The June 6 ceremony for the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards is finished, and the next major event for horror fiction is July 11 when the 2025 Shirley Jackson Awards are presented.
Of course, the Shirley Jackson Awards recognize the legacy of seminal author Shirley Jackson and honor outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
Here is my recap of the 2024 Shirley Jackson Awards.
The 2025 awards will be presented at Readercon 35 in Burlington, Massachusetts. The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics in six categories: Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Fiction, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology.
Perusing the list, there is hardly any overlap between nominees for the 2025 Shirley Jackson Awards and the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards.
As far as novels, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix and Moonflow by Bitter Karella were the only works nominated for both awards.
Outside of the Novel category, the only other title nominated for both awards was the anthology Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora edited by Kristy Park Kulski. By the way, Silk & Sinew won the 2025 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology.
Here is the list of 31 nominees for the 2025 Shirley Jackson Awards, according to ShirlyJacksonAwards.org:
NOVEL
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
How to Fake a Haunting by Christa Carmen
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
Moonflow by Bitter Karella
Old Soul by Susan Barker
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
NOVELLA
The Cold House by A. G. Slatter
The Death of Mountains by Jordan Kurella
DuMort by Michelle Tang
The Glass Garden by Jessica Lévai
Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce
NOVELETTE
The Confirmed Bachelors by Stephen Volk
“Emily” by Vanessa Santos from Make a Home of Me
Letter Slot by Owen King from Amazon Original Stories
“The Millay Illusion” by Sarah Pinsker from Issue Sixty-Seven of Uncanny Magazine
“The Severity of Things” by Mo Moshaty from Clairviolence: Tales of Tarot and Torment
SHORT FICTION
“Bitter Skin” by Kaaron Warren from Night & Day
“Lapse” by Kirsty Logan from Unquiet Guests
“Mother’s Mother’s Daughter” by Audrey Zhou from Silk and Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora
“Room 24” by Caroline Kepnes from The End of the World As We Know It
“Silver Boots” by Donna Lynch from HOWL: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women-in-Horror
SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION
Clairviolence: Tales of Tarot and Torment by Mo Moshaty
Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin and translated by Megan McDowell
Issues with Authority by Nadia Bulkin
Moon Songs: The Selected Stories of Carol Emshwiller by Carol Emshwiller
Portalmania: Stories by Debbie Urbanski
EDITED ANTHOLOGY
Night & Day edited by Ellen Datlow
Roots of My Fears edited by Gemma Amor
Silk and Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora edited by Kristy Park Kulski
Unquiet Guests edited by Dan Coxon
Were Wolf Short Stories edited by Gillian Whitaker, Catherine Taylor & Nick Wells
Visit ShirleyJacksonAwards.org and Readercon.org for more information.
RELATED LINKS
Curdle Creek wins best novel at 2024 Shirley Jackson Awards – LIONEL RAY GREEN
Jones wins again for The Buffalo Hunter Hunter at 2025 Bram Stoker Awards – LIONEL RAY GREEN
2025 Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot announced – LIONEL RAY GREEN
Full Throttle anthology leads list of 2026 Splatterpunk Awards nominations – LIONEL RAY GREEN
LIONEL RAY GREEN 
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