Before COVID, I’d planned on going to Denver in April and/or May. A year ago, I hoped to make StokerCon 2021 my first StokerCon. I’m not in Denver. Neither was StokerCon. However, this first Virtual StokerCon was still my first, and it was fabulous. I’m still distilling all of the wonderful panels and presentations, so no wrap-up here, but a huge shoutout and thank you to Brian Matthews, James Chambers, and all of the others involved in putting on this massive event, including the panelists and presenters. Thank you for all of your work, and I hope your families recognize you as you return to “real life.”

Author readings for the con were pre-recorded, and now that it’s over, I can share my reading of “In Loco Parentis,” from my collection The Cuckoo Girls. It’s short!

The Cuckoo Girls didn’t win the Bram Stoker Award for Fiction Collection, but I’m still so thrilled with the nomination, it might as well have. In truth, I was so surprised at making the preliminary ballot and so shocked at making the final ballot that winning might have done me in—so it’s a good thing the award went to the talented Lee Murray for her amazing collection Grotesque: Monster Stories. Check it out.

No matter how far away you live, there’s a good chance you heard my screams when EV Knight’s win for First Novel was announced. Not only is her debut novel, The Fourth Whore wonderful, I’ve had the privilege of reading her next, Children of Demeter, coming in August from Raw Dog Screaming Press. You want this one, folks.

The complete list of winners and finalists is below. Get ready for some book shopping!

Next year, StokerCon will be in Denver, and once again, I’m hoping to be there.

The 2020 Bram Stoker Awards®

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• WINNER: Jones, Stephen Graham – The Only Good Indians (Gallery/Saga Press)
• Katsu, Alma – The Deep (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
• Keisling, Todd – Devil’s Creek (Silver Shamrock Publishing)
• Malerman, Josh – Malorie (Del Rey)
• Moreno-Garcia, Silvia – Mexican Gothic (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher Books)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• WINNER: Knight, EV – The Fourth Whore (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Hall, Polly – The Taxidermist’s Lover (CamCat Publishing, LLC)
• Harrison, Rachel – The Return (Berkley)
• Jeffery, Ross – Tome (The Writing Collective)
• Reed Petty, Kate – True Story (Viking; riverrun)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• WINNER: Holder, Nancy (author), Di Francia, Chiara (artist), and Woo, Amelia (artist) – Mary Shelley Presents (Kymera Press)
• Archer, Steven (author/artist) – The Masque of the Red Death (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Brody, Jennifer (author) and Rivera, Jules (artist) – Spectre Deep 6 (Turner)
• Douek, Rich (author) and Cormack, Alex (artist) – Road of Bones (IDW Publishing)
• Manzetti, Alessandro (author) and Cardoselli, Stefano (artist/author) – Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein) (Independent Legions Publishing)
• Niles, Steve (author), Simeone, Salvatore (author), and Kudranski, Szymon (artist) – Lonesome Days, Savage Nights (TKO Studios)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

• WINNER: Cesare, Adam – Clown in a Cornfield (HarperTeen)
• Kraus, Daniel – Bent Heavens (Henry Holt and Company/Macmillan)
• Snyman, Monique – The Bone Carver (Vesuvian Books)
• Thomas, Aiden – Cemetery Boys (Swoon Reads/Macmillan)
• Waters, Erica – Ghost Wood Song (HarperTeen)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• WINNER: Jones, Stephen Graham – Night of the Mannequins (Tor.com)
• Iglesias, Gabino – Beyond the Reef (Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror) (Wicked Run Press)
• Kiste, Gwendolyn – The Invention of Ghosts (Nightscape Press)
• Landry, Jess – I Will Find You, Even in the Dark (Dim Shores Presents Volume 1) (Dim Shores)
• Pinsker, Sarah – Two Truths and a Lie (Tor.com)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• WINNER: Malerman, Josh – “One Last Transformation” (Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors) (Written Backwards)
• Arcuri, Meghan – “Am I Missing the Sunlight?” (Borderlands 7) (Borderlands Press)
• Fawver, Kurt – “Introduction to the Horror Story, Day 1” (Nightmare Magazine Nov. 2020 (Issue 98))
• O’Quinn, Cindy – “The Thing I Found Along a Dirt Patch Road” (Shotgun Honey Presents Volume 4: Recoil) (Down and Out Books)
• Ward, Kyla Lee – “Should Fire Remember the Fuel?” (Oz is Burning) (B Cubed Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• WINNER: Murray, Lee – Grotesque: Monster Stories (Things in the Well)
• Koja, Kathe – Velocities: Stories (Meerkat Press)
• Langan, John – Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies (Word Horde)
• Lillie, Patricia – The Cuckoo Girls (Trepidatio Publishing)
• Taborska, Anna – Bloody Britain (Shadow Publishing)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• WINNER: Whannell, Leigh – The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Goalpost Pictures, Nervous Tick Productions)
• Amaris, Scarlett and Stanley, Richard – Color Out of Space (SpectreVision)
• Green, Misha – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 1: “Sundown” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)
• Green, Misha and Ofordire, Ihuoma – Lovecraft Country, Season 1, Episode 8: “Jig-a-Bobo” (Affeme, Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television Studios)
• LaManna, Angela – The Haunting of Bly Manor, Season 1, Episode 5: “The Altar of the Dead” (Intrepid Pictures, Amblin Television, Paramount Television Studios)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• WINNER: Sng, Christina – A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Manzetti, Alessandro – Whitechapel Rhapsody: Dark Poems (Independent Legions Publishing)
• McHugh, Jessica – A Complex Accident of Life (Apokrupha)
• Pelayo, Cynthia – Into the Forest and All the Way Through (Burial Day Books)
• Tantlinger, Sara – Cradleland of Parasites (Rooster Republic Press)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• WINNER: Murray, Lee and Flynn, Geneve – Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• Bailey, Michael and Murano, Doug – Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors (Written Backwards)
• Kolesnik, Samantha – Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror (Grindhouse Press)
• Tantlinger, Sara – Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror (Rooster Republic Press)
• Yardley, Mercedes M. – Arterial Bloom (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• WINNER: Waggoner, Tim – Writing in the Dark (Guide Dog Books/Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Florence, Kelly and Hafdahl, Meg – The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films (Skyhorse)
• Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra – 1000 Women in Horror (BearManor Media)
• Keene, Brian – End of the Road (Cemetery Dance Publications)
• Peirse, Alison – Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre (Rutgers University Press)
• Wetmore, Jr. Kevin J. – The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaption (McFarland)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

• WINNER: Waggoner, Tim – “Speaking of Horror” (The Writer)
• Jackson Joseph, Rhonda – “The Beloved Haunting of Hill House: An Examination of Monstrous Motherhood” (The Streaming of Hill House: Essays on the Haunting Netflix Adaptation) (McFarland)
• Pelayo, Cynthia – “I Need to Believe” (Southwest Review Volume 105.3)
• Robinson, Kelly – “Lost, Found, and Finally Unbound: The Strange History of the 1910 Edison Frankenstein” (Rue Morgue Magazine, June 2020)
• Sng, Christina – “Final Girl: A Life in Horror” (Interstellar Flight Magazine, October 2020)