Stoker Season!

It's Stoker season once again! I can smell the horror in the air.

Here are this year's preliminary nominees:

(As Ms. Datlow has pointed out, the HWA members have to choose from this list before the final ballot is announced. Sorry, my mistake.)

Superior Achievement in a NOVEL

* The Guardener's Tale by Bruce Boston (Sam's Dot)
* Mr. Hands by Gary Braunbeck (Leisure)
* Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer Press)
* Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow)
* Ghoul by Brian Keene (Leisure)
* The Missing by Sarah Langan (Harper)
* Dead Man's Song by Jonathan Maberry (Pinnacle)
* The Midnight Road by Tom Piccirilli (Bantam)
* The Terror by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown)
* The Dust of Wonderland by Lee Thomas (Alyson Books)

Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL

* I Will Rise by Michael Calvillo (Lachesis Publishing)
* Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow)
* The Memory Tree by John R. Little (Nocturne Press)
* Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth (Permuted Press)
* The Hollower by Mary SanGiovanni (Leisure Books)
* Vacation by Jeremy Shipp (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
* Roses of Blood on Barbwire Vines by D. L. Snell (Permuted Press)

Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION

* "Afterward, There Will Be A Hallway" by Gary Braunbeck (Five Strokes to Midnight)
* "Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man" by Scott Edelman (Postscripts)
* "Survival of the Fittest" by Scott Edelman (Summer Chills)
* "You Never Got Used to the Needle" by John Everson (Needles and Sins)
* Blood Coven by Angeline Hawkes & Christopher Fulbright (Dead Letter Press)
* General Slocum's Gold by Nicholas Kaufmann (Burning Effigy Press)
* Placeholders by John R. Little (Necessary Evil Press)
* Blood Wish by Michael McBride (Delirium Books)
* Frayed by Tom Piccirilli (Creeping Hemlock Press)
* Lost in Translation by Gord Rollo (NYX Books)
* "An Apiary of White Bees" by Lee Thomas (Inferno)
* "Trolling Lures" by Steve Vernon (Hard Roads)

Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION

* "The Death Wagon Rolls On By" by C. Dean Andersson (Cemetery Dance #57)
* "The Heart Of The City" by Sandy DeLuca & Michael McCarty (Hungur #4)
* "Longtime Gone" by Kurt Dinan (Chizine #34) "Letting Go" by John Everson (Needles and Sins)
* "Hungry for the Flesh" by Lisa Manetti (Space and Time #100)
* "The Wizard of Ooze" by Michael McCarty & Linnea Quigley (Midnight Premiere)
* "Mr. Creator" by Joe McKinney (The Sound of Horror)
* "The Teacher” by Paul G. Tremblay (Chizine)
* "There's No Light Between Floors" by Paul G. Tremblay (Clarkesworld)
* "The Gentle Brush of Wings" by David Niall Wilson (Defining Moments)

Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY

* Five Strokes to Midnight edited by Gary Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble (Haunted Pelican Press)
* Horror Library Volume 2 edited by R. J. Cavender & Vincent VanAllen (Cutting Block Press)
* Inferno edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
* Dark Delicacies 2: Fear edited by Del Howison & Jeff Gelb (Carroll & Graf/Avalon)
* High Seas Cthulhu edited by William Jones (Elder Signs Press)
* Horrors Beyond 2 edited by William Jones (Elder Signs Press)
* Astounding Hero Tales edited by James Lowder (Hero)
* History is Dead edited by Kim Paffenroth (Permuted Press)
* Midnight Premiere edited by Tom Piccirilli (Cemetery Dance Publications)
* Gratia Placenti edited by Jason Sizemore & Gill Ainsworth (Apex Publications)

Superior Achievement in a COLLECTION

* Proverbs for Monsters by Michael A. Arnzen (Dark Regions Press)
* The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)
* Darker Loves by James Dorr (Dark Regions Press)
* Needles and Sins by John Everson (Necro Publications)
* When it Rains and Other Wreckage by Christopher Fulbright (Doorways Publication)
* Voyeurs of Death by Shaun Jeffrey (Doorways Publication)
* No Further Messages by Brett Alexander Savory (Delirium)
* Sparks and Shadows by Lucy Snyder (HW Press)
* 5 Stories by Peter Straub (Borderlands)
* Defining Moments by David Niall Wilson (Sarob Press)

Superior Achievement in NONFICTION

* Encyclopedia Horrifica by Joshue Gee (Scholastic)
* The Science of Stephen King by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)
* The Portable Obituary: How the Famous, Rich, and Powerful Really Died by Michael Largo (Harper)
* The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer (Citadel Press / Kensington)
* Storytellers Unplugged by Joe Nassise and David Niall Wilson (Storytellers Unplugged/)

Superior Achievement in POETRY

* Being Full of Light, Insubstantial by Linda Addison (Space and Time)
* Mary Falls: Requiem for Mrs. Surratt by Christopher Conlon (The Word Works)
* Tango in the Ninth Circle by Corrine de Winter (Dark Regions Press)
* Heresy by Charlee Jacob (Bedlam Press [Necro Publications])
* VECTORS: A Week in the Death of a Planet by Charlee Jacob & Marge Simon (Dark Regions Press)
* Phantasmapedia by Mark McLaughlin (Dead Letter Press)
* Sometimes While Dreaming by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff (Sam's Dot)
* Your Cat & Other Space Aliens by Mary Turzillo (VanZeno Press)