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If you love all things horror, psychological suspense, and dark fantasy or want to dip your toe into these arenas of literature, you’ll want to check out the winners of this year’s Shirley Jackson Awards. Presented July 13, the Shirley Jackson Awards are given to the best works from the prior year, as voted on by a jury of professional writers, editors, and critics.
The 2023 Shirley Jackson Awards were given out at Readercon 33, hosted by guests of honor Amal El-Mohtar and Rebecca Roanhorse.
The winners of the Shirley Jackson Awards this year are:
Finalists in the category included: Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt, The Daughters of Block Island by Christa Carmen, Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones, Every Version Ends in Death by Aliya Chaudhry, and The Militia House by John Milas.
Finalists in the category included: Broken Paradise by Eugen Bacon, Getting by in Tligolian by Roppotucha Greenberg, Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris, The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw, and Sleep Alone by J.A.W. McCarthy.
- Novelette: “Six Versions of My Brother Found Under the Bridge” by Eugenia Triantafyllou from Uncanny Magazine
Finalists in the category included: The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Amazon Original Stories), People Like Them by Minka Kent (Amazon Original Stories), The Pram by Joe Hill (Amazon Original Stories), “The Swan” by Lynn C. Pitts (from Infinite Constellations), “Vampire Fiction” by Michael Wehunt (from The Inconsolables), and “What’s He Building in There” by Cat Powell (from Fairy Tale Review: The Rainbow Issue)
- Short Fiction: “The First Mrs. Edward Rochester Would Like a Word” by Laura Blackwell (in Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic edited by Jolie Toomajan)
Finalists in the category included: “The Dizzy Room” by Kristina Ten (Adamant Press / Nightmare Magazine), “Invasion of the Baby Snatchers” by Lesley Nneka Arimah (Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror), Kazti Girls by Sciascia DeKay (The Fabulist), and “Something is Rotten” by Jo Kaplan (Shakespeare Unleashed).
Finalists in the category included: Drinking from Graveyard Wells: Stories by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Her Body Among Animals by Paola Ferrante, Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic by Tobi Ogundiran, and White Trash & Recycled Nightmares by Rebecca Rowland.
Finalists in the category included: Mooncalves edited by John WM Thompson, Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams, and Shakespeare Unleashed edited by James Aquilone.
In addition to the above-named categories and winners, Elizabeth Hand was given a special award which recognizes work promoting the legacy of Shirley Jackson for A Haunting on the Hill.
Find out more about this year’s Shirley Jackson Awards here,.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.