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The Horror Books Nominated for This Year’s Bram Stoker Awards

Here are this year's nominees for the best horror and dark fiction writing, as chosen by the Horror Writers Association.

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Feb 25, 2025

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The Bram Stoker Awards recognizes “superior achievement” in horror and dark fiction. They’ve been awarded every year since 1987, and they’re chosen by the Horror Writers Association. The winners will be announced June 14th at StokerCon. Here are some of this year’s nominees.

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Mother Knows Best cover

Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror edited by Sofia Ajram

We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures edited by Rob Costello

Discontinue If Death Ensues: Tales from the Tipping Point edited by Carol Gyzander and Anna Taborska

Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse, and Bad Manners edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey

Mother Knows Best: Tales of Homemade Horror edited by Lindy Ryan

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez book cover

Not a Speck of Light by Laird Barron

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls by Angela Sylvaine

Old Monsters Never Die by Tim Waggoner

Love is a Crematorium and Other Tales by Mercedes M. Yardley

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Midnight Rooms cover

Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles

Hollow Girls by Jessica Drake-Thomas

This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram book cover

Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

Rest Stop by Nat Cassidy

Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman

“All The Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn” (This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances) by Eric LaRocca

Hollow Tongue by Eden Royce

Superior Achievement in a Novel

cover of I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Find the full list of nominees—including in Middle Grade, Nonfiction, Poetry, and more—at the Bram Stoker Awards website.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.