Koji Suzuki's 'Edge' wins 2012 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel

The winners of the 2012 Shirley Jackson Awards were announced on Sunday in Burlington, Mass. and “Edge” by Koji Suzuki received top honors for Best Novel. The awards were presented during Readercon 24.

For those of you unfamiliar with the relatively new Shirley Jackson Awards, they are given each year to recognize “outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic” from works published in the preceding calendar year. The winners are chosen by a panel of award advisors, critics, editors, scholars and writers. Awards are given in six categories – Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Fiction, Single-Author Collection and Edited Anthology.

The Shirley Jackson Awards are named after the late Shirley Jackson, who died at the age of 48 in 1965. An influential author and novelist, Jackson is best remembered for her short story, “The Lottery,” and her 1959 horror novel, “The Haunting of Hill House.” Her other novels include “The Road Through the Wall” (1948), “Hangsaman” (1951), “The Bird’s Nest” (1954), “The Sundial” (1958) and “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” (1962).

The complete list of this year’s winners in the three “book categories” are as follows:

NOVEL:

Winner – “Edge” by Koji Suzuki

Finalists:
- “Immobility” by Brian Evenson
- “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn
- “The Drowning Girl” by Caitlin R. Kiernan
- “The Devil in Silver” by Victor LaValle

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION:

Winner – “Crackpot Palace” by Jeffrey Ford

Finalists:
- “The Woman Who Married a Cloud” by Jonathan Carroll
- “The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories” by Andy Duncan
- “Windeye” by Brian Evenson
- “Errantry” by Elizabeth Hand
- “Remember Why You Fear Me” by Robert Shearman

EDITED ANTHOLOGY:

Winner – “Exotic Gothic 4: Postscripts #28/29,” edited by Danel Olson

Finalists:
- “Night Shadows,” edited by Greg Herren & J.M. Redmann
- “21st Century Dead,” edited by Christopher Golden
- “Black Wings II,” edited by S.T. Joshi
- “Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury,” edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle.

The first Shirley Jackson Awards were presented in July 2007. The Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel is arguably the most prestigious of all the Shirley Jackson Awards and a number of outstanding novels have received this award over the years. What follows is a complete list of the all-time winners in that category.

2007 – “Generation Loss” by Elizabeth Hand
2008 – “The Shadow Year” by Jeffrey Ford
2009 – “Big Machine” by Victor LaValle
2010 – “Mr. Shivers” by Robert Jackson Bennett
2011 – “Witches on the Road Tonight” by Sheri Holman
2012 – “Edge” by Koji Suzuki

For more information about the Shirley Jackson Awards, including information on the winners in the other categories this year, visit http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/.

In the end, how many of the books mentioned above have you had the chance to read? Which did you like or dislike? Why? Which would you recommend and why? Let us know in the comments section below.