Named in honor of the author of Dracula, the Bram Stoker Awards have been given every year since 1987 by the Horror Writers Association in celebration of horror writing in eleven categories, including novels, novellas, poetry, and screenplays. Previous winners include Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman.

Superior Achievement in a Novel
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Peter Straub’s Ghost Story meets Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies in this American Indian horror story of revenge on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Four American Indian men from the Blackfeet Nation, who were childhood friends, find themselves in a desperate struggle for their lives, against an entity that wants to exact revenge upon them for what they did during an elk hunt ten years earlier by killing them, their families, and friends.

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs for a fresh start. But what they don’t know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can. Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

One last laugh for the summer as it winds down. One last prank just to scare a friend. Bringing a mannequin into a theater is just some harmless fun, right? Until it wakes up. Until is starts killing. Luckily, Sawyer has a plan. He’ll be a hero. He’ll save everyone to the best of his ability. He’ll kill as many people as he needs to so he can save the day. That’s the thing about heroes-sometimes you have to become a monster first.

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
“One Last Transformation” by Josh Malerman from Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors

What happens when we make monsters? What happens when we make monsters of ourselves? Grotesque beings lurch from our darkest dreams. Vicious beasts stalk our twisted pasts. Lost souls haunt our deepest regrets. They are the blood on our hands. They are the obsessions in our heads. They are the vengeance in our hearts. They are Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors.

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
Writing in the Dark by Tim Waggoner

In this comprehensive textbook devoted to the craft of writing horror fiction, award-winning author Tim Waggoner draws on thirty years’ experience as a writer and teacher. Writing in the dark offers advice, guidance, and insights on how to compose horror stories and novels that are original, frightening, entertaining, and well-written.

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
The Invisible Man written by Leigh Whannell

Trapped in a violent, controlling relationship with a wealthy scientist, Cecilia Kass escapes in the dead of night and disappears into hiding. But when her abusive ex commits suicide and leaves her a generous portion of his vast fortune, Cecilia suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of eerie coincidences turns lethal, threatening the lives of those she loves, Cecilia’s sanity begins to unravel as she desperately tries to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.

Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women edited by Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn

Almond-eyed celestial, the filial daughter, the perfect wife. Quiet, submissive, demure. In Black Cranes, Southeast Asian writers of horror both embrace and reject these traditional roles in a unique collection of stories which dissect their experiences of otherness, be it in the color of their skin, the angle of their cheekbones, the things they dare to write, or the places they have made for themselves in the world. Black Cranes is a dark and intimate exploration of what it is to be a perpetual outsider.

Superior Achievement in a First Novel
The Fourth Whore by E.V. Knight

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Mary Shelley Presents by Nancy Holder

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Grotesque: Monster Stories by Lee Murray

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction
“Speaking of Horror” by Tim Waggoner from The Writer, November 2020

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng