It’s Saturday afternoon/evening, and the 2025 Shirley Jackson Awards for, and I quote, “outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic” have just been awarded at Readercon 34 in Boston. Here they are…
The ones in bold are the winners, but obviously any and all of the nominees are worth a read … and congrats to everyone!
NOVEL
Curdle Creek: A Novel by Yvonne Battle-Felton (Henry Holt & Co)
The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim (Erewhon Books)
Eynhallow by Tim McGregor (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste (Saga Press)
The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden (St. Martin’s Press-US/Titan Books-UK)
Smothermoss by Alisa Alering (Tin House-US/Titan Books-UK)
NOVELLA
Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram (Titan Books)
Hollow Tongue by Eden Royce (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Red Skies in the Morning by Nadia Bulkin (Dim Shores)
A Scout is Brave by Will Ludwigsen (Lethe Press)
A Voice Calling by Christopher Barzak (Psychopomp)
NOVELETTE
“All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn” by Eric LaRocca (This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances)
“The Girl with Barnacles for Eyes” by Lyndsey Croal (Split Scream Volume Five)
His Unburned Heart by David Sandner (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
“Ready Player (n+1)” by M. Shaw (All Your Friends Are Here)
Stay on the Line by Clay McLeod Chapman (Shortwave Publishing)
The Thirteen Ways We Turned Darryl Datson Into A Monster by Kurt Fawver (Dim Shores)
SHORT FICTION
“Kamchatka” by Kristina Ten (Washington Square Review, Issue 51, Spring 2024)
“Strike” by Jessica P. Wick (Monsters in the Mills)
“MAMMOTH” by Manish Melwani (Nightmare Magazine, June 2024)
“Moon Rabbit Song” by Caroline Hung (Nightmare Magazine, November 2024)
“Three Faces of a Beheading” by Arkady Martine (Uncanny Magazine Issue Fifty-Eight)
SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION
The Bone Picker: Native Stories, Alternate Histories by Devon A. Mihesuah (University of Oklahoma Press)
Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations by Carina Bissett (Trepidatio Publishing)
Midwestern Gothic by Scott Thomas (Inkshares)
A Place Between Waking and Forgetting by Eugen Bacon (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
These Things That Walk Behind Me by David Surface (Lethe Press)
EDITED ANTHOLOGY
Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror, edited by Sofia Ajram (Ghoulish Books)
The Crawling Moon, edited by dave ring (Neon Hemlock)
Monsters in the Mills, edited by Christa Carmen and L.E. Daniels (IP [Interactive Publications Pty Ltd])
The White Guy Dies First, edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker (Tor Publishing Group)
Why Didn’t You Just Leave, edited by Julia Rios and Nadia Bulkin (Cursed Morsels Press)
You can learn more about the Shirley Jackson Awards, past and present, here on their web site.
For what it’s worth…
I think it’s fascinating that, with a very few exceptions, these writers are new to me. It’s so good to see new people, new personae, new ideas, in a genre that is called tired and imitative far too often (and completely without foundation).
The other interesting point is how the overwhelming number of nominees and most of the winners come from small presses. You have to look hard to find Henry Holt, St. Martin’s, or Tor on this list … while the authors from Raw Dog Screaming Press, as an example, garnered four nominations in various categories, Nightmare Magazine had two of the five nominees in Short Fiction, and good ol’ Uncanny Magazine picked up yet another win.
And I’m sorry, Clay … personally, I thought Stay on the Line was one of your best, and you have plenty that are best.
Regardless … if nothing else you now have a nice list of things to read on these long summer nights!