CJ Leede’s debut Maeve Fly won Best Novel at the 2024 Splatterpunk Awards, leading a trend where four of the five categories featured first-time winners. Maeve Fly, a serial killer thriller “inspired by the pages of American Psycho,” was also nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in February.
The seventh annual Splatterpunk Awards were presented during a ceremony August 10 at KillerCon in Austin, Texas, to honor superior achievement in Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror fiction published in 2023. Thanks to author John Baltisberger for live-tweeting the winners, providing the information for this article.
Snow Angels by Lucas Mangum won Best Novella, giving Mangum his first win after previous nominations for Pandemonium (with Ryan Harding) in 2021 and Saint Sadist in 2020.
The Best Short Story category finished with two first-time winners. “My Octopus Master” by Stephen Kozeniewski and “Blood Harmony” by Chet Williamson tied for the honor. The win is Kozeniewski’s first after previous nominations for “My Chopping List” in 2023, “Sun Poison” in 2022, and The Hematophages in 2018. For Williamson, a six-time Bram Stoker Award nominee, “Blood Harmony” is his first work to receive a Splatterpunk Award nomination.
Transcendental Mutilation by Ryan Harding won Best Collection. With five wins, Harding remains the most honored author at the Splatterpunk Awards. He previously won for The Night Stockers (with Kristopher Triana) in 2022; “Angelbait” in 2020; “The Seacretor” in 2019; and Header 3 (with Edward Lee) in 2018.
We’re Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror edited by Angelique Jordonna and James G. Carlson won Best Anthology. We’re Here is Jordonna’s first nomination. Carlson was previously nominated for Midnight in the City of the Carrion Kid in 2022.
Ray Garton, Craig Spector, and Wrath James White were honored as the 2024 recipients of the annual J. F. Gonzalez Lifetime Achievement Award for their significant contributions to Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror. Garton and Weston Ochse were also honored as the latest inductees to the Hall of Legends.
The deadline for the 2025 Splatterpunk Awards nominations is December 31. Works of Extreme Horror fiction published in 2024 are eligible, and anyone can email their nominations to splatterpunkawards@gmail.com. The emails must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
For a complete list of all Splatterpunk Awards winners and nominees, click here.
LIONEL RAY GREEN 