The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the
Horror Writers Association
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a worldwide non-profit organization of professional writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting the interests of Horror and Dark fantasy writers.
Overview
HWA was formed in 1985 with t ...
(HWA) for "superior achievement" in
dark fantasy and
horror writing.
History
The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since 1988, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA. They are named after Irish horror writer
Bram Stoker, author of the novel ''
Dracula'', among others.
Several members of the HWA—including
Dean Koontz
Dean Ray Koontz (born July 9, 1945) is an American author. His novels are billed as Thriller (genre), suspense thrillers, but frequently incorporate elements of horror fiction, horror, fantasy, science fiction, Mystery fiction, mystery, and satir ...
—were reluctant to endorse such writing awards, fearing it would incite competitiveness rather than friendly admiration. The HWA therefore went to lengths to avoid mean-spirited competition, they agreed to specifically seek out new and neglected writers and works, and officially issue Awards not based on "best of the year" criteria, but "for superior achievement", which allows for ties.
Nominated works come from two different processes. Works can be recommended by any member of the HWA and a separate list of works is presented by a Jury for each category. Members with Active status then vote on works appearing on preliminary ballots. The field is thereby narrowed to the Final ballot; and Active members vote to choose the winners from that Final Ballot.
Winners of a Bram Stoker Award receive a statuette made by New York firm,
Society Awards
Society Awards is an American company best known for designing and manufacturing high-profile entertainment industry awards, including the Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, GLAAD Media Award, and YouTube Creator Awards, among others.
History
Societ ...
.
The terms Bram Stoker Award and Bram Stoker Awards are registered trademarks of the Horror Writers Association.
Categories
Current categories
As of 2021 year of eligibility, with the ceremony convened in 2022, the Bram Stoker Award is presented for "Superior Achievement" in the following categories:
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Novel (1987–)
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First Novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...
(1987–)
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Young Adult Novel
Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults.
The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...
(2011–)
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Graphic Novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
(2011–)
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Long Fiction (1998–)
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Short Fiction
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
(1998–)
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Anthology (1998–)
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Fiction Collection (1998–)
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Poetry Collection
A poetry collection is often a compilation of several Poetry, poems by one poet to be published in a single Volume (bibliography), volume or chapbook. A collection can include any number of poems, ranging from a few (e.g. the four long poems in ...
(2000–)
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Non-Fiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...
(1987–)
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Short Non-Fiction (2019–)
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Screenplay (1998–2004, 2011–)
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Lifetime Achievement
Lifetime achievement awards are awarded by various organizations, to recognize contributions over the whole of a career, rather than or in addition to single contributions.
Such awards, and organizations presenting them, include:
A
* A.C. ...
(1987–)
Discontinued categories
Discontinued categories include:
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Novelette (1987–1997)
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Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
(1987–1997)
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Collection (1987–1997)
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Work for Young Readers (1998–2004)
* Alternative Forms:
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Other Media (1993, 1998–2000)
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Alternative Forms (2001–2004)
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Illustrated Narrative (1998–2004)
Past winners
As of 2019,
Stephen King holds the record for both the most nominations (33) and wins (13).
Other past award winners include:
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Linda Addison
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Maria Alexander
Maria Elena Alexander is an American writer of horror and dark fantasy stories and poetry, best known for her award-winning novels ''Mr. Wicker'' and ''Snowed''.
Background and early career
Alexander was born in Hayward, California. She first ...
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Michael Arnzen
Michael A. Arnzen (born May 17, 1967) is an American horror writer. He has won the Bram Stoker Award three times.
Early life and education
Arnzen was born on May 17, 1967, in Amityville, New York. After a brief stint in the United States Army ...
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Clive Barker
Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...
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Laird Barron
Laird Samuel Barron (born 1970) is an American author and poet, much of whose work falls within the horror, noir, and dark fantasy genres. He has also been the managing editor of the online literary magazine '' Melic Review''. He lives in Ups ...
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Charles Beaumont
Charles Beaumont (January 2, 1929 – February 21, 1967) was an American author of speculative fiction, including short stories in the horror and science fiction subgenres.Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, "Beaumont, Charles" in David Pringle, ed., '' ...
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Robert Bloch
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Bruce Boston
Bruce Boston (born 1943) is an American speculative fiction writer and poet.
