The 2023 ballot of Bram Stoker Award nominees has been announced and the list of nominees features six previous guests of the Capes and Tights Podcast as well as a slew of other talented creators.
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 2,000 members. They have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987.
Among the nominees include two-time guest Adam Cesare, plus Christopher Golden, CJ Leede, Cullen Bunn, David Stoll, and Stephen Graham Jones.
Here is the 2023 Final Ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards.
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
James Aquilone – Shakespeare Unleashed (Crystal Lake Publishing, Monstrous Books)
Christopher Golden and Brian Keene – The Drive-In: Multiplex (Pandi Press)
Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. – Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (Vintage)
Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams – Out There Screaming (Random House)
Rebecca Rowland – American Cannibal (Maenad Press)
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Gemma Files – Blood from the Air (Grimscribe Press)
Todd Keisling – Cold, Black, & Infinite (Cemetery Dance)
Josh Malerman – Spin A Black Yarn (Del Rey)
Christi Nogle – The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future (Flame Tree Press)
Sarah Read – Root Rot & Other Grim Tales (Bad Hand Books)
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
Christa Carmen – The Daughters of Block Island (Thomas & Mercer)
Johnny Compton – The Spite House (Tor Nightfire/Macmillan)
Eric LaRocca – Everything the Darkness Eats (CLASH Books/Titan)
CJ Leede – Maeve Fly (Tor Nightfire/Macmillan/Titan)
Sam Rebelein – Edenville (William Morrow/Titan)
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Cullen Bunn (author) and Leomacs (artist) – Ghostlore, Vol. 1 (BOOM! Studios)
Adam Cesare (author) and David Stoll (artist) – Dead Mall (Dark Horse Comics)
Amy Chu (author) and Soo Lee (artist) – Carmilla: The First Vampire (Dark Horse)
Junji Ito (author and artist) – Tombs (Viz Media)
Gou Tanabe (author and artist) – H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Dark Horse Comics)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Tananarive Due – “Rumpus Room” (The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Akashic Books)
Ai Jiang – Linghun (Dark Matter INK)
Cassandra Khaw – The Salt Grows Heavy (Tor Nightfire/Macmillan/Titan)
J.A.W. McCarthy – Sleep Alone (Off Limits Press LLC)
Lee Murray – Despatches (PS Publishing)
Superior Achievement in Long Nonfiction
Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris – The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar (Gallery/Saga Press)
Claire Fitzpatrick (ed.) – A Vindication of Monsters: Essays on Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley (IFWG Publishing International)
Sadie Hartmann – 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered (Page Street Publishing)
Lisa Morton – The Art of the Zombie Movie (Applause Books)
Lee Murray and Angela Yuriko Smith (eds.) – Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror (Black Spot Books)
Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel
Sarah Henning – Monster Camp (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Diana López – Los Monstruos: Felice and the Wailing Woman (Kokila)
Lora Senf – The Nighthouse Keeper (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Refe Tuma – Frances and the Werewolves of the Black Forest (HarperCollins)
Suzanne Young – What Stays Buried (HarperCollins)
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Tananarive Due – The Reformatory (Gallery/Saga Press/Titan)
Grady Hendrix – How to Sell a Haunted House (Berkley/Titan)
Stephen Graham Jones – Don’t Fear the Reaper (Gallery/Saga Press/Titan)
Victor LaValle – Lone Women (One World)
Chuck Wendig – Black River Orchard (Del Rey/Penguin Random House)
Superior Achievement in Poetry
Maxwell Ian Gold – Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums (Hex Publishers)
Jessica McHugh – The Quiet Ways I Destroy You (Apokrupha Press)
Marisca Pichette – Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair (Android Press)
Holly Lyn Walrath – Numinous Stones (Aqueduct Press)
Stephanie M. Wytovich – On the Subject of Blackberries (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Charlie Brooker – Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea (Episode 03:06) (Zeppotron, Babieka, Banijay Entertainment, Broke and Bones, House of Tomorrow)
Michelle Garza Cervera and Abia Castillo – Huesera: The Bone Woman (Disruptiva Films, Machete Producciones, MalignoGorehouse)
Brian Duffield – No One Will Save You (20th Century Studios, Star Thrower Entertainment)
Demián Rugna – When Evil Lurks (Machaco Films, Aramos Cine, Shudder)
Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One (Robot Communications, Toho Studios)
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
L.E. Daniels – “Silk” (Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster: Stories Inspired by Stephen King, Twisted Wing Productions)
Rachael K. Jones – “The Sound of Children Screaming” (Nightmare Magazine)
Sam J. Miller – “If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak” (The Dark)
Cindy O’Quinn – “Quondam” (The Nightmare Never Ends, Exploding Head Fiction)
Nadine Aurora Tabing – “An Inherited Taste” (No Trouble at All, Cursed Morsels Press)
Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction
Carina Bissett – “Words Wielded by Women” (Apex Magazine)
Nadia Bulkin – “Becoming Ungovernable: Latah, Amok, and Disorder in Indonesia,” (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books)
K.P. Kulski – “100 Livers” (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books)
Lee Murray – “Displaced Spirits” (Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, Black Spot Books)
Kevin Wetmore Jr – “A Theatre of Ghosts, A Haunted Cinema: The Japanese Gothic as Theatrical Tradition in Gurozuka” (The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture: Special Issue on Asian Gothic)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Cherie Dimaline – Funeral Songs for Dying Girls (Tundra Book Group)
Kristen Simmons – Find Him Where You Left Him Dead (Tor Teen)
Cynthia Leitich Smith – Harvest House (Candlewick Press)
Chuck Tingle – Camp Damascus (Tor Nightfire/MacMillan/Titan)
Trang Thanh Tran – She Is a Haunting (Bloomsbury YA)
