Finalists for 2012 Stoker Awards announced by HWA

On Monday of last week, the Horror Writers Association released its final ballot for this year’s slate of Stoker Awards, which will be presented during the World Horror Convention on June 15 in New Orleans.

This year’s round of Stoker Awards will recognize outstanding works from the horror genre produced during the 2012 calendar year. Named after Bram Stoker, the author of “Dracula,” these awards are presented annually for “superior achievement” in horror writing, and this year marks the 26th anniversary of the awards.

This year, awards will be given in 10 categories, including Superior Achievement in a Novel, Superior Achievement in a First Novel, Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel, Superior Achievement in Long Fiction, Superior Achievement in Short Fiction, Superior Achievement in an Anthology, Superior Achievement in a Collection, Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction, Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection and Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel.

Finalists in the category of Superior Achievement in a Novel are:

- Bottled Abyss by Benjamin Kane Ethridge

- NightWhere by John Everson

- The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan

- The Haunted by Bentley Little

- Inheritance by Joe McKinney


Finalists in the category of Superior Achievement in a First Novel are:

- Charlotte Markham and the House of the Darklings by Michael Boccacino

- Wide Open by Deborah Coates

- The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief by Charles Day

- A Requiem for Dead Flies by Peter Dudar

- Bad Glass by Richard Gropp

- Life Rage by L.L. Soares


Finalists in the category of Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction are:

- Writing Darkness by Michael Collings

- The Annotated Sandman, Vol. 1 by Les Klinger

- Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween by Lisa Morton

- The Undead and Theology by Kim Paffenroth and John W. Morehead

- Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter and the Modern Horror Film by Kendall R. Phillips


Finalists in the category of Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel are:

- The Sixth Gun, Vol. 3: Bound by Cullen Bunn

- Rachel Rising, Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death by Terry Moore

- The Tale of Brin and Brent and Minno Marylebone by Ravi Thornton

- Behind These Eyes by Peter J. Wacks and Guy Anthony De Marco

- Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times by Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton


Finalists in the category of Superior Achievement in a Collection are:

- The Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories by Jonathan Carroll

- New Moon on the Water by Mort Castle

- Errantry: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand

- The Janus Tree by Glen Hirshberg

- Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates

In the end, how many of the books mentioned above have you had the chance to read this year? Which did you like or dislike? Which was your personal favorite? Which do predict will win in their respective categories? Let us know in the comments section below.

(For more information about the finalists in the other awards categories, visit the Horror Writers Association’s official Web site, www.horror.org.)