Just when it seemed like the bleakness of winter would give rise to a whole lot of cabin fever weirdness, The Horror Writers Association (HWA) swoops in to save us by announcing the Preliminary Ballots for the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards.

In case you’ve got to believing that horror was the avocation of an over-imaginative (and slightly dark) few, the HWA dispels that notion by being the premier writer’s organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with over 1,300 members. They have presented the Bram Stoker Awards to a talented group of writers in various categories every year since 1987.

Like every year at this time, the list probably contains names and titles you are familiar with, along with a whole lot of new finds. For instance, I sincerely hope you’ve already discovered Stranger Things and Penny Dreadful, but perhaps you skipped The Witch; a situation you should remedy immediately.

Also, you may be familiar with the work of Elizabeth Hand (12 Monkeys, Star Wars: Bobo Fett series), but have not yet discovered Greg Chapman and his unique take on a haunted house story, Hollow House.

[Click the images for bigger versions.]

Personally, I am anticipating tucking in to every title nominated in the non-fiction category; for who could resist a snow-bound Sunday afternoon, curled up in front of the fireplace with David J. Skal’s new work, Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula or Ruth Franklin’s Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life?

Congratulations to all those writers appearing on these Preliminary Ballots, from everyone here at Black Gate magazine (but mostly me).

Superior Achievement in a Novel

• Fenn, J. Lincoln – Dead Souls (Gallery Books)
• Hand, Elizabeth – Hard Light: A Cass Neary Crime Novel (Minotaur Books)
• Heuvelt, Thomas Olde – Hex (Tor Books)
• Jones, Stephen Graham – Mongrels (William Morrow)
• Langan, John – The Fisherman (Word Horde)
• Lombardi, Nicola – The Tank (DunwichEdizioni)
• MacLeod, Bracken – Stranded: A Novel (Tor Books)
• Murray, Lee – Into the Mist (Cohesion Press)
• Prentiss, Norman– Odd Adventures with your Other Father (Kindle Press)
• Snyman, Monique – Muti Nation (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• Tremblay, Paul – Disappearance at Devil’s Rock (William Morrow)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Superior Achievement in a First Novel

• Barnett, Barbara – The Apothecary’s Curse (Pyr Books)
• Chapman, Greg – Hollow House (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• Deady, Tom – Haven (Cemetery Dance Publications)
• Franks, Matthew – The Monster Underneath (Samhain Publishing, Ltd.)
• Garza, Michelle and Lason, Melissa – Mayan Blue (Sinister Grin Press)
• Gorman, William – Blackwater Val (Crystal Lake Publishing)
• Kilgore, Kari – Until Death (Spiral Publishing)
• Labat, L.M. – The Sanguinarian ID (Night to Dawn Magazine & Books LLC)
• Lewis, Beth – The Wolf Road (Crown Publishing)
• Murphy, Jason – The Black Goat Motorcycle Club (Sinister Grin Press)
• Woodrow, Jonathan – Wasteland Gods (Horrific Tales Publishing)
• Wytovich, Stephanie – The Eighth (Dark Regions Press)

• Alexander, Maria – Snowed (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Brozek, Jennifer – Last Days of Salton Academy (Ragnarok Publishing)
• Cosimano, Elle – Holding Smoke (Hyperion-Disney)
• Ford, Michael Thomas – Lily (Lethe Press)
• Kelley, Michael Brent – Keep Away From Psycho Joe (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• Roberts, Jeyn – When They Fade (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
• Sirowy, Alexandra – The Telling (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Varley, Dax – Sinful: A Bleed Novel (Garden Gate Press)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

• Bunn, Cullen – Blood Feud (Oni Press)
• Chambers, James – Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe (Moonstone)
• de Campi, Alex – No Mercy, Vol. 2 (Image Comics)
• Miller, Mark Alan and Lansdale, Joe R. – The Steam Man (Dark Horse Books)
• Moore, Alan – Providence, Act 1 (Avatar Press)
• Quach, Ashley P – Weirdy (Sassquach Comics)
• Kirkman, Robert – Outcast, Vol 3 This Little Light (Image Comics)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

• Anderson, Paul Michael – “Bones Are Made to be Broken” (Bones Are Made to be Broken, Written Backwards)
• Boden, John – Jedi Summer with the MagneticKid (Post Mortem Press)
• Cushing, Aric – Vampire Boy (Grand & Archer)
• Cushing, Nicole – The Sadist’s Bible (01Publishing)
• Drinkwater, Karl – Harvest Festival (Organic Apocalypse)
• Edelman, Scott – “That Perilous Stuff” (Chiral Mad 3, Written Backwards)
• LaValle, Victor – The Ballad of Black Tom (Tor.com)
• Malerman, Josh – “The Jupiter Drop” (You, Human, Written Backwards)
• Matthews, Mark – All Smoke Rises: Milk-Blood Redux (Wicked Run Press)
• Shane, Simmons – “Raw” (Silent Screams: An Anthology of Socially Conscious Dark Fiction, Serpent & Dove Speculative Fiction)
• Waggoner, Tim – The Winter Box (Darkfuse)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

