Horror’s premier literary award
Awards:
Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken. (Yuriko Publishing), First Novel, 2021
A Collection of Dreamscapes (Raw Dog Screaming Press), Poetry Collection, 2020
A Collection of Nightmares (Raw Dog Screaming Press), Poetry Collection, 2017
Nominations:
The Gravity of Existence (Interstellar Flight Press), Poetry Collection, 2022
“Final Girl: A Life in Horror” (Interstellar Flight Magazine, October 2020), Short Non-Fiction, 2020
Awards:
Richard Laymon President’s Award, 2009
Unspeakable Horror, Anthology, 2008
Nominations:
“The Horror of Donna Berzatto and Her Feast of the Seven Fishes” (You’re Not Alone in the Dark) (Cemetery Dance Publications), Short Non-Fiction, 2024
“Slasher Films Made Me Gay: The Queer Appeal and Subtext of the Genre” (LGBTQ+ Horror Month: 9/1/2019, Ginger Nuts of Horror), Short Non-Fiction, 2019
Author Website: www.VinceLiaguno.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vince.liaguno
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vinceliaguno/BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/vinceliaguno.bsky.social
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/VinceLiagunoBIO: Vince Liaguno is the Bram Stoker Award®-winning editor of Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (Dark Scribe Press 2008), an anthology of queer horror fiction, which he co-edited with Chad Helder. Other notable works include Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology (William Morrow Paperbacks, 2022), an anthology of short fiction that he co-edited with Rena Mason. That collection received widespread critical acclaim, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus Reviews. It was nominated for both the Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy Awards.
His debut novel, 2006’s The Literary Six, was a tribute to the slasher films of the 80’s and won an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) for Horror and was named a finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards.
Most recently, he released his debut poetry collection, Demo Reels and Arthouse Madness (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2025).
Healthcare administrator by day, pop culture enthusiast by night, his jam: books, slasher films, and Jamie Lee Curtis. He is a member—and former Secretary—of the Horror Writers Association, International Thriller Writers (ITW) and the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC). Vince currently resides in the mitten-shaped state of Michigan with his husband and dogs.
Awards:
“The Eight People Who Murdered Me (Excerpt from Lucy Westenra’s Diary)” (Nightmare Magazine Nov. 2019, Issue 86), Short Fiction, 2019
“Magic, Madness, and Women Who Creep: The Power of Individuality in the Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman” (Vastarien: A Literary Journal Vol. 2, Issue 1), Short Non-Fiction, 2019
The Rust Maidens (Trepidatio Publishing), First Novel, 2018
Nominations:
The Haunting of Velkwood (S&S/Saga Press), Novel, 2024
Reluctant Immortals (Saga Press), Novel, 2022
The Invention of Ghosts (Nightscape Press), Long Fiction, 2020
And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe (JournalStone), Fiction Collection, 2017
BIO: Gwendolyn Kiste is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, Boneset & Feathers, Pretty Marys All in a Row, and The Haunting of Velkwood. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in outlets including Lit Hub, Nightmare, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, CrimeReads, Tor Nightfire, The Lineup, and The Dark. She’s a Lambda Literary Award winner, and her fiction has also received the This Is Horror award for Novel of the Year as well as nominations for the Premios Kelvin, Ignotus, and Dragon Awards. Originally from Ohio, she now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, their excitable calico cat, and not nearly enough ghosts. Find her online at gwendolynkiste.com
Awards:
Proverbs for Monsters, Fiction Collection, 2007
Freakcidents, Poetry Collection, 2005
The Goreletter (email newsletter), Alternative Forms, 2003
Grave Markings, First