News & Blog

The nominees for the 2013 Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced, and I must say, the list looks fantastic! Longtime readers know I’ve been a strong proponent of the Shirley Jackson Awards since its inception. I even edited a special fundraiser anthology for them. Because they are a fully juried award, and the jurors tend to be respected authors and editors in the field, the Shirley Jackson Awards tend to display a lot more sophistication and taste — and a lot less cronyism — in their choice of nominees and winners than some other horror-based literary awards do. Such an approach leads to selections of real quality, and this year’s list of nominees is no exception. Behold!

NOVEL

• The Accursed, Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco)
• American Elsewhere, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
• The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper (Orion-UK/ Simon & Schuster-US)
• The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo (William Morrow)
• Night Film, Marisha Pessl (Random House)
• Wild Fell, Michael Rowe (ChiZine Publications)

NOVELLA

• Burning Girls, Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com)
• Children of No One, Nicole Cushing (DarkFuse)
• Helen’s Story, Rosanne Rabinowitz (PS Publishing)
• It Sustains, Mark Morris (Earthling Publications)
• “The Gateway,” Nina Allan (Stardust, PS Publishing)
• The Last Revelation of Gla’aki, Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)
• Whom the Gods Would Destroy, Brian Hodge (DarkFuse)

NOVELETTE

• Cry Murder! In a Small Voice, Greer Gilman (Small Beer Press)
• “A Little of the Night,” Tanith Lee (Clockwork Phoenix 4, Mythic Delirium Books)
• “My Heart is Either Broken,” Megan Abbott (Dangerous Women, Tor Books)
• “Phosphorus,” Veronica Schanoes (Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, Tor Books)
• “Raptors,” Conrad Williams (Subterranean Press Magazine, Winter 2013)

SHORT FICTION

• “57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides,” Sam J. Miller (Nightmare Magazine, December 2013)
• “Furnace,” Livia Llewellyn (Grimscribe’s Puppets, Miskatonic River Press)
• “The Memory Book,” Maureen McHugh (Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, Tor Books)
• “The Statue in the Garden,” Paul Park (Exotic Gothic 5, PS Publishing)
• “That Tiny Flutter of the Heart,” Robert Shearman (Psycho-Mania!, Constable & Robinson)
• “The Traditional,” Maria Dahvana Headley (Lightspeed, May 2013)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

• Before and Afterlives, Christopher Barzak (Lethe Press)
• Everything You Need, Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling Publications)
• In Search of and Others, Will Ludwigsen (Lethe Press)
• North American Lake Monsters, Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer Press)
• The Story Until Now, Kit Reed (Wesleyan)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

• The Book of the Dead, edited by Jared Shurin (Jurassic London)
• End of the Road, Jonathan Oliver (Solaris)
• Grimscribe’s Puppets, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (Miskatonic River Press)
• Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor Books)
• Where thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Steve Berman (Lethe Press)

The 2013 Shirley Jackson Awards will be presented at a ceremony on Sunday, July 13th at Readercon 25. Congrats and good luck to all the nominees! (But especially to my good friends Robert Jackson Bennett, Veronica Schanoes [twice over!], Livia Llewellyn, Robert Shearman, and Nathan Ballingrud!)