World Horror Convention

Award presentation will be 29 March 2008, during the 2008 World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City

(Move your mouse over the nomination for more information about the author.)

Superior Achievement in a Novel

THE GUARDENER'S TALE by Bruce Boston (Sam's Dot Publishing)

Bruce Boston is the author of more than forty books and chapbooks, including the novels Stained Glass Rain and The Guardener's Tale. His stories and poems have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Asimov's SF Magazine, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Dark Wisdom, Realms of Fantasy, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and the Nebula Awards Showcase, and received a number of awards, most notably, a Pushcart Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov's Readers' Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He lives in Ocala, Florida, with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon.

HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill (William Morrow)

Joe Hill is the author of the prize-winning story collection 20th Century Ghosts, and his stories have appeared in numerous journals and Year's Best collections. He lives in New England.

THE MISSING by Sarah Langan (Harper)

Sarah Langan lives in Brooklyn, got her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, and is currently pursuing her Master's in Environmental Toxicology. Her first novel, The Keeper, was a New York Time's editor's pick and Bram Stoker first novel nominee. She is currently at work on a third novel, Audrey's Door, and a collection of short stories. Her second novel, The Missing, has received the American Library Association Award, was a Publisher's Weekly and Fantasy Book Critic Favorite book of 2007, and won Dark Scribe's editor's award for novel of the year. She is delighted and honored that The Missing is on this year's Stoker Ballot.

THE WITCH'S TRINITY by Erika Mailman (Crown)

Born in Vermont, Erika Mailman is a graduate of Colby College and the masters poetry program at University of Arizona, Tucson. She now lives in Gilroy, California, with her husband and daughter. She was influenced by her bookworm childhood with a librarian mother and family that voraciously consumed books. The Witch's Trinity is a psychological horror story about a woman accused of witchcraft in medieval Germany-who isn't exactly sure she isn't a witch. While writing this book, Erika learned that her family was descended from a woman twice accused of witchcraft in 1600s Massachusetts-contrary to expectations, her ancestor was acquitted both times and died of natural causes in her eighties! Erika's first novel, Woman of Ill Fame, is about a Gold Rush prostitute.

THE TERROR by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown)

Dan Simmons has published 24 books since 1985, 21 of them novels -- including his 2007 New York Times Bestseller The Terror. His next scheduled novel is DROOD, to be published by Little, Brown in January of 2009. Dan lives in Colorado and likes it a lot.

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

I WILL RISE by Michael Louis Calvillo (Lachesis Publishing)

Michael Louis Calvillo writes dark fiction that defies convention. Taking cues from mainstream, genre and literary methods, Calvillo's work blends the three classifications into a funky amalgamation of stylistic prose, social commentary, unnerving horror and quirky, black humor. In addition to his burgeoning writing career, Mr. Calvillo loves his family (with passion), teaches high school English (with passion), plays video games (with passion), and is continually dreaming up new and diabolical ways in which to take over the world (with passion). I WILL RISE, his first novel, is currently on the loose. More are coming soon.

HEART-SHAPED BOX by Joe Hill (William Morrow)

Joe Hill is the author of the prize-winning story collection 20th Century Ghosts, and his stories have appeared in numerous journals and Year's Best collections. He lives in New England.

THE MEMORY TREE by John R. Little (Nocturne Press)

John R. Little is a Canadian writer, living near Vancouver. He's been publishing horror and dark fantasy short stories off and on since 1982. The Memory Tree was his first book. Subsequently, he published a novella, Placeholders, and has several new books in the pipeline now. He is very honored to be nominated for the Stoker this year.

THE HOLLOWER by Mary SanGiovanni (Leisure Books)

Mary SanGiovanni received a Masters in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in 2007. She is a member of various writing organizations, including the Horror Writers Association and the Garden State Horror Writers. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines since 2001. Mary's short story collection, Under Cover of Night, came out in 2002. Her first novel, The Hollower, came out in September 2007, and the sequel, Found You, is due out in late 2008 from Leisure Books. She lives in New Jersey with her son.

