2011 Shirley Jackson Awards Short-list

For the past six months I’ve been serving on the jury of the Shirley Jackson Awards. It’s been time-consuming and far more work than I anticipated, but it’s also been richly rewarding. I’ve enjoyed reading extensively across the fields of dark fantasy and horror, I’ve discovered new authors, and developed a deeper appreciation for firm favourites.

At last, the 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees has been announced:

NOVEL

• The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday)
• The Dracula Papers, Reggie Oliver (Chômu Press)
• The Great Lover, Michael Cisco (Chômu Press)
• Knock Knock, S. P. Miskowski (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan (Canongate Books, Ltd.)
• Witches on the Road Tonight, Sheri Holman (Grove Press)

NOVELLA

• “And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living,” Deborah Biancotti (Ishtar, Gilgamesh Press)
• “A Child’s Problem,” Reggie Oliver (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• “Displacement,” Michael Marano (Stories from the Plague Years, Cemetery Dance Publications)
• The Men Upstairs, Tim Waggoner (Delirium Books)
• “Near Zennor,” Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• “Rose Street Attractors,” Lucius Shepard (Ghosts by Gaslight, Harper Voyager)

NOVELETTE

• “The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine,” Peter Straub (Conjunctions 56)
• “Ditch Witch,” Lucius Shepard (Supernatural Noir, Dark Horse)
• “The Last Triangle,” Jeffrey Ford (Supernatural Noir, Dark Horse)
• “Omphalos,” Livia Llewellyn (Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, Lethe Press)
• “The Summer People,” Kelly Link (Tin House 49/Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, Candlewick Press)

SHORT FICTION

• “Absolute Zero,” Nadia Bulkin (Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters, Prime Books)
• “The Corpse Painter’s Masterpiece,” M. Rickert (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept/Oct, 2011)
• “Hair,” Joan Aiken (The Monkey’s Wedding and Other Stories, Small Beer Press/ The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/Aug, 2011)
• “Max,” Jason Ockert (The Iowa Review 41)
• “Sunbleached,” Nathan Ballingrud (Teeth, HarperCollins)
• “Things to Know About Being Dead,” Genevieve Valentine (Teeth, HarperCollins)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

• After the Apocalypse: Stories, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press)
• The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares, Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)
• Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, Livia Llewellyn (Lethe Press)
• The Janus Tree, Glen Hirshberg (Subterranean Press)
• Red Gloves, Christopher Fowler (PS Publishing)
• What Wolves Know, Kit Reed (PS Publishing)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

• Blood and Other Cravings, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
• A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones (Jo Fletcher Books)
• Ghosts by Gaslight, edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (Harper Voyager)
• Supernatural Noir, edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse)
• Teeth, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (HarperCollins)
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Harper Voyager)

Congratulations to all the nominees!

The 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards will be presented on Sunday, July 15th at Readercon 23, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts. Shirley Jackson is the Memorial Guest of Honor. Readercon 23 Guests of Honor, Peter Straub and Caitlin R. Kiernan, will act as hosts.

I’d like to thank my fellow jurors Laird Barron, Matthew Cheney, Kaaron Warren, and Gary K. Wolfe for their insight and dedication, and in particular the Shirley Jackson Awards administrator JoAnn F. Cox, and Paul Tremblay who have been invaluable facilitating the awards and aiding the jury.