Bram Stoker Awards

The Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement are presented each year by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for horror, dark fantasy, and dark literature first published during a calendar year. The thirteen categories include Novel, First Novel, Young Adult Novel, Middle Grade Novel, Graphic Novel, Long Fiction, Short Fiction, Fiction Collection, Anthology, Poetry (collection and long form), Non-Fiction, Short Non-Fiction, and Screenplay.

Works reach the ballot two ways. HWA members of any class recommend works to the Recommended Reading List throughout the year (closing January 15 of the following year), and the five works with the most recommendations in each category, with a minimum of eight, go to the preliminary ballot. Separately, a volunteer jury for each category reads widely and adds its own top selections. Authors, publishers, publicists, and agents may put a work in front of a jury by contacting the Awards Committee co-chairs and uploading an electronic copy through Submittable; contacting jurors directly, or sending physical copies, is not allowed and can disqualify the work.

Eligibility does not depend on where the author lives or where the book was published, but the work must be available in English and, for self-published titles, available in a reviewable form to at least a third of HWA's eligible voters. Works created with generative AI are ineligible. Active and Lifetime members vote on the preliminary and final ballots.