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HWA Announces the 2025 Specialty Awards

Columbus, OH – The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Specialty Awards. These will be presented on June 14, 2025, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2025 in Stamford, CT.

Specialty Press Award

The recipient of the Specialty Press Award is Mocha Memoirs Press.

The HWA Specialty Press Award is presented periodically to a specialty publisher whose work has substantially contributed to the horror genre, whose publications display general excellence, and whose dealings with authors have been fair and exemplary.

The award was instituted in 1997, largely due to the efforts of long-time HWA member and specialty press aficionado, Peter Crowther.

Congratulations, Mocha Memoirs Press!

Nicole Givens Kurtz is the founder and publisher of Mocha Memoirs Press, a traditional publishing specializing in amplifying marginalized voices in speculative fiction. Her press has published groundbreaking anthologies such as SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire and Blackened Roots: An Anthology of the Undead. Mocha Memoirs is renowned for their progressive work in Black women in horror and continues to push the boundaries of intersectionality in speculative fiction.

Mocha Memoirs Press aims to create opportunities for voices that have traditionally been shut out of mainstream publishing. Our team is also primarily women and non-binary people, and we strive to foster an inclusive environment for both staff and authors. She’s a member of both the African-American and LGBTQIA+ communities. Nicole seeks to provide stories unavailable when she was a child. Overall, Mocha Memoirs Press is driven by a determination to increase representation one story at a time.

The Richard Laymon President’s Award

The recipient of the Richard Laymond President’s Award for Service is Maxwell I. Gold.

The Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service was instituted in 2001 and is named in honor of Richard Laymon, who died in 2001 while serving as HWA’s President. As its name implies, it is given by HWA’s sitting President.

The award is presented to a volunteer who has served the HWA in an especially exemplary manner and has shown extraordinary dedication to the organization.

Congratulations to Maxwell!

Maxwell I. Gold is a Jewish-American author and poet with an extensive body of work comprising over 350 poems since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genre. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Maxwell’s work has been recognized with multiple nominations including the Eric Hoffer Award, Pushcart Prize, and Bram Stoker Awards. Find him and his work at www.thewellsoftheweird.com.

The Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award

The recipient of the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award is Jonathan Lees.

In 2022, the Horror Writers Association renamed the Silver Hammer Award to the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award in honor of the tremendous amount of work Karen did starting the HWA.

Our physical award has also been updated. Instead of a hammer, a new stylized sculpture has been designed and cast by the same company that mints our Bram Stoker Award statues. We look forward to sharing the new design at StokerCon2023.

The HWA periodically gives the Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award to an HWA volunteer who has done a truly massive amount of work for the organization, often unsung and behind the scenes. It was instituted in 1996 and is decided by a vote of HWA’s Board of Trustees.
The award is so named because it represents the careful, steady, continuous work of building HWA’s “house”—the many institutional systems that keep the organization functioning on a day-to-day basis.

Congratulations to Jonathan!

In addition to creating strategies and video series for media outlets, ranging from Complex Media to TIDAL, Jonathan Lees has spent decades championing independent cinema and filmmakers through his work with the New York Underground Film Festival, Troma, Tribeca Film, Anthology Film Archives, and now with the Final Frame Horror Short Film Competition at StokerCon. After twenty-five years working in NYC, he has apparated to the Hudson Valley to explore more personal rituals by inscribing arcane texts for grimoires such as Long Division [Bad Hand Books], Fear of Clowns [Kangas Kahn Publishing], Even In The Grave [eSpec Books], The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors [Bad Hand Books],and Other Terrors [Harper Collins].

Mentor of the Year Award

The recipient of the Mentor of the Year Award is Gretchen McNeil.

The HWA’s Mentor Program is available to all members of the organization. This popular program pairs newer writers with established professionals for an intensive four-month-long partnership. For new writers, the Program offers mentees a personal, one-on-one experience with a seasoned writer, tailor-made to help them grow in their writing and better market their work. For experienced writers, it is an opportunity to pay forward the assistance and encouragement other writers gave them when they were starting out. In addition, there is the added benefit of growing as a writer oneself through the act of teaching others. In short, the Program benefits all who participate, regardless of their roles.

Established in 2014, the Mentor of the Year Award recognizes one mentor in the Program who has done an outstanding job of helping new writers. The award is chosen by the current manager of the Program.

Congratulations to Gretchen!

Gretchen McNeil is the author of thirteen young adult novels for Disney*Hyperion and HarperCollins including the horror/comedy #MURDERTRENDING—the #1 YALSA Teens’ Top Ten pick for 2019—TEN, which was adapted as the film Ten: Murder Island for Lifetime, and the Get Even series which was adapted as the series Get Even and Rebel Cheer Squad: a Get Even series for the BBC and Netflix. Gretchen’s adult horror debut THEY FEAR NOT MEN IN THE WOODS hits shelves on September 9, 2025 from DAW Books.  


About the Horror Writers Association

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. Founded in the late 1980s, it now has close to 2000 members around the world and is the oldest and most respected professional organization for creators of horror fiction. The HWA encourages public interest in and appreciation of horror and dark fantasy literature and hosts an annual professional conference, StokerCon. HWA is also dedicated to recognizing and promoting diversity in the horror genre and practices a strict anti-harassment policy at all of its events. Please direct any questions regarding these awards to the Vice President of HWA. For more information about the Horror Writers Association, please visit https://horror.org/.

For more information about the Bram Stoker Awards® and our other awards, please visit http://www.thebramstokerawards.com.

