The 2016 Bram Stoker Awards were announced aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA on 29 April with dozens of authors vying for a chance to win a coveted haunted house trophy.

My novel, Hollow House was nominated in the Superior Achievement in a First Novel category.

Although my novel didn’t ultimately claim the award, I’m very honoured just to have been a finalist. The certificate I received from the Horror Writers Association will spur me on to keep on writing.

Congratulations to winner Tom Deady, who took out the category, definitely well-deserved. Congratulations to my fellow nominees, Barbara Barnett, Michelle Garza & Melissa Lason and Stephanie M. Wytovich.

I’d like to thank my publisher Kate Jonez at Omnium Gatherum and my editor, Janet J. Holden for their hard work and support. I couldn’t have made the list without them.

The full list of winners and finalists can be found below. Congratulations again to everyone listed – you should feel proud.

Superior Achievement in a Novel
WINNER: The Fisherman, John Langan (Word Horde)
Hard Light, Elizabeth Hand (Minotaur)
Mongrels, Stephen Graham Jones (William Morrow)
Stranded, Bracken MacLeod (Tor)
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, Paul Tremblay (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel
WINNER: Haven, Tom Deady (Cemetery Dance)
The Apothecary’s Curse, Barbara Barnett (Pyr)
Hollow House, Greg Chapman (Omnium Gatherum)
Mayan Blue, Michelle Garza & Melissa Lason (Sinister Grin)
The Eighth, Stephanie M. Wytovich (Dark Regions)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
WINNER: Snowed, Maria Alexander (Raw Dog Screaming)
Last Days of Salton Academy, Jennifer Brozek (Ragnarok)
Holding Smoke, Elle Cosimano (Disney-Hyperion)
When They Fade, Jeyn Roberts (Knopf)
The Telling, Alexandra Sirowy (Simon & Schuster)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
WINNER: The Winter Box, Tim Waggoner (Darkfuse)
The Sadist’s Bible, Nicole Cushing (01Publishing)
“That Perilous Stuff”, Scott Edelman (Chiral Mad 3)
The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor.com Publishing)
“The Jupiter Drop”, Josh Malerman (You, Human)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
WINNER: “The Crawl Space”, Joyce Carol Oates (Ellery Queen 9-10/16)
“Time is a Face on the Water”, Michael Bailey (Borderlands 6)
“A Rift in Reflection”, Hal Bodner (Chiral Mad 3)
“The Bad Hour”, Christopher Golden (What the #@&% Is That?)
“Arbeit Macht Frei”, Lisa Mannetti (Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
WINNER: The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror, Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious)
Swift to Chase, Laird Barron (JournalStone)
A Long December, Richard Chizmar (Subterranean)
Lethal Birds, Gene O’Neill (Omnium Gatherum)
American Nocturne, Hank Schwaeble (Cohesion)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology
WINNER: Borderlands 6, Oliva F. Monteleone & Tom Monteleone, eds. (Samhain)
Chiral Mad 3, Michael Bailey, ed. (Written Backwards)
The Beauty of Death, Alessandro Manzetti, ed. (Independent Legions)
Fright Mare – Women Write Horror, Billie Sue Mosiman, ed. (self-published)
Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Doug Murano & D. Alexander Ward, eds. (Crystal Lake)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction
WINNER: Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, Ruth Franklin (Liveright)
Haunted, Leo Braudy (Yale University Press)
Guillermo del Toro’s “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”, Danel P. Olson (Centipede)
In the Mountains of Madness, W. Scott Poole (Soft Skull)
Something in the Blood, David J. Skal (Liveright)
The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub, John Tibbetts (McFarland)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection
WINNER: Brothel, Stephanie M. Wytovich (Raw Dog Screaming)
Sacrificial Nights, Bruce Boston & Alessandro Manzetti (Kipple Officina Libraria)
Corona Obscura, Michael R. Collings (self-published)
Field Guide to the End of the World, Jeannine Hall Gailey (Moon City)
Small Spirits, Marge Simon (self-published)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
WINNER: Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe, James Chambers (Moonstone)
Blood Feud, Cullen Bunn (Oni)
No Mercy: Volume 2, Alex de Campi (Image)
Outcast: Volume 3: This Little Light, Robert Kirkman (Image)
The Steam Man, Mark Alan Miller & Joe R. Lansdale (Dark Horse)
Providence: Act 1, Alan Moore (Avatar)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
WINNER: The Witch
Penny Dreadful: “A Blade of Grass”
Stranger Things: “The Upside Down”
Stranger Things: “The Vanishing of Will Byers”
10 Cloverfield Lane

Active and lifetime HWA members were eligible to vote for Lifetime Achievement Awards to Dennis Etchison and Thomas F. Monteleone.