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

AFTERWARD, THERE WILL BE A HALLWAY by Gary A. Braunbeck (Five Strokes to Midnight)

Gary A. Braunbeck is the author of 10 novels and 10 short story collections, as well as 1 non-fiction book, and has co-edited 2 anthologies. His work has won both the International Horror Guild Award and the Horror Writers' Association Bram Stoker Award. He lives in Columbus, OH with his wife, author Lucy A. Snyder, and 5 cats who have no qualms about drawing blood when he forgets to feed them. His upcoming novel from Leisure Books, Coffin County, will be the 7th novel to be set in his fictional town of Cedar Hill.

ALMOST THE LAST STORY BY ALMOST THE LAST MAN by Scott Edelman (Postscripts)

Scott Edelman (the writer) has published almost 75 short stories in magazines such as The Twilight Zone, Absolute Magnitude, The Journal of Pulse-Pounding Narratives, Science Fiction Review and Fantasy Book, and anthologies such as Crossroads: Southern Tales of the Fantastic, Men Writing SF as Women, MetaHorror, Once Upon a Galaxy, Moon Shots, Mars Probes, A Dark and Deadly Valley and Forbidden Planets. Upcoming stories will appear in the anthology The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three and the magazine PostScripts. This marks his third time as a Stoker Award finalist. Scott Edelman (the editor) currently edits both Science Fiction Weekly, the internet magazine of news, reviews and interviews, and SCI FI, the official print magazine of the SCI FI Channel. He was the founding editor of Science Fiction Age, which he edited during its entire eight-year run from 1992 through 2000. He also edited Sci-Fi Entertainment for almost four years, as well as two other sf media magazines, Sci-Fi Universe and Sci-Fi Flix. He has been a four-time Hugo Award finalist for Best Editor.

GENERAL SLOCUM'S GOLD by Nicholas Kaufmann (Burning Effigy Press)

Nicholas Kaufmann is the critically acclaimed author of General Slocum's Gold (Burning Effigy Press) and the collection Walk in Shadows (Prime Books, out of print). His fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 3, City Slab, The Best American Erotica 2007, Playboy and the forthcoming Shivers V and X: An Erotic Treasury. His non-fiction has appeared in On Writing Horror (Writers Digest Books), Annabelle Magazine, Fantastic Metropolis, FearZone, FeoAmante.com, Hellnotes and others. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

THE TENTH MUSE by William Browning Spencer

William Browning Spencer is a novelist and short-story writer. He has published four novels and two collections of short stories. His novel Résumé With Monsters won the International Horror Critics Guild Award for Best Novel in 1995. He has been reviewed at length in The New York Times Book Review, The L.A. Times, The Washington Post Book World and numerous other newspapers and magazines. His last three books, the latest of which is the short-story collection The Ocean and All Its Devices, have all received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly. He lives in Austin, Texas, and has done so since 1990—except for a brief nine-month stint in the small town of Lexington, Missouri.

AN APIARY OF WHITE BEES by Lee Thomas (Inferno)

Lee Thomas is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Stained, Parish Damned (Telos), Damage (Sarob), and The Dust of Wonderland (Alyson). In addition to numerous magazines, his short fiction has appeared in the anthologies A Walk on the Darkside (Roc), The Book of Final Flesh (Eden Studios), and Inferno (Tor), among others. Writing as Thomas Pendleton, he is the co-author (with Stefan Petrucha) of Wicked Dead (HarperTeen), a series of edgy horror novels for the young adult market. His novels, Mason, Blood Runs Cold, and Demon Unleashed are also forthcoming from HarperCollins.

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

THE DEATH WAGON ROLLS ON BY by C. Dean Andersson (Cemetery Dance #57)

C. Dean Andersson is an internationally published writer whose work includes horror novels such as I Am Dracula, Raw Pain Max, and Torture Tomb. His heroic fantasy trilogy, Warrior Witch, Warrior Rebel, and Warrior Beast, introduced the Scandinavian warrior woman Bloodsong, published first in English language editions then Russian language hardbacks. With diverse degrees in physics-astronomy and art, he has worked as a professional artist and television graphics designer, dance band drummer, orchestral percussionist, robotics programmer, and computer mainframe technical writer.