Early years
Bruce Boston was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California.Diane SeversonInterview with Bruce Boston''Amazing Stories'' March 15, 2013 (accessed S ...
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Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...
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Christopher Lee
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Gary A. Braunbeck
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Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awa ...
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Douglas Clegg
Douglas Clegg (born April 1, 1958) is an American horror and dark fantasy author, and a pioneer in the field of e-publishing. He maintains a strong Internet presence through his website.
Early life
Born in Alexandria, Virginia to a "family of ...
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Don Coscarelli
Don Coscarelli Jr. (born February 17, 1954) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born to Italian settlers in Libya, he is best known for his work in horror films. His directing credits include the first four films in the ' ...
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Ellen Datlow
Ellen Datlow (born December 31, 1949) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist. She is a winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award (Horror Writers Association).
Career
Datlow began her career ...
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Harlan Ellison
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Neil Gaiman
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David Gerrold
David Gerrold (born Jerrold David Friedman; January 24, 1944)Reginald, R. (September 12, 2010)''Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Volume 2'' Borgo Press p. 911. Archived at Google Books. Retrieved June 23, 2013. is an American science fic ...
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Owl Goingback
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Christopher Golden
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Rain Graves
Rain Graves is an author of horror, fantasy, science fiction and poetry. She is also a noted Wine Poet, commissioned and featured by winemakers and wineries, and the Creator and Hostess of the Haunted Mansion Writer's Retreat.
She is the 2002 B ...
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Thomas Harris
William Thomas Harris III (born 1940/1941) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, the most notab ...
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Joe Hill
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Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Nina Kiriki Hoffman (born March 20, 1955, in San Gabriel, California) is an American fantasy, science fiction and horror writer.
Profile
Hoffman started publishing short stories in 1975. Her first nationally published short story appeared in ' ...
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Nancy Holder
Nancy Holder (born August 29, 1953) is an American writer and the author of several novels, including numerous tie-in books based on the TV series '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. She's also written fiction related to several other science fiction ...
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Brian A. Hopkins
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Del Howison
Del Howison (born June 3, 1953) is an American horror author, editor and actor.
Life and career
Howison was born in Detroit, Michigan but moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting; with his distinctive long white hair, he was a natural ...
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Charlee Jacob
Nell Anne 'Charlee' Jacob (June 2, 1952 - July 14, 2019) was an American author specializing in horror fiction, dark fantasy, and poetry. Her writing career began in 1981 with the publication of several poems under the name Charlee Carter Broach. ...
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Stephen Jones
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Steven A. Katz
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Brian Keene
Brian Keene (born September 22, 1967) is an American author and podcaster, primarily known for his work in horror, dark fantasy, crime fiction, and comic books. He has won the 2014 World Horror Grandmaster Award and two Bram Stoker Awards. In a ...
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Jack Ketchum
Dallas William Mayr (November 10, 1946 – January 24, 2018), better known by his pen name Jack Ketchum, was an American horror fiction author. He was the recipient of four Bram Stoker Awards and three further nominations. His novels inclu ...
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Caitlin R. Kiernan
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Stephen King
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Michael Knost
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Kathe Koja
Kathe Koja (born 1960) is an American writer. She was initially known for her intense speculative fiction for adults, but has written young adult novels, the historical fiction ''Under the Poppy'' trilogy, and a fictional biography of Christoph ...
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Sarah Langan
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Joe R. Lansdale
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Richard Laymon
Richard Carl Laymon (January 14, 1947 – February 14, 2001) was an American author of suspense and horror fiction, particularly within the splatterpunk subgenre.
Life and career
Laymon was born and raised outside of Chicago, Illinois, then li ...
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Thomas Ligotti
Thomas Ligotti (born July 9, 1953) is an American horror writer. His writings are rooted in several literary genres – most prominently weird fiction – and have been described by critics as works of ''philosophical'' horror, often formed into ...
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Bentley Little
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Jonathan Maberry
Jonathan Maberry (born May 18, 1958) is an American suspense author, anthology editor, comic book writer, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. He was named one of the Today's Top Ten Horror Writers.
...
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George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels ''A Song ...
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Elizabeth Massie
Elizabeth Spilman Massie is an American author. She lives outside Waynesboro, Virginia with illustrator Cortney Skinner.
Career
Elizabeth Massie is a two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of horror novels and short fiction. She won the award ...
