2003 Bram Stoker Award Nominations

[Jnassise]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, April 2, 2004

Horror Writers Association announces
2003 Bram Stoker Award Nominees


Each year, the Horror Writers Association presents the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement in the field of horror writing, named in honor of Bram Stoker, author of the seminal horror work, Dracula. The awards are presented at the HWA Annual Conference and Bram Stoker Award banquet in New York City. This year’s event will be held at Manhattan’s Park Central Hotel on the evening of June 5th.

Since 1987, the 1000+ members of the HWA have recommended, nominated and voted on the greatest works of horror and dark fantasy of the previous calendar year, making the Stokers the most prestigious award in the field of horror literature. The awards are presented in twelve categories: Novel, First Novel, Short Fiction, Long Fiction, Fiction Collection, Poetry Collection, Anthology, Nonfiction, Illustrated Narrative, Screenplay, Work for Young Readers, and Alternative Forms.

This year’s nominees in each category are:

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King (Grant)
Serenity Falls by James A. Moore (Meisha Merlin)
The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
A Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli (Night Shade Books)
Lost Boy Lost Girl by Peter Straub (Random House)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A FIRST NOVEL

Wolf's Trap by William D. Gagliani (Yard Dog Press)
The Rising by Brian Keene (Delirium)
Monstrocity by Jeffrey Thomas (Prime Books)
Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer (Prime Books)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN LONG FICTION

The Necromancer by Douglas Clegg (Cemetery Dance)
“Closing Time” by Jack Ketchum (Peaceable Kingdom)
Roll Them Bones by David Niall Wilson (Cemetery Dance)
Fuckin' Lie Down Already by Tom Piccirilli (Endeavor Press)
Louisiana Breakdown by Lucius Shepard (Golden Gryphon)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN SHORT FICTION

“Duty” by Gary A. Braunbeck (Vivisections)
“The Last Supper” by Scott Edelman (The Book of Final Flesh)
“Harvey's Dream” by Stephen King (The New Yorker)
“The Haunting” by Joyce Carol Oates (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
“The Red Bow” by George Saunders (Esquire)


SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A FICTION COLLECTION

Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar Hill Stories Vol 1 by Gary A. Braunbeck (Earthling Publications)
Told by the Dead by Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)
Bibliomancy by Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing)
Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum (Subterranean Press)
Fangs and Angel Wings by Karen Taylor (Wildside Press)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN AN ANTHOLOGY

Southern Blood: New Australian Tales of the Supernatural edited by Bill Congreve (Sandglass Enterprises)
Gathering The Bones edited by Jack Dann, Ramsey Campbell and Dennis Etchison (HarperCollins-Voyager and Tor)
The Dark edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: 16th Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (St. Martin's Griffin)
Borderlands 5 edited by Elizabeth and Thomas Monteleone (Borderlands Press)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN NONFICTION

Fear in a Handful of Dust by Gary A. Braunbeck (Wildside)
Ralan.com edited by Ralan Conley (Ralan Conley)
Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman, edited by Gary Spencer Millidge and Smoky Man (Abiogenesis Press)
The Mothers and Fathers Italian Association by Thomas F. Monteleone (Borderlands Press)
Hellnotes edited by Judi Rohrig (Wolf Moon)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN COMIC BOOK, GRAPHIC NOVEL, OR OTHER ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE

The Sandman: Endless Nights (collection) by Neil Gaiman (DC Comics)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume Two by Alan Moore (America’s Best Comics)
Kolchak: “Devil in the Details” by Stefan Petrucha (Moonstone)
Graphic Classics: “Ambrose Bierce” edited by Tom Pomplun (Graphic Classics)
Vampire the Masquerade Giovanni —“The Machiavelli Conundrum” by Robert Weinberg (Moonstone/White Wolf)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A SCREENPLAY

Identity by Michael Cooney (Sony Pictures)
Bubba Ho-Tep by Don Coscarelli (Silver Sphere)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio (Disney)

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A POETRY COLLECTION

Gorelets: Unpleasant Poems by Michael Arnzen (Fairwood Press)
Pitchblende by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions Press)
Final Girl by Daphne Gottlieb (Soft Skull Press)
Cardinal Sins by Charlee Jacob (Miniature Sun Press)
Professor LaGungo's Exotic Artifacts & Assorted Mystic Collectibles by Mark McLaughlin (Flesh & Blood Press)
Artist of Antithesis by Marge Simon (Miniature Sun Press)


SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A WORK FOR YOUNG READERS

Even Odder: More Stories to Chill the Heart by Steve Burt (Burt Creations)
The Oracle by Catherine Fisher (Hodder Children’s Books)
The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
A Stir of Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Viking Children's Books)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K Rowling (Scholastic)


SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN ALTERNATE FORMS

The Goreletter (email newsletter) by Michael Arnzen (gorelets.com)
From the Files of Matthew Gentech (role-playing game) by Bruce Ballon (Silver Age Sentinels)
Ghosts of Albion (webcast script) by Christopher Golden and Amber Benson (BBC Online)
Horror World (webzine) edited by Nanci Kalanta and Ron Dickie (Nanci Kalanta and Ron Dickie)


Please Contact

Horror Writers Association
Joseph Nassise
President
president@horror.org
www.horror.org

HWA Annual Conference and Bram Stoker Awards Banquet June 3rd – 7th, 2004
Park Central Hotel
Manhattan, NY 10019

[Wetbones]

Um ...

No nommination for Caitlin R. Kiernan's superb LOW RED MOON? I guess they didn't want to nominate her or else she'd have won again just like she (deservedly) did for THRESHOLD. I'm pretty sure Stephen King will take home the best novel award this time.

PEACEBALE KINGDOM by Jack Ketchum should win for best story collection. Easily the best compilation of short stories I've read since John Shirley's REALLY, REALLY, REALLY WEIRD STORIES.

Also, why only 3 screenplay nominations, 2 of them crappy? If BUBBA HO-TEP doesn't win by a mile I'll feel personally insulted.

As for the rest of the categories, I'll withold judgment as I've not read enough of the stuff nominated for them.

[Jnassise]

Low Red Moon didn't receive enough votes on the preliminary ballot to reach the final ballot. I was disappointed too.

I probably should explain the process as to how the nominees are arrived at, as I'm sure most of you are not HWA members.

Throughout the year, any member of the HWA (there are about 1100 in the US, Europe, Canada and Aussie-land) can recommend a work to the rest of the membership. These recommendations are tallied up and the top twenty recommendations in each category that receive five or more votes are included on the preliminary ballot.

Once the preliminary ballot is arrived at, the Active members (those who have been professional published according to the organization's requirements) then select a first choice, second choice and third choice to be included on the final ballot. Each choice gets a certain amount of points (1st gets 6, 2nd gets 4 and 3rd gets 3) and the three works with the most total points make the final ballot.

The final ballot is again voted on by the Active members, this time selecting a first choice and a runner up. Again, votes are tallied, with the work with the highest vote count getting the award at the ceremony in New York in June. (June 3-6th, tickets available to the general public)

There is also an additions jury appointed by the president who's job it is to recommend one work that is also added to the final ballot. This work is one that the general membership is unaware of due to publication late in the year, foreign publication, etc.

At the end of all this, we arrive at 4 to 5 works on the final ballot.

As to wetbones' question about the films, only three were recommended, so all made the final ballot.

[Charlie Brigden]

If I was a cheerleader, I'd be jumping around spelling out Gaiman's name. Endless Nights was great.