LETTING GO by John Everson (Needles and Sins)

John Everson is the author of the dark fiction collection Needles & Sins (Necro Publications, 2007) and the novels Sacrifice (Delirium Books, 2007) and Covenant (Delirium Books, 2004), the winner of a Bram Stoker Award for First Novel. Both novels will be released in mass market paperback from Leisure Books in 2008/2009. A Polish translation of Covenant was also issued by Poland's Red Horse Books as Demoniczne Przymierze in late summer 2007. In addition to writing, John creates occasional bookcovers for Delirium Books and is the co-founder of Dark Arts Books.

THE TEACHER by Paul G. Tremblay (Chizine)

Paul G. Tremblay has sold over fifty short stories to markets such as Razor Magazine, CHIZINE, Weird Tales, Last Pentacle of the Sun: Writings in Support of the West Memphis Three, and Horror: The Year's Best 2007. He is the author of the short speculative fiction collection Compositions for the Young and Old and the hard-boiled/dark fantasy novella City Pier: Above and Below. He served as fiction editor of CHIZINE and as co-editor of Fantasy Magazine, and was also the co-editor (with Sean Wallace) of the Fantasy and Bandersnatch anthologies. His first novel, The Little Sleep, is forthcoming (February 2009) from Henry Holt. Paul is very truthful and declarative in his bios. He once gained three inches of height in a single twelve hour period, and he does not have a uvula. His second toe is longer than his big toe, and yes, on both feet. He has a master's degree in mathematics, teaches AP Calculus, and once made twenty-seven three pointers in a row. He enjoys reading The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher aloud in a faux-British accent to his two children. He is also reading this bio aloud, now, with the same accent. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts and he is represented by Stephen Barbara of the Donald Maass agency.

THERE'S NO LIGHT BETWEEN FLOORS by Paul G. Tremblay (Clarkesworld)

Paul G. Tremblay has sold over fifty short stories to markets such as Razor Magazine, CHIZINE, Weird Tales, Last Pentacle of the Sun: Writings in Support of the West Memphis Three, and Horror: The Year's Best 2007. He is the author of the short speculative fiction collection Compositions for the Young and Old and the hard-boiled/dark fantasy novella City Pier: Above and Below. He served as fiction editor of CHIZINE and as co-editor of Fantasy Magazine, and was also the co-editor (with Sean Wallace) of the Fantasy and Bandersnatch anthologies. His first novel, The Little Sleep, is forthcoming (February 2009) from Henry Holt. Paul is very truthful and declarative in his bios. He once gained three inches of height in a single twelve hour period, and he does not have a uvula. His second toe is longer than his big toe, and yes, on both feet. He has a master's degree in mathematics, teaches AP Calculus, and once made twenty-seven three pointers in a row. He enjoys reading The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher aloud in a faux-British accent to his two children. He is also reading this bio aloud, now, with the same accent. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts and he is represented by Stephen Barbara of the Donald Maass agency.

CLOSET DREAMS by Lisa Tuttle (Postscripts #10)

Lisa Tuttle has been a professional writer since the 1970s. She is the author of seven novels -- most recently The Silver Bough (Bantam) -- and five short story collections, two of which are available as e-books (My Pathology and Ghosts and Other Lovers). Her collected horror and supernatural stories are due to be published in the near future by the Ash-Tree Press. Born in Texas, she now lives in the highlands of Scotland.

THE GENTLE BRUSH OF WINGS by David Niall Wilson (Defining Moments)

David Niall Wilson has been writing speculative fiction, horror, and dark fantasy since the mid 1980s. He has fourteen novels sold, over 150 short stories in magazines, anthologies, and collections, and one screenplay produced, Godhead. His novels include This is My Blood, Deep Blue, The Mote in Andrea's Eye, and most recently Ancient Eyes, released in 2007 from Bloodletting Press. His short stories have been collected several times, most recently in the Sarob Press collection Defining Moments. David is an ordained minister, Bram Stoker Award winning poet, ex-president of The Horror Writer's Association, and a retired US Navy veteran. He lives and loves in the Historic William R. White House in Hertford, NC with the love of his life, and Bram Stoker Award winning editor / author Patricia Lee Macomber, their kids, pets, and dreams - right on the edge of The Great Dismal Swamp.

