The HWA (Horror Writers of America) have announced the names on the preliminary ballot for the Edgar Awards. Here at SciFi.Radio we are immensely pleased that one of our staff writers, Susan Macdonald, has a short story in a collection of Weird Speculative Fiction called Tales from OmniPark, edited by Ben Thomas for Superior Achievement in an Anthology.

Susan says Tales from OmniPark is the weirdest anthology she’s ever had a story in. She is a regular contributor to the pages of SCIFI.radio, recently contributing a piece on DeForest Kelley’s birthday, and having reviewed Black Widow. For Tales from OmniPark she wrote “The Selkie Who Loved Buttermilk Biscuits.”

Tales from OmniPark consists of “eighteen strange stories of a theme park that might’ve been…. featuring exclusive stories from Brian Evanson, Gemma Files, Erin Grey, Jesse Bullington, and other leading lights of Weird Fiction Community.”

The 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot
Superior Achievement in a Novel

Castro, V. – The Queen of the Cicadas (Flame Tree Press)
Demchuk, David – Red X (Strange Light)
Hendrix, Grady – The Final Girl Support Group (Berkley)
Jones, Stephen Graham – My Heart Is a Chainsaw (Gallery/Saga Press)

Knight, EV – Children of Demeter (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
McLeod Chapman, Clay – Whisper Down the Lane (Quirk Books)
Pelayo, Cynthia – Children of Chicago (Agora Books)
Starling, Caitlin – The Death of Jane Lawrence (St. Martin’s Press)
Stred, Steve – Incarnate (Black Void Publishing)
Wendig, Chuck – The Book of Accidents (Del Rey)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Desiree, Amanda – Smithy (Inkshares)
Fox, VK – Indie Saint (Aethon Books)
Jones, C.B. – TheRules of the Road (Ionosphere Press)
Martinez, S. Alessandro – Helminth (Omnium Gatherum)
McQueen, LaTanya – When the Reckoning Comes (Harper Perennial)
Miles, Terry – Rabbits (Del Rey)
Moreno, Gus – This Thing Between Us (MCD x FSG Originals)
Piper, Hailey – Queen of Teeth (Strangehouse Books)

Quigley, Lisa – The Forest (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing)
Willson, Nicole – Tidepool (The Parliament House)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Ahmed, Saladin (author) and Kivelä, Sami (artist) – Abbott 1973 (BOOM! Studios)
Garcia, Kami (author); Suayan, Mico (artist); Badower, Jason (artist); and Mayhew, Mike
(artist) – Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity (DC Comics)
Leong, Sloane (author) and Bowles, Anna (artist) – Graveneye (TKO Studios)
Manzetti, Alessandro (author) and Cardoselli, Stefano (artist) – The Inhabitant of the Lake (Independent Legions Publishing)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Ames, Alison – To Break a Covenant (Page Street Kids)
Blake, Kendare – All These Bodies (Quill Tree Books)
Boylr, r. L. – The Book of the Baku (Titan Books)
Gould, Courtney – The Dead and the Dark (Wednesday Books)
Lewis, Jessica – Bad Witch Burning (Delacorte Press)
Marshall, Kate Alice – Our Last Echoes (Viking Books for Young Readers)
Polydoros, Aden – The City Beautiful (Inkyard Press)
Sutherland, Krystal – House of Hollow (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Waters, Erica – The River Has Teeth (HarperTeen)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Asman, Brian – Man, Fuck This House (Mutated Media)
Castro, V. – Goddess of Filth (Creature Publishing, LLC)
Jeffery, Ross – Only The Stains Remain (Cemetery Gates Media)
Khaw, Cassandra – Nothing But Blackened Teeth (Tor Nightfire)
LaRocca, Eric – Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (Weirdpunk Books)
Marrs, Chris and O’Neill, Gene – “Entangled Soul” (Entangled Soul and Other Stories)
(Omnium Gatherum)
Piper, Hailey – “Recitation of the First Feeding” (Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy) (the Seventh Terrace)Strand, Jeff – “Twentieth Anniversary Screening” (Slice and Dice) (Independently
published)
Tingle, Chuck – Straight (Self Published)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Gwilym, Douglas – “Year Six” (LampLight Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 1) (Apokrupha)
Gyzander, Carol – “The Yellow Crown” (Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow
Sign) (Hippocampus Press)
Joseph, R.J. – “I Just Want to Be Free” (Paranormal Contact: A Quiet Horror Confessional)
(Cemetery Gates Media)
Joseph, R.J. – “Soulmates” (Dark Dispatch Issue #2: Deadly Love) (Dark Dispatch)
Murray, Lee – “Permanent Damage” (Attack from the 80s) (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Oreto, Frank J. – “The Care and Feeding of Household Gods” (Beyond the Veil) (Flame Tree
Press)
Taborska, Anna -“Two Shakes Of A Dead Lamb’s Tail”(Terror Tales of the Scottish
Lowlands) (Telos Publishing)
Ward, Kyla Lee – “A Whisper in the Death Pit” (Weirdbook #44) (Wildside Press)
Yates, Pauline – “The Best Medicine” (Midnight Echo Issue (Midnight Echo Issue 16) (AHWA)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Bailey, Michael – Psychotropic Dragon (Written Backwards)
Baxter, Alan – The Gulp (13th Dragon Books)
Files, Gemma – In That Endlessness, Our End (Grimscribe Press)
Fracassi, Philip – Beneath a Pale Sky (Lethe Press)
Landry, Jess – The Mother Wound (Independent Legions Publishing)
Maberry, Jonathan – Empty Graves: Tales of the Living Dead (WordFire Press LLC)
McCarthy, J.A.W. – Sometimes We’re Cruel and Other Stories (Cemetery Gates Media)
Tuttle, Lisa – The Dead Hours of Night (Valancourt Books)
Wise, A.C. – The Ghost Sequences (Undertow Publications)
Yap, Isabel – Never Have I Ever )Small Beer Press)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Bailey-Bond, Prano and Fletcher, Anthony – Censor (Silver Salt Films)
Carolyn, Axelle – The Manor (Amazon Studios)
Chaisson, C. Henry; Antosca, Nick; and Cooper, Scott – Antlers (Searchlight Pictures)
Charles, Kathy,; Steensland, Mark;and Stevens, Travis – Jakob’s Wife (AP International)
Cushing, Aric and Thomas, Logan –There’s No Such Thing as Vampires (Ascent Releasing)
Dong-Hyuk, Hwang – Squid Game, Season 1, EWpisode 1: “Red Light, Grewen Light” (Siren Pictures)
Flanagan, Mike; Flanagan, James; and Howard, Jeff – Midnight Mass, Season 1, Episode 6, Book VI “Acts of the Apostles”(IntrepidPictures)
Graziadei, Phil, and Janiak, Leigh – Fear Street : Part One, 0 1994 (EChernin Entertainment)
Peele, Jordan; Rosenfeld, Win, and DaCosta Nia – Candyman (Universal Pictures)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