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Rena Mason
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Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.
He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science fictio ...
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Glen Mazzara
Glen Mazzara (born July 6, 1967) is an American television producer and writer. He is most well known for his work on ''The Shield'', '' The Walking Dead'' and '' Damien''.
Life and career
An Italian-American, Mazzara was born in Manhattan, N ...
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Robert McCammon
Robert Rick McCammon (born July 17, 1952) is an American novelist from Birmingham, Alabama. One of the influential names in the late 1970s–early 1990s American horror literature boom, by 1991 McCammon had three ''New York Times'' bestsellers (''T ...
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Thomas F. Monteleone
Thomas Francis Monteleone (born April 14, 1946) is an American science fiction author and horror fiction author."Monteleone, Thomas F(rancis)", by Don D'Ammassa in David Pringle, ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers''. London : S ...
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Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worke ...
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Alan Moore
Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including '' Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and '' From He ...
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David Morrell
David Morrell (born April 24, 1943) is a Canadian-American novelist whose debut 1972 novel ''First Blood'', later adapted as the 1982 film of the same name, went on to spawn the successful ''Rambo'' franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. He h ...
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Lisa Morton
Lisa Morton (born December 11, 1958) is an American horror author and screenwriter.
Biography
Morton was born in Pasadena, California, and entered the film industry in 1979 as a modelmaker on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In 1988 she co-wr ...
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Yvonne Navarro
Yvonne Navarro (born 1957 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American author who has published over twenty novels. Of those twenty, the titles ''AfterAge'', ''deadrush'', ''Final Impact'', ''Red Shadows'', ''DeadTimes'', ''That's Not My Name'' and ''M ...
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William F. Nolan
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Joyce Carol Oates
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Weston Ochse
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Norman Partridge
Norman Partridge (born May 28, 1958) is an American author of horror and mystery fiction. He has written two detective novels about retired boxer Jack Baddalach, ''Saguaro Riptide'' and ''The Ten Ounce Siesta''. He is also the author of a C ...
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Tom Piccirilli
Thomas Piccirilli (May 27, 1965 – July 11, 2015) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Career
Piccirilli sold over 150 stories in the mystery, thriller, horror, erotica, and science fiction fields. Some of his stories were include ...
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Alex Proyas
Alexander Proyas (; Greek: Αλέξανδρος Πρόγιας; born 23 September 1963) is an Australian filmmaker of Greek descent. Proyas is best known for directing the films '' The Crow'' (1994), '' Dark City'' (1998), ''I, Robot'' (2004), ...
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Alan Rodgers
Alan Rodgers (August 11, 1959 – March 8, 2014) was a science fiction and horror writer, editor, and poet. In the mid-eighties he was the editor for
''Night Cry''. His short stories have been published in a number of venues, including ''Weird ...
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Bruce Holland Rogers
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J. K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...
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Al Sarrantonio
Al Sarrantonio (born May 25, 1952) is an American horror and science fiction writer, editor and publisher who has authored more than 50 books and 90 short stories. He has also edited numerous anthologies and has been called "brilliant" and " ...
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John Shirley
John Shirley (born February 10, 1953) is an American writer, primarily of fantasy, science fiction, dark street fiction, westerns, and songwriting. He has also written one historical novel, a western about Wyatt Earp, ''Wyatt in Wichita'', and ...
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Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes wi ...
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Marge Simon
Marge Baliff Simon (born 1942) is an American artist and a writer of speculative poetry and fiction.
Biography
Early life
Marge Simon was born in Bethesda, Maryland, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado.
Education and career
She received her ...
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Lucy A. Snyder
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Peter Straub
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
*
Steve and
Melanie Tem
Melanie Tem (née Kubachko; April 11, 1949 – February 9, 2015) was an American horror and dark fantasy author.
Melanie Kubachko grew up in Saegertown, Pennsylvania. She attended Allegheny College as an undergraduate, and earned her master's ...
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Robert Weinberg
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Rocky Wood
Rocky Wood (19 October 1959 – 1 December 2014) was a New Zealand-born Australian writer and researcher best known for his books about horror author Stephen King. He was the first author from outside North America or Europe to hold the po ...
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EV Knight
References
External links
Official Website
{{Bram Stoker
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Bram Stoker Award
The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing.
History
The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since ...
Awards established in 1987