The 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Winners

Columbus, OH – The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its Lifetime Achievement Award. These will be presented on June 14, 2025, during the Bram Stoker Awards® Presentation at StokerCon®2025 in Stamford, CT.

The recipients of the HWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2025 are:

Del and Sue Howison, Dame Susan Hill, and David Cronenberg.

Del Howison is an author, journalist, SAG actor including a cameo in the upcoming horror film Big Babyproduced by Cher and directed by Spider One.He is a Bram Stoker Award-winning editor of the anthology Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre by the World’s Greatest Horror Writers. He has written articles for Fear.net,Gauntlet Magazine, and Writers Digest among others.Del’s short story Cul-de-Sac appeared in Weird Tales Magazine #369. His western short story The Lost Herd was turned into the premiere (and highest rated) episode, The Sacrifice, for the series Fear Itself. His dark western novel The Survival of Margaret Thomas was shortlisted for the Peacemaker Award given out by the Western Fictioneers. He has been shortlisted for over half a dozen awards including the Shirley Jackson Award and the Black Quill. Del’s retrospective short story compilation of dark tales, What Fresh Hell Is This?,was released in March of 2025. He is the cofounder and owner (with his wife, Sue) of Dark Delicacies, a book and gift store known as “The Home of Horror,” located in Burbank, California. The store won the “Il Posto Nero” award from Italy and has been inducted into the Rondo Hatton Hall of Fame.

Sue Howison is co-creator, with Del Howison, and COO of Dark Delicacies®. She and Del were business partners prior to their marriage. Sue is the main person responsible for deciding what stock to carry; lining up such diverse events as signings, memorials, weddings, and entertainment; as well as handling all charity happenings and donations. Her 30+ years working in horror has left an indelible impression on the genre. She and Del continue to work together in horror to this day.

Dame Susan Elizabeth Hill, Lady Wells DBE is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black, which has been adapted for stage and screen, The Mist in the Mirror, and I’m the King of the Castle, for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971. She also won the Whitebread Novel Award in 1972 for The Bird of Night, which was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honors and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honors, both for services to literature.

David Cronenberg is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981),Videodrome(1983) and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films.

Cronenberg’s films have polarized critics and audiences alike; he has earned critical acclaim and has sparked controversy for his depictions of gore and violence.The Village Voicecalled him “the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world”. His films have won numerous awards, including the Special Jury Prize forCrash at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, a unique award that is distinct from the Jury Prize as it is not given annually, but only at the request of the official jury, who in this case gave the award “for originality, for daring, and for audacity”.

Seven of his films were selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, the most recent beingThe Shrouds(2024), which was screened at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented periodically to an individual whose work has substantially influenced the horror genre. While this award is often presented to a writer, it may also be given for influential accomplishments in other creative fields.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious of all awards presented by HWA. It does not merely honor the superior achievement embodied in a single work. Instead, it is an acknowledgment of superior achievement in an entire career.

About the Horror Writers Association

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. Founded in the late 1980s, it now has close to 2000 members around the world and is the oldest and most respected professional organization for creators of horror fiction. The HWA encourages public interest in and appreciation of horror and dark fantasy literature and hosts an annual professional conference, StokerCon. HWA is also dedicated to recognizing and promoting diversity in the horror genre and practices a strict anti-harassment policy at all of its events. Please direct any questions regarding these awards to the Vice President of HWA. For more information about the Horror Writers Association, please visit https://horror.org/. For more information about the Bram Stoker Awards® and our other awards, please visit http://www.thebramstokerawards.com.

Hodge, Jamal

Nominations:

The Dark Between the Twilight (Crystal Lake Publishing), Poetry Collection, 2024

BIO: Jamal is a Bram Stoker Award Nominated Writer and multi-award-winning filmmaker.  An active member of the HWA and SFPA, Hodge has earned Rhysling Award nominations in 2021 and 2022, 2024 with his poem “Colony” winning 2nd place at the 2022 Dwarf Stars. His book, The Dark Between the Twilight, debuted as the #1 hot new American Poetry Release in June 2024. His anthology, Bestiary of Blood: Modern Fables & Dark Tales, launched as the #1 New Horror Anthology Release on Amazon from Crystal Lake Publishing. His newest poetry book, Everything Endless, is a collaboration with Grand Master Linda D. Addison, published by Raw Dog Screaming Press.

Parker, Natalie C.

NOMINATIONS:

Come Out, Come Out (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), Young Adult Novel, 2024

BIO: Natalie C. Parker is the acclaimed author and editor of several books for young readers including the award-winning Seafire series and the Indie Bestselling anthology Vampires Never Get Old. Her work has been included on the NPR Best Books List, the Indie Next List, the TAYSHAS Reading List, and in Junior Library Guild selections. 

In addition to writing, Natalie runs Madcap Retreats, partnering with organizations like We Need Diverse Books and Reese’s Book Club to offer workshops and retreats on a national scale. She also develops intellectual property for Electric Postcard Entertainment where she focuses on building a list of queer speculative fiction.

Natalie grew up in a navy family finding home in coastal cities from Virginia to Japan. Now, she lives with her wife on the Kansas prairie.

Jakubowski, Raven

NOMINATIONS:

“She Sheds Her Skin” (Nightmare Magazine November 2024) (Adamant Press), Short Fiction, 2024

BIO: Raven Jakubowski is a Dwarf Stars nominated and Rhysling longlisted writer whose work has appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Star*Line among others. Raven is a member of Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers and an associate member of SFWA. A tailor by trade and writer by vocation, Raven lives in New York City.