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

FIVE STROKES TO MIDNIGHT edited by Gary A. Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble (Haunted Pelican Press)

Gary A. Braunbeck is the author of 10 novels and 10 short story collections, as well as 1 non-fiction book, and has co-edited 2 anthologies. His work has won both the International Horror Guild Award and the Horror Writers' Association Bram Stoker Award. He lives in Columbus, OH with his wife, author Lucy A. Snyder, and 5 cats who have no qualms about drawing blood when he forgets to feed them. His upcoming novel from Leisure Books, Coffin County, will be the 7th novel to be set in his fictional town of Cedar Hill.

Hank Schwaeble is a practicing attorney living in Houston, Texas, and a former Air Force officer and special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Hank obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and earned his Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt Law School. While in law school, he was an associate editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and the recipient of several American Jurisprudence Awards. He also graduated first in his class from the Defense Language Institute's Japanese Language Course and prior to that was a distinguished graduate from the Air Force Special Investigations Academy. In college, Hank studied creative writing under Padgett Powell as an undergraduate at UF and modern horror under Professor James Twitchell. He has served as co-chairman of the Stoker Committee for the HWA for three years. His first published story, "Mugwumps," appeared in the Bram Stoker-Award nominated anthology, Alone on the Darkside in 2006. Three of his short stories appear in Five Strokes to Midnight, the anthology he co-edited with Gary Braunbeck and for which he is currently a nominee. Hank will be an instructor at the Pen to Press Writers Retreat this May in New Orleans.

INFERNO edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)

Ellen Datlow was editor of SCI FICTION, the multi award- winning fiction area of SCIFI.COM, for almost six years, the editor of Event Horizon: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror for one and a half years, and fiction editor of OMNI for over seventeen years. She has edited or co-edited over fifty reprint and original anthologies, including the horror half of the ongoing The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. She has won eight World Fantasy Awards, The International Horror Guild Award, the Locus Award for Best Editor in 2005, 2006,and 2007 and the Hugo Award for Best Editor in 2002 and 2005. In addition, SCIFICTION won the Hugo Award for best Web site in 2005 as well as the Wooden Rocket award as best online magazine for 2005. Ellen was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre." She has taught at the Clarion, Clarion West, and Clarion South writing workshops plus other, less formal workshops. She lives in New York City.

DARK DELICACIES 2: FEAR edited by Del Howison & Jeff Gelb (Carroll & Graf/Avalon)

As a former photojournalist, Del Howison has written articles for a variety of publications including Rue Morgue and Gauntlet Magazine along with a foreword for the Wildside Press edition of Varney the Vampyre. His short stories have appeared in many anthologies. His latest project was The Book of Lists: Horror which he co-edited with Amy Wallace and Scott Bradley. The book is due to be released by Harper Collins in September. Jeff Gelb is the editor or co-editor of 21 mystery and horror anthologies, including: Hot Blood (Pocket, Kensington): 13 volumes strong, including multiple foreign editions; optioned for television; books have included works by Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Block, Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Grant Morrison, and hundreds of others Shock Rock (Pocket): 2 volumes, included new work by Stephen King; multiple foreign editions and optioned for television. Flesh & Blood (Warner): 3 volumes co-edited with Max Allan Collins Fear Itself (Warner Books): one volume, included new work by Joyce Carol Oates Dark Delicacies (Carroll & Graf): two volumes of anthology series of modern horror fiction by the world's top horror writers, including Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, Max Brooks, Whitley Streiber, Joe Lansdale He's also the author of the original horror novel Specters (1988, Bart Books) and has written many short stories for other anthologies. He also wrote Bettie Page Comics from Dark Horse edited by Dave Stevens

MIDNIGHT PREMIERE edited by Tom Piccirilli (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Tom Piccirilli is the author of twenty novels including The Cold Spot, The Midnight Road, and A Choir of Ill Children. He's a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, and has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, the International Thriller Writers Award, and Le Grand Prix de L'Imaginaire.

