GDH 559)
Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
Garza, Alexander P. – notsleepyyet (Weasel Press)
Lansdale, Joe R. – Apache Witch and Other Poetic Observations (Independent Legions Publishing)
Manzetti, Alessandro – Dancing with Maria’s Ghost (Independent Legions Publishing)
McHugh, Jessica – Strange Nests (Apokrupha)
O’Brien, Brandon – Can You Sign My Tentacle? (Interstellar Flight Press)
Simon, Marge and Turzillo, Mary – Victims (Weasel Press)
Sng, Christina; Yuriko Smith, Angela; Murray, Lee; and Flynn, Geneve – Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken. (Yuriko Publishing)
Snyder, Lucy A. – Exposed Nerves (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Walrath, Holly Lyn – The Smallest of Bones (CLASH Books)
Wolfe, Jezzy – Monstrum Poetica (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Chambers, James – Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign (Hippocampus Press)
Cluff, Michael and Becker, Willow – Humans are the Problem: A Monster’s Anthology (Weird Little Worlds)
Datlow, Ellen – When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (Titan Books)
French, Aaron J. and Landry, Jess – There is No Death, There are No Dead (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Guignard, Eric J. – Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World (Dark Moon Books)
HOWL Society – Howls From Hell (HOWL Society Press)
Johnson, Eugene – Attack From the ‘80s (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Schlossberg, Josh – The Jewish Book of Horror (Denver Horror Collective)
Showers, Brian J. – Uncertainties: Volume V (Swan River Press)
Thomas, Ben – Tales from Omnipark (House Blackwood)
Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Abbott, Stacey and Jowett, Lorna – Global TV Horror (University of Wales Press)
Decker, Lindsey – Transnationalism and Genre Hybridity in New British Horror Cinema (University of Wales Press)
Falvey, Eddie; Hickinbottom, Joe; and Wroot, Jonathan – New Blood: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Horror (University of Wales Press)
Olson, Danel – 9/11 Gothic: Decrypting Ghosts and Trauma in New York City’s Terrorism Novels (Lexington Books)
Knost, Michael – Writers Workshop of Horror 2 (Hydra Publications)
Lester, Catherine – Horror Films for Children: Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema (Bloomsbury Academic)
Potts, Jim – Defending a Serial Killer: The Right to Counsel (Vesuvian Books)
Wetmore Jr., Kevin J. – Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters (Reaktion Books)
Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew and Hansen, Regina M. – Giving the Devil His Due: Satan and
Cinema (Fordham University Press)
Woofter, Kristopher – Shirley Jackson: A Companion (Peter Lang Publishing)
Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction
Clasen, Mathias – “Fear Not!” (Aeon)
Cowen, David E. – “Introduction” (Victims) (Weasel Press)
Ward, Kyla Lee – “Vampire Poetry” (Penumbra No. 2 (2021)) (Hippocampus Press)
Diak, Nicholas – “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Through the Comic Book Series Vinegar Teeth” (Academia Letters)
Ognjanović, Dejan – “The Three Paradigms of Horror” (Vastarien Vol. 4, Issue 2) (Grimscribe Press)
O’Quinn, Cindy – “One and Done” (Were Tales: A Shapeshifter Anthology) (Brigids Gate Press)
Tamásfi, László – “The Devil Flew Away”(Dracula’s Death)(Strangers from Nowhere)
Verona, Emily Ruth – “A Horror Fan’s Guide to Surviving Womanhood” (thefinalgirls.co.uk)
Wetmore, Kevin J. – “Devil’s Advocates: The Conjuring” (Auteur Publishing/Liverpool University Press)
Yuriko Smith, Angela – “Horror Writers: Architects of Hope” (The Sirens Call, Halloween 2021, Issue 55) (Sirens Call Publications)
JESSICA LANDRY 