• Bailey, Michael – “Time is a Face on the Water “(Borderlands 6, Borderlands Press)
• Bodner, Hal – “A Rift in Reflection (Chiral Mad 3, Written Backwards)
• Golden, Christopher – “The Bad Hour (What the #@&% is That?, Saga Press)
• Hanson, Michael H. – “Conqueror Worms (Dark Corners, Iron Clad Press)
• Hucklebridge, Dane – “Ortolan (F(r)iction #5)” (Tethered by Letters)
• Kiste, Gwendolyn – “Reasons I Hate My Big Sister (Nightscript Volume 2, Chthonic Matter)
• Mannetti, Lisa – “ArbeitMacht Frei (Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Crystal Lake Publishing)
• Manzetti, Alessandro – “Long Hair’s Inferno (The Monster, the Bad, and the Ugly, KippleOfficinaLibraria)
• Oates, Joyce Carol – “The Crawl Space (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Volume #2016/Issue#8, Dell Magazines)
• Smith, John Claude – “The Wounded Table (The Wrath of Concrete and Steel, Dunhams Manor Press)
• Yap, Isabel – “Only Unclench Your Hand (What the #@&% is That?, Saga Press)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

• Barron, Laird – Swift to Chase (JournalStone)
• Braum, Daniel – The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales (Grey Matter Press)
• Chizmar, Richard – A Long December (Subterranean Press)
• Gavin, Richard – Sylvan Dread: Tales of Pastoral Darkness (Three Hands Press)
• Oates, Joyce Carol – The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror (Mysterious Press)
• O’Neill, Gene – Lethal Birds (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• Schaller, Eric – Meet Me in the Middle of the Air (Undertow Publications)
• Schwaeble, Hank – American Nocturne (Cohesion Press)
• Sutton, Pete – A Tiding of Magpies (Kensington Gore Publishing)
• Wehunt, Michael – Greener Pastures (Shock Totem Publications)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

• Alvarez, Fede and Sayagues, Rodo – DON’T BREATHE (Ghost House Pictures, Good Universe)
• Campbell, Josh, Chazelle, Damien, and Stuecken, Matthew – 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (Paramount Pictures)
• Catlin, Sam, Rogen, Seth, and Goldberg, Evan – PREACHER: PILOT (Episode1:0) (AMC)
• Duffer, Matt and Duffer, Ross – STRANGER THINGS: THE VANISHING OF WILL BYERS (Episode 01: Chapter One) (21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre)
• Duffer, att and Duffer, Ross – STRANGER THINGS: THE UPSIDE DOWN (Episode 01: Chapter Eight) (21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre)
• Eggers, Robert – THE WITCH (Parts and Labor, RT Features, Rooks Nest Entertainment, Code Red Productions, Scythia Films, Maiden Voyage Pictures, Mott Street Pictures, Pulse Films, and Very Special Projects)
• Gimple, Scott M. – THE WALKING DEAD: THE DAY WILL COME WHEN YOU WON’T BE (Episode 07:01) (AMC)
• Hayes, Carey, Hayes, Chad, Wan, James and Johnson, David – THE CONJURING 2 (New Line Cinema)
• Logan, John – PENNY DREADFUL: A BLADE OF GRASS (Episode 03:04) Showtime Presents in association with SKY, Desert Wolf Productions, Neal Street Productions)
• Nichols, Jeff – MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (Warner Bros.)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

• Bailey, Michael – Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards)
• Bennett, T.C. and Carbone, Tracy L. – Cemetery Riots (Awol From Elysium Press)
• Dabrowski, Lisa – Horror from the Inside Out (Whorror House)
• Johnson, Eugene and Day, Charles – Drive-In Creature Feature (Evil Jester Press)
• Kahle, Pete – Not Your Average Monster, Vol. 2: A Menagerie of Vile Beasts (Bloodshot Books)
• Manzetti, Alessandro – The Beauty of Death (Independent Legions Publishing)
• Manzetti, Alessandro and di Orazio, Paolo – The Monster, the Bad and the Ugly (KippleOfficinaLibraria)
• Monteleone, Thomas F. and Monteleone, Oliva F. – Borderlands 6 (Samhain Publishing, Ltd.)
• Mosiman, Billie Sue – Fright Mare-Women Write Horror (DM Publishing)
• Murano, Doug and Ward, D. Alexander – Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories (Crystal Lake Publishing)
• Rivera, Anthony and Lawson, Sharon – Peel Back the Skin (Grey Matter Press)

Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction

• Braudy, Leo – Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural (Yale University Press)
• Franklin, Ruth – Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (Liveright Publishing Corporation)
• Ocker, J.W – A Season with the Witch (Countryman Press)
• Olson, Danel P. – Guillermo del Toro’s “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”: Studies in the Horror Film (Centipede Press)
• Poole, W. Scott – In the Mountains of Madness: The Life, Death and Extraordinary Afterlife of H. P. Lovecraft (Soft Skull Press)
• Skal, David J. – Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who WroteDracula (Liveright Publishing Corporation)
• Tibbetts, John – The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub (McFarland)
• Towlson, Jon – The Turn to Gruesomeness in American Horror Films, 1931-1936 (McFarland)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

• Betts, Matt – Underwater Fistfight (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
• Boston, Bruce and Manzetti, Alessandro – Sacrificial Nights (KippleOfficinaLibraria)
• Collings, Michael R. – Corona Obscura: Poems Dark and Elemental (self-published)
• Cowen, David E. – The Seven Yards of Sorrow (Weasel Press)
• DiLouie, Craig and Moon, Jonathan – Children of God: Poems, Dreams, and Nightmares from the Family of God Cult (ZING Communications, Inc., Jonathan Moon.)
• Gailey, Jeannine Hall – Field Guide to the End of the World: Poems (Moon City Press)
• Lepovetsky, Lisa – Voices from Empty Rooms (Alban Lake)
• Lopez III, Aurelio Rico – Two Drinks Away from Chaos (Azoth Khem Publishing)
• Simon, Marge. – Small Spirits (Midnight Town Media)
• Wytovich, Stephanie M. – Brothel (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

See all the details at the The Horror Writers Association website.