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Each year, the Horror Writer's Association presents the
Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, named in honor of Bram
Stoker, author of the seminal horror work, Dracula. The
Stoker Awards were instituted immediately after the organization's
incorporation in 1987. While many members, including HWA's first
President, Dean Koontz, had reservations about awards for writing
-- since the point of HWA was for writers to cooperate for their
mutual benefit, not to compete against one another -- the majority
of members heavily favored presenting awards, both to recognize
outstanding work in the horror field and to publicize HWA's
activities. To ameliorate the competitive nature of awards, the Stokers are
given "for superior achievement," not for "best of the year," and
the rules are deliberately designed to make ties fairly probable.
The first awards were presented in 1988 (for works published in
1987), and they have been presented every year since. The award
itself is an eight-inch replica of a fanciful haunted house,
designed specifically for HWA by sculptor Steven Kirk. The door of
the house opens to reveal a brass plaque engraved with the name of
the winning work and its author. The Stoker Awards, like the Oscars, are non-juried awards. Any
work of Horror first published in the English language may be
considered for a Stoker during the year of its publication. The HWA
membership at large recommends worthy works for consideration. A
preliminary ballot is compiled using a formula based on
recommendations. Two rounds of voting by our Active members
determine first the finalists, and then the winners. The winners
are announced and the awards presented at a gala banquet held in
conjunction with HWA's annual conference, usually in June. Between 2001 and 2004, the awards were presented in twelve
categories: Novel, First Novel, Short Fiction, Long Fiction,
Fiction Collection, Poetry Collection, Anthology, Nonfiction,
Illustrated Narrative, Screenplay, Work for Young Readers, and
Alternative Forms. Beginning with works published in 2005, however,
the awards are given in eight categories: Novel, First Novel, Short
Fiction, Long Fiction, Fiction Collection, Poetry Collection,
Anthology, and Nonfiction. In addition, Lifetime Achievement Stokers are occasionally
presented to individuals whose entire body of work has
substantially influenced Horror. Since all works of Horror published in a given year are
automatically eligible for the awards, and since the entire
membership of HWA is involved in the awards process, there is no
way to submit works for consideration per se. The best strategy is
simply to publicize the work as widely as possible. For tips about
how to point your work out to HWA members (and how not to!),
click here. |