Garza, Alecander – notsleepyyret (Weasel Press)
Lansdale, Joe, R., Apache Witch and Other Poetic Obsevations, )Independent Legions Publishing)
Manzetti, Alessandro – Dancing with Maria’s Ghost (Independent Legions Publishing)
McHugh, Jessica – Strange Nests (Apokrupha)
O’Brien, Brandon – Can You Sign My Tentacle? (Interstellar Flight Press)
Simon, Marge, and Turzillo, Mary – Victims, (Weasel Press)
Sng, Christina; Yuriko Smith, Angela; Murray, Lee; and Flynn, Geneve – Tortured Willows:
Bent. Bowed. Unbroken. (Yuriko Publishing)
Snyder, Lucy A. – Exposed Nerves (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Walrath, Holly Lyn – The Smallest of Bones (CLASH Books)
Wolfe, Jezzy – Monstrum Poetica (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology.

Chambers, James – Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow (Hippocampus Press)
Cluff, Michael and Becker, Willow – Humans are the Problem: A Monster’s Anthology
(Weird Little Worlds)
Datlow, Ellen – When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (Titan Books)
French, Aaron J. and Landry, Jess – There is No Death, There are No Dead (Crystal Lake
Publishing)
Guignard, Eric J. – Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the , Weird, Wild World (Dark Moon Books)
Howl Society – Howls from Hell (Howl Society Press)
Johnson, Eugene – Attack from the ’80s (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Schlossberg, Josh – Tghe Jewish Book of Horror (Denver Horror Collective)
Showers, Brian J. – Uncertainties, Volume V(Swan River Press)
T* homas, Ben – Tales from OmniPark (House Blackwood) *

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction

Abbott, Stacey and Jowett, Lorna – Global TV Horror (University of Wales Press)
Decker, Lindsey – Transnationalism and Genre Hybridity in New British Horror Cinema (University of Wales Press)
Falvey, Eddie; Hickinbottom, Joe; and Wroot, Jonathan – New Blood: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Horror (University of Wales Press)
Olson, Danel – 9/11 Gothic: Decrypting Ghosts and Trauma in New York City’s Terrorism Novels (Lexington Books)
Knost, Michael – Writers Workshop of Horror 2 (Hydra Publications)
Lester, Catherine – Horror Films for Children: Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema
(Bloomsbury Academic)
Potts, Jim – Defending a Serial Killer: The Right to Counsel ((Vesuvian Books)
Wetmore,Jr. Kevin, J. – Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters ( Reaktion Books)
Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew and Hansen, Regina M. – Giving the Devil His Due: Satan and Cinema (Fordham University Press)
Woofter, Kristopher – Shirley Jackson: A Companion (Peter Lang Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Short Nonfiction

Clasen, Mathias – “Fear Not!” (Aeon)
Ward, Kyla Lee – “Vampire Poetry” (Penumbra No. 2 (2021)) (Hippocampus Press)
Diak, Nicholas – “Cullzathro Fhtagn! Magnifying the Carnivalesque in Lovecraft Throughthe Comic Book Series “Vinrgar Teeth” (Academia Letters)
Ognjanovi?, Dejan – “The Three Paradigms of Horror” (Vastarien, Vol. 4, Issue 2)
O’Quinn, Cindy – “One and Done” (Were Tales: A Shapeshifter Anthology) (Brigids Gate Press)
Tamásfi, László – “The Devil Flew Away”(Dracula’s Death)(Strangers from Nowhere)
Verona, Emily Ruth – “A Horror Fan’s Guide to Surviving Womanhood” (thefinalgirls.co.uk)
Wetmore, Kevin J. – “Devil’s Advocates: The Conjuring” (Auteur Publishing/Liverpool
University Press)
Yuriko Smith, Angela – “Horror Writers: Architects of Hope (The Sirens Call, Halloween 2021, Issue 55_ (Sirens Call Publication)

Please note these works must NOT be referred to as “Bram Stoker Award Nominees.” Only Works that appear on the Final Ballot, to be formally announced on or about February 23, may be called nominees.

Voting members will now vote on these Preliminary Ballots, with voting closing on February 15, 2022 (only Active and Lifetime Members in good standing are eligible to vote).

Even though they’re not officially nominees, yet, we at SciFi.Radio wish all the writers and editors listed here good luck. If you’re looking for well-written horror and/or dark fantasy, these are writings that have been judged well-done by professionals in the horror/dark fantasy field.

SciFi.Radio is proud of our Mrs. Macdonald, and wish her and her colleagues luck.

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