Nominations:
No More Haunted Dolls: Horror Fiction that Transcends the Tropes (Vernon Press), Non-fiction, 2024
BIO: Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar is a writer and associate English professor in Pennsylvania who teaches creative writing, composition, and composition theory courses. A former secondary English teacher in Delaware public schools, she received her Doctorate of Education with a Literacy Specialization from the University of Delaware and her MFA in Creative Writing with a focus on horror fiction from Wilkes University. She has curated and edited the multi-author volume on horror scholarship No More Haunted Dolls: Horror Fiction that Transcends the Tropes (Vernon Press, 2024) and the horror anthology Wicked Universe: A Wicked House Publishing Anthology (Wicked House Publishing, 2024). She has served as the fiction editor for River & South Review and is taking over as co-editor-in-chief and creative prose editor of Pennsylvania English.
Sachar has authored the Regal Summit Book Award-winning dark suspense novel Darkness There but Something More (Wicked House Publishing, 2024), the short horror story collection Keeper of Corpses and Other Dark Tales (Velox Books, 2024), the middle-grade mystery The Hidden Diary (Baynam Books Press, 2024), the horror novella Close the Door (Baynam Books Press, 2025), and the young adult thriller Lake of Secrets (Horrorsmith Publishing, 2025). A member of the Horror Writers Association, she has written dozens of short horror stories and essays that have appeared in publications including The Horror Zine, Wyldblood Magazine, HorrorAddicts.net, The Angry Gable, The Chamber Magazine, and Tales from the Moonlit Path. Read her work at https://cassandraosullivansachar.com/.
