Rachel Harrison’s witchy tale, Cackle, won Best Novel for the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards, according to an announcement by the LOHF on June 29.
The LOHF also announced winners in the other seven categories.
Zakiya Dalila Harris’ The Other Black Girl won Best Debut.
The Best Collection category resulted in a tie with Isabel Yap’s Never Have I Ever and Hailey Piper’s Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy sharing the honor. Yap also received a 2021 LOHF Best Short Fiction nomination for her story “Syringe.” Piper’s Queen of Teeth also received a 2021 LOHF nomination for Best Debut. Piper previously won a 2020 LOHF Award for Best Short Fiction with her story “Unkindly Girls” and also received two other 2020 nominations for Best Novella (The Worm and His Kings) and Best Short Fiction (“The Curse of She, Part 6”).
Jessica McHugh won the Best Poetry category for the second consecutive year with Strange Nests, a collection of blackout poetry inspired by The Secret Garden. McHugh’s A Complex Accident of Life won the 2020 LOHF Award. Both poetry collections received Bram Stoker Award nominations.
Gwendolyn Kiste’s story “Sister Glitter Blood” won Best Short Fiction. The tale appeared in the anthology Violent Vixens: An Homage to Grindhouse Horror, edited by Aric Sundquist and published by Dark Peninsula Press. A three-time Bram Stoker Award winner, Kiste previously received a 2020 LOHF Best Novella nomination for The Invention of Ghosts.
V. Castro’s Goddess of Filth won Best Novella. The LOHF also nominated Castro’s The Queen of the Cicadas for Best Novel of 2021. Castro previously received two 2020 LOHF nominations for Best Collection (Sed de Sangre) and for Best Short Fiction (“The Cucuy of Cancun”). Goddess of Filth and The Queen of the Cicadas also received 2021 Bram Stoker Award nominations.
Lorien Lawrence’s The Collectors won the Best Middle Grade category. The Collectors is the second book in her Fright Watch series. Lawrence previously received a 2020 LOHF nomination in the Best Middle Grade category for The Stitchers, the first book in the Fright Watch series.
Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis won the Best Young Adult category.
The LOHF also implemented the 2021 Readers’ Choice category for the first time. Listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name, the top ten selections are: “Become a Flute, Become a Spy Glass, Become a Knife” by Elou Carroll; Earthly Bodies by Susan Earlam; Till We Become Monsters by Amanda Headlee; The Night Library of Sternendach: A Vampire Opera in Verse by Jessica Lévai; Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis; The Sound of Breaking Glass by Christine Makepeace; “A Study in Ugliness” by Hache Pueyo; Lady of the House by Grace R. Reynolds; Within Me, Without Me: A Book of Dark Poetry and Prose by Sumiko Saulson; and The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward.
Visit ladiesofhorrorfiction.com for the complete list of winners and nominees.
RELATED LINKS
Nominees announced for 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards
Ladies of Horror Fiction announce 2020 award winners
The Official Website of Horror and Fantasy Writer Lionel Ray Green 
LOHF Awards: Quality fiction here. No big surprises, just big congratulations!
I agree, Priscilla!