The 2009 Stoker Awards Weekend was held this last weekend and the Bram Stoker Awards were presented. The following are the winners of this year’s awards. Remember, if you are interested in any of these books, click the mouse on the book cover to order it from an online bookseller:
Superior Achievement in a Novel
 Duma Key  |
Duma Key: A NovelAuthor: King, Stephen |
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Winner of the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel No more than a dark pencil line on a blank page. A horizon line, maybe. But also a slot for blackness to pour through . . . A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle’s right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. A marriage that produced two lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar begins to wish he hadn’t survived the injuries that could have killed him. He wants out. His psychologist, Dr. Kamen, suggests a “geographic cure,” a new life distant from the Twin Cities and the building business Edgar grew from scratch. And Kamen suggests something else. “Edgar, does anything make you happy?” “I used to sketch.” “Take it up again. You need hedges . . . hedges against the night.” Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico and the tidal rattling of shells on the beach call out to him, and Edgar draws. A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts his movement out of solitude. He meets a kindred spirit in Wireman, a man reluctant to reveal his own wounds, and then Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman whose roots are tangled deep in Duma Key. Now Edgar paints, sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon. Many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth’s past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to appear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating. The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural — Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying. |
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Superior Achievement in a First Novel
 The Gentling Box  |
The Gentling BoxAuthor: Mannetti, Lisa |
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Winner of the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel The philosophies of the Age of Enlightenment create sweeping changes throughout 19th Century Europe, but to Hungary’s despised nomads, the gypsies, the world is still a dark and very dangerous landscape. Adversaries both mortal and supernatural lurk in the shadows, waiting to strike without mercy. Imre, a half-gypsy horse trader, understands the danger to his small family all too well. Cursed with a hideously-disfiguring and fatal disease by the vengeful sorceress Anyeta, he watches those around him suffer and fall. Mimi, his wife, who is tricked into cutting off her own arm to create a powerful talisman. His friend Constantin, struck mute by Anyeta’s wrath. And Lenore, his and Mimi’s young daughter, who has been placed in the greatest jeopardy of all. With his health deteriorating and death imminent, his wife possessed by the witch’s ghost and Lenore being groomed for a fate far worse than death, Imre turns to desperate measures — and a hellish memory from his childhood — to still the sorceress and end her reign of bloodshed. A presence even more powerful and terrifying to him than Anyeta: the gentling box. The Gentling Box is the terrifying debut novel of horror writer, Lisa Mannetti. |
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Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
 Miranda |
MirandaTitle on Cover: adnariM |
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Winner of the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction Michael is different from you and me. He lives his life in reverse, from the day he died back to the day he was born. It’s hard to make friends when you’re travelling in the wrong direction of time. In fact the only true friend he has is his little dog, Doof. Until one day, Michael meets Miranda, and his life changes forever. adnariM. |
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Superior Achievement in Short Fiction
 “The Lost” |
“The Lost”Author: Langan, Sarah |
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Winner of the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction The Lost was an original short story by horror author Sarah Langan published as a promotional chapbook by Cemetery Dance Publications. |
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Superior Achievement in an Anthology
 Unspeakable Horror  |
Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the ClosetEditors: Liaguno, Vince A. and Helder, Chad |
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Winner of the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology Something unspeakable is coming out of the closet . . . From the ghosts of dead lovers and malevolent queer faeries to devious doppelgangers and twisted psychopaths, an eclectic lineup of award-winning writers from the horror and GLBT literary communities come together in this groundbreaking collection of queer horror stories. These tales will surprise with their universally resonant themes while exploring the deeper aspects of the closet experience — coming out, staying in, and being haunted by. Join Lee Thomas, Sarah Langan, Jameson Currier, Rick R. Reed, Scott Nicholson, Kealan Patrick Burke and others as they throw open their literary closet doors with 23 chilling tales. Be prepared as these master dark scribes reveal what lurks in those shadowy corners at the back of our closets. And the horrors found there promise to be unspeakable. Table of Contents:
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Superior Achievement in a Collection
 Just After Sunset  |
Just After Sunset: StoriesAuthor: King, Stephen |
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Winner of the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Collection Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love? A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well. Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating — and then terrifying-journey. Set on a remote key in Florida, “The Gingerbread Girl” is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable — and resourceful — as Audrey Hepburn’s character in Wait Until Dark. In “Ayana”, a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any moment. In “N”, which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient’s irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside — or keep the world from falling victim to it. Just After Sunset — call it dusk, call it twilight, it’s a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you. It’s the perfect time for Stephen King. Table of Contents:
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Superior Achievement in Nonfiction
 A Hallowe’en Anthology  |
An Hallowe’en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writers over the CenturiesAuthor: Morton, Lisa |
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Winner of the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction This unique anthology gathers together some of the most intriguing and useful works on the history of Halloween. Ranging from pre-Christian Celtic myths to early 20th century articles, the book’s 27 entries include poems, short stories, sections from 19th and 20th century folklore books, a one-act play, Irish and Scottish folk tales, and the first book on the holiday ever published. Noted works contained in the anthology include William Wells Newell’s 1904 study of the history of Jack-o’-lantern legends in “The Ignis Fatuus” and Alexander Montgomerie’s oft-quoted 1584 poem “Flyting Against Polwart.” Organized chronologically, most works are presented in their entirety and many include extensive annotations designed to make the original source materials more palatable for modern readers. The book also includes 34 vintage photographs and illustrations. |
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Superior Achievement in Poetry
 The Nightmare Collection  |
The Nightmare CollectionAuthor: Boston, Bruce |
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Winner of the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel The Nightmare Collection is a brand new poetry collection from the Bram Stoker Award winning poet of Pitchblende, and Shades Fantastic. The prolific SFPA Grandmaster brings us sixty poems collected from places like Asimov’s SF Magazine, Dark Wisdom, Strange Horizons, Talebones, Weird Tales, and includes new works as well. |
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The Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement
The Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement is given for the person’s entire body of work. It cannot be awarded posthumously. Nor can it be given to anyone under the age of sixty. Candidates must have put in thirty-five years or more to the horror field in some way to be selected. Up to two awards can be given in a particular year.
The winners are:
1.) Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
2.) F. Paul Wilson
And in case you are interested, here are the nominations for the 2008 Bram Stoker Awards:
The 2008 Stoker Nominations Series:
Part 1 — Superior Achievement in a Novel and First Novel
Part 2 — Superior Achievement in Long Fiction and Short Fiction
Part 3 — Superior Achievement in an Anthology and a Collection
Part 4 — Superior Achievement in Nonfiction and Poetry
Part 5 — Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement and other awards.
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