The Horror Writers Association released the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot on February 23 via announcement on its website, BramStokerAwards.Horror.Org.
The highlight of the list is the category for Superior Achievement in a First Novel, where seven works were selected instead of the typical five.
“This year, the thrill of seeing the Final Ballot comes with a white-knuckle race in First Novel, with a three-way tie delivering seven nominees instead of the usual five in that category,” said Bram Stoker Awards Committee Administration Co-Chair Laura Blackwell. “It’s a promising sign not just for whoever takes the trophy in June, but for horror readers in years to come.”
Grace Daly, Bitter Karella, Tanya Pell, Hester Steel, Kathryn Tennison, Neena Viel, and Michael Wehunt are the authors nominated in the First Novel category.
The Novel category is packed again with previous Bram Stoker Award winners and nominees Grady Hendrix, Joe Hill, Stephen Graham Jones, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Wendy N. Wagner is the only first-time nominee in the field.
Other highlights include authors with multiple nominations, including Clay McLeod Chapman who’s nominated in the Fiction Collection and Young Adult Novel categories. Sarah Langan is nominated twice in the Long Fiction category. Stephen Graham Jones is nominated in the Novel and Short Non-Fiction categories.
Another highlight on the Final Ballot is Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature edited by Becky Siegel Spratford. It’s nominated in the Long Non-Fiction category plus three of its essays are nominated in the Short Non-Fiction category.
Overall, 67 works were nominated in 13 categories. The Horror Writers Association has presented the Bram Stoker Awards since 1987. The nonprofit HWA is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre with more than 2,000 members.
The 2025 awards will be presented during StokerCon 2026 scheduled from June 4-7 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For information on StokerCon or to register, visit StokerCon.com.
Without further do, here is the official 2025 Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot.
Superior Achievement in an Anthology
Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology edited byJulie C. Day, Carina Bissett, and Craig Laurance Gidney
The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene
Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora edited by Kristy Park Kulski
This Way Lies Madness: Stories from the Edge of Darkness edited by Lee Murray and Dave Jeffery
HOWL: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women-in-Horror edited by Lindy Ryan and Stephanie M. Wytovich
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
Acquired Taste by Clay McLeod Chapman
Little Horn: Stories by Gemma Files
Lost in The Dark and Other Excursions by John Langan
Teenage Girls Can Be Demons by Hailey Piper
Cyanide Constellations by Sara Tantlinger
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
The Scald-Crow by Grace Daly
Moonflow by Bitter Karella
Her Wicked Roots by Tanya Pell
The Faceless Thing We Adore by Hester Steel
Molting by Kathryn Tennison
Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel
The October Film Haunt by Michael Wehunt
Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel
Jumpscare by Cullen Bunn (writer) and Danny Luckert (artist)
John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight, Volume 11 edited by Sandy King
Athanasia by Daniel Kraus (writer) and Dani
Bowling With Corpses and Other Tales from Lands Unknown by Mike Mignola
Let This One Be a Devil by James Tynion IV (writer), Steve Foxe (writer), and Piotr Kowalski (artist)
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud
“Uncertain Sons” by Thomas Ha
“Squid Teeth” by Sarah Langan
Pam Kowolski is a Monster! by Sarah Langan
“Wolf Moon, Antler Moon” by A.C. Wise
Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction
Global Indigenous Horror edited by Naomi Simone Borwein
The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters edited by Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead
America’s Most Gothic by Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes
Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away by Coltan Scrivner
Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature edited by Becky Siegel Spratford
Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel
Ride or Die by Delilah S. Dawson
The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt
Broken Dolls by Ally Malinenko
The House Next Door by Ellen Oh
Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave by Ally Russell
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
Superior Achievement in Poetry (Collection and Long Form)
Everything Endless by Linda D. Addison and Jamal Hodge
Songs of Enough: An Inferno All My Own by Maxwell I. Gold
The Uterus is an Impossible Forest by Shannon Kearns
The Haunting by Cate Peebles
Allegories of Beauty & Violence: a collection of Gothic Romance Poems by MarieAnn C Raguso, PhD
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Sinners by Ryan Coogler
Weapons by Zach Cregger
28 Years Later by Alex Garland
Companion by Drew Hancock
Bring Her Back by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman
Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
“Stomata” by L.E. Daniels (from Darkness Most Fowl)
“Inheritance” by RJ Joseph (from Full Throttle: A Dark Dozen Anthology)
“Saint Dymphna’s School for Borderland Girls” by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece (from Weird Horror #10)
“[Ir]reversible” by Anna Taborska (from Witches and Witchcraft: An Anthology of Stories, Poems, and Essays)
“Autogas Ferryman” by Champ Wongsatayanont (from Nightmare Magazine #156)
Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction
“Deathwish Wolf Man: The Tragic Hero at the Heart of the Universal Monster” by Patrick Barb (from Interstellar Flight Magazine)
“My Long Road to Horror” by Tananarive Due (from Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature)
“Why Horror” by Stephen Graham Jones (from Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature)
“Haunted Thresholds: Liminal Horror and the Psychological Disintegration of Women from Post-Partum, Grief, Trauma and Religious Fanaticism” by Mo Moshaty (from Darkest Margins: 24 Essays on Liminality and Liminal Spaces in the Horror Genre)
“My Mother Was Margaret White” by Cynthia Pelayo (from Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature)
Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel
Shiny Happy People by Clay McLeod Chapman
Beautiful Brutal Bodies by Linda Cheng
We’re Not Safe Here by Rin Chupeco
The Silenced by Diana Rodriguez Wallach
A Girl Walks into the Forest by Madeleine Roux
Congratulations to all the nominees.
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