AT EASE WITH THE DEAD edited by Barbara & Christopher Roden (Ash-Tree Press)

Barbara Roden was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and is one-half of Ash-Tree Press, which has, to date, published more than 130 books in the field of classic supernatural fiction, and which was the recipient of a World Fantasy Award in 1997. In 2004 she co-edited Acquainted With the Night, which was nominated for a Stoker Award and which won the International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards for Best Anthology. She co-edits All Hallows, the journal of the Ghost Story Society, and edits Canadian Holmes, the journal of the Bootmakers of Toronto. In 2005 her short story 'Northwest Passage' was nominated for a Stoker, an IHG, and a World Fantasy Award.

Christopher Roden was born in Stourbridge, West Midlands and in 1989 founded the Arthur Conan Doyle Society; in 1992 he edited two volumes of The Oxford Sherlock Holmes for Oxford University Press. He is one-half of Ash-Tree Pres, which was awarded a Special Award for Excellence in Small Press Publishing by the Board of Trustees of the Horror Writers Association. He is co-editor of All Hallows, and one of the editors of the Stoker-nominated anthology Acquainted With the Night, which won the IHG and World Fantasy Awards for Best Anthology. At Ease With the Dead is the fourth anthology of new supernatural fiction he has co-edited.

Superior Achievement in a Collection

PROVERBS FOR MONSTERS by Michael A. Arnzen (Dark Regions Press)

Michael Arnzen has been publishing horror since 1989, and a sampling of his best fiction and poetry from the past two decades appears in this year's Stoker award finalist for Fiction Collection, Proverbs For Monsters (Dark Regions Press). He presently holds three Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for such eclectic works as his first novel, Grave Markings, his poetry collection, Freakcidents, and his darkly funny e-newsletter, The Goreletter. His latest works include The Bitchfight (a novella from Bad Moon Books), 100 Jolts (re-released in an expanded hardcover from Raw Dog Screaming Press), and Audiovile (an audio cd set to creepy music, also from RDSP). Arnzen is an Associate Professor at Seton Hill University, where he teaches graduate studies in Writing Popular Fiction. He is currently working on a scholarly book on horror iconography in mass culture, called The Popular Uncanny (Guide Dog Books).

THE IMAGO SEQUENCE by Laird Barron (Night Shade Books

Laird Barron's work has appeared in places such as The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, SCIFICTION, Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, and The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy. It has also been reprinted in numerous year's best anthologies. His debut collection, The Imago Sequence, was recently published by Night Shade. Mr. Barron is an expatriate Alaskan currently at large in Washington State.

OLD DEVIL MOON by Christopher Fowler (Serpent's Tail)

Christopher Fowler is an award-winning novelist best known for his sinister urban fiction. He has written seventeen novels and over 120 horror stories in ten collections. He is the author of the Bryant & May dark mystery series. He lives in King's Cross, London.

5 STORIES by Peter Straub (Borderlands)

Peter Straub is the author of seventeen novels, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. They include Ghost Story, Koko, Mr. X, In the Night Room, and two collaborations with Stephen King, The Talisman and Black House. He has written two volumes of poetry and two collections of short fiction, and he edited the Library of America's edition of H. P. Lovecraft's Tales. He has won the British Fantasy Award, seven Bram Stoker Awards, two International Horror Guild Awards, and two World Fantasy Awards. In 1998, he was named Grand Master at the World Horror Convention. In 2006, he was given the HWA's Life Achievement Award. In 2008, he was given the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award by Poets & Writers.

DEFINING MOMENTS by David Niall Wilson (Sarob Press)

David Niall Wilson has been writing speculative fiction, horror, and dark fantasy since the mid 1980s. He has fourteen novels sold, over 150 short stories in magazines, anthologies, and collections, and one screenplay produced, Godhead. His novels include This is My Blood, Deep Blue, The Mote in Andrea's Eye, and most recently Ancient Eyes, released in 2007 from Bloodletting Press. His short stories have been collected several times, most recently in the Sarob Press collection Defining Moments. David is an ordained minister, Bram Stoker Award winning poet, ex-president of The Horror Writer's Association, and a retired US Navy veteran. He lives and loves in the Historic William R. White House in Hertford, NC with the love of his life, and Bram Stoker Award winning editor / author Patricia Lee Macomber, their kids, pets, and dreams - right on the edge of The Great Dismal Swamp.

