Boston, MA (May 2014) — In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, The Shirley Jackson Awards, Inc. has been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics.*  The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories:  Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology.

The nominees for the 2013 Shirley Jackson Awards are:

NOVEL

  • The Accursed, Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco)
  • American Elsewhere, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)
  • The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper (Orion-UK/ Simon & Schuster-US)
  • The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo (William Morrow)
  • Night Film, Marisha Pessl (Random House)
  • Wild Fell, Michael Rowe (ChiZine Publications)

NOVELLA

  • Burning Girls, Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com)
  • Children of No One, Nicole Cushing (DarkFuse)
  • Helen’s Story, Rosanne Rabinowitz (PS Publishing)
  • It Sustains, Mark Morris (Earthling Publications)
  • “The Gateway,” Nina Allan (Stardust, PS Publishing)
  • The Last Revelation of Gla’aki, Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)
  • Whom the Gods Would Destroy, Brian Hodge (DarkFuse)

NOVELETTE

  • Cry Murder! In a Small Voice, Greer Gilman (Small Beer Press)
  • “A Little of the Night,” Tanith Lee (Clockwork Phoenix 4, Mythic Delirium Books)
  • “My Heart is Either Broken,” Megan Abbott (Dangerous Women, Tor Books)
  • “Phosphorus,” Veronica Schanoes (Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, Tor Books)
  • “Raptors,” Conrad Williams (Subterranean Press Magazine, Winter 2013)

SHORT FICTION

  • “57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides,” Sam J. Miller (Nightmare Magazine, December 2013)
  • “Furnace,” Livia Llewellyn (Grimscribe’s Puppets, Miskatonic River Press)
  • “The Memory Book,” Maureen McHugh (Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, Tor Books)
  • “The Statue in the Garden,” Paul Park (Exotic Gothic 5, PS Publishing)
  • “That Tiny Flutter of the Heart,” Robert Shearman (Psycho-Mania!, Constable & Robinson)
  • “The Traditional,” Maria Dahvana Headley (Lightspeed, May 2013)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

  • Before and Afterlives, Christopher Barzak (Lethe Press)
  • Everything You Need, Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling Publications)
  • In Search of and Others, Will Ludwigsen (Lethe Press)
  • North American Lake Monsters, Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer Press)
  • The Story Until Now, Kit Reed (Wesleyan)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

  • The Book of the Dead, edited by Jared Shurin (Jurassic London)
  • End of the Road, Jonathan Oliver (Solaris)
  • Grimscribe’s Puppets, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (Miskatonic River Press)
  • Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor Books)
  • Where thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Steve Berman (Lethe Press)

 

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) wrote such classic novels as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, “The Lottery.”  Her work continues to be a major influence on writers of every kind of fiction, from the most traditional genre offerings to the most innovative literary work.

The 2013 Shirley Jackson Awards will be presented on Sunday, July 13, 2014, at Readercon 25, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts.

 

* Where a conflict of interest arises for a juror, the juror recuses himself/herself from voting for the particular work.