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction

ENCYCLOPEDIA HORRIFICA by Joshua Gee (Scholastic)

By day, Joshua Gee edits terrifying books and interactive content aimed at readers of all ages. By night, he is Chief Investigator of the Unexplained at a secure, undisclosed location somewhere in New York City. Investigator Gee revealed his ghastly findings for the first time in the critically acclaimed Encyclopedia Horrifica: The Terrifying TRUTH! About Vampires, Ghosts, Monsters, and More (Scholastic Inc.).

THE PORTABLE OBITUARY: HOW THE FAMOUS, RICH, AND POWERFUL REALLY DIED by Michael Largo (Harper)

Michael Largo is the author of Portable Obituary: How the Famous, Rich and Powerful Really Died (HarperCollins). His last book, Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die (HarperCollins) received a 2006 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction. He currently lives in North Georgia, and finishing his next book to be released in Sept 08, Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages.

THE CRYPTOPEDIA: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer (Citadel Press / Kensington)

Jonathan Maberry is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author, writing teacher and motivational speaker.  His novels include Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man's Song and Bad Moon Rising (Pinnacle Books); and Patient Zero (due from St. Martins Press in '09).  His nonfiction works include Vampire Univers (2006), The Cryptopedia (2007), Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead (2008), and They Bite! (2009), all Citadel Press. Jonathan has sold more than 1100 articles, twenty nonfiction books, six novels, as well as short stories, poetry, song lyrics, video scripts, and two plays.  Jonathan is a speaker for the National Writers Union, an active member of ITW (International Thriller Writers), MWA (Mystery Writers of America), HWA (Horror Writers Association) and SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America). Jonathan is frequent writers conference speaker and has appeared at PennWriters, PhilCon, HorrorFind, BackSpace, Monster Mania, Philadelphia Writers Conference The World Horror Convention, the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Conference, LunaCon, University of Pennsylvania Writers Conference, and others.  In 2008 will be keynote speaker at the Write Stuff and Sisters in Crime (New Jersey); and will be a featured speaker at PennWriters and other events.   Jonathan is a founding partner of The Writers Corner USA, a writers' education center in Doylestown, PA. He is a founding member of The Liars Club, a group of professional authors.

David F. Kramer is a long time newspaper and magazine writer, editor and web designer who lives in Philadelphia. A devotee of things dark and macabre, he has written extensively about horror fact, fiction, comics, film and music. In 1990, he created the underground magazine Reaper's Harvest, which enjoyed an international readership.

STORYTELLERS UNPLUGGED by Joe Nassise and David Niall Wilson (Storytellers Unplugged)

Joe Nassise is an internationally bestselling writer, a podcaster, and a life and creativity coach. His work has been nominated for both the Bram Stoker Award and the International Horror Guild Award, it has been translated into Italian, German, Russian, and Chinese, and his latest trilogy, The Templar Chronicles, was just optioned for Hollywood production. He also dabbles in comics and the rpg industry. He is a former president of the Horror Writers Association and a current Trustee of the same.

David Niall Wilson has been writing speculative fiction, horror, and dark fantasy since the mid 1980s. He has fourteen novels sold, over 150 short stories in magazines, anthologies, and collections, and one screenplay produced, Godhead. His novels include This is My Blood, Deep Blue, The Mote in Andrea's Eye, and most recently Ancient Eyes, released in 2007 from Bloodletting Press. His short stories have been collected several times, most recently in the Sarob Press collection Defining Moments. David is an ordained minister, Bram Stoker Award winning poet, ex-president of The Horror Writer's Association, and a retired US Navy veteran. He lives and loves in the Historic William R. White House in Hertford, NC with the love of his life, and Bram Stoker Award winning editor / author Patricia Lee Macomber, their kids, pets, and dreams - right on the edge of The Great Dismal Swamp.

Superior Achievement in Poetry

BEING FULL OF LIGHT, INSUBSTANTIAL by Linda Addison (Space and Time)

Linda D. Addison, author of Being Full of Light, Insubstantial (Space & Time Books) was the first African-American to receive the HWA Bram Stoker Award (2001) and the only author with fiction in three landmark anthologies that celebrate African-Americans speculative writers: the award-winning anthology Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction (Warner Aspect), Dark Dreams (Kensington), and Dark Thirst (Pocket Book).

HERESY by Charlee Jacob (Bedlam Press [Necro Publications])

Charlee Jacob has published some sixteen years in the horror and fantasy genres. Her publishing credits include more than 700 poemsand around 240 stories. Her novels include This Symbiotic Fascination, Haunter, Vestal, and her novel Dread in the Beast won the Bram Stoker award for best novel of 2005. The same year her poetry collection Sineater won the Bram Stoker for best poetry collection.

VECTORS: A WEEK IN THE DEATH OF A PLANET by Charlee Jacob & Marge Simon (Dark Regions Press)

Charlee Jacob has published some sixteen years in the horror and fantasy genres. Her publishing credits include more than 700 poemsand around 240 stories. Her novels include This Symbiotic Fascination, Haunter, Vestal, and her novel Dread in the Beast won the Bram Stoker award for best novel of 2005. The same year her poetry collection Sineater won the Bram Stoker for best poetry collection.

Marge Ballif Simon free lances as a writer-poet-illustrator for genre and mainstream publications such as From the Asylum, Chizine, The Pedestal Magazine, Strange Horizons, Flashquake, Aeon, Vestal Review, Flash Me Magazine, more. Books in 2007: a self-illustrated flash fiction collection, Like Birds in the Rain, Sam's Dot Publications and (also self-illustrated) Night Smoke, with Bruce Boston, Kelp Queen Publications. Her self illustrated poetry collection, Artist of Antithesis, was finalist for a Bram Stoker award in 2004. Her collaborative poetry collection with Charlee Jacob, VECTORS: A Week in the Death of a Planet is contending for this year's Stoker. Marge is a Rhysling winner, and has been in the winner's circle twice recently for poetry at Balticon. She is former president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and now serves as editor of Star*Line. She and her husband, Bruce Boston, live in Ocala, FL, "The City of Trees".

PHANTASMAPEDIA by Mark McLaughlin (Dead Letter Press)

Mark McLaughlin is the sort of creature old Hungarian women whisper about in vintage horror movies. His work has appeared in such prestigious magazines and anthologies as Horror Garage, Cemetery Dance, Flesh & Blood, Black Gate, Midnight Premiere, Dark Arts, all three volumes of the Book of All Flesh anthology series, and two volumes each of The Best of the Rest, The Best of Horrorfind, and The Year's Best Horror Stories (DAW Books). Collections of his fiction include Slime After Slime, Pickman's Motel, and Motivational Shrieker from Delirium Books, and At the Foothills of Frenzy (with co-authors Shane Ryan Staley and Brian Knight) from Solitude Publications. Also, he is the co-author, with Rain Graves and David Niall Wilson, of The Gossamer Eye, which won a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry. In July 2008, Corrosion Press, a division of Delirium Books, will release Monster Behind the Wheel, a novel of rollicking horror by Mark McLaughlin and Michael McCarty.

OSSUARY by JoSelle Vanderhooft  (Sam's Dot Publishing)

JoSelle Vanderhooft is the author of several poetry collections, including The Minotaur's Last Letter to His Mother (Ash Phoenix), the Stoker-nominated Ossuary (Sam's Dot Publishing), Desert Songs (Cross-Cultural Communications, 2008), Tales Twice Told (Sam's Dot Publishing, 2008), Fathers, Daughters, Ghosts and Monsters (VanZeno Press) and Death Masks (Papaveria Press, 2008), the novels The Tale of the Miller's Daughter (Papaveria Press) and Owl Skin (Papaveria Press, 2008) and a collection of short stories from Drollerie Press to be released in 2008. Her poetry and fiction has appeared online and in print in a number of publications, including Cabinet des Fees, Star*Line, Mythic Delirium, Mythic, Jabberwocky, The Seventh Quarry and several others. She lives with her family and four catankerous kities in Salt Lake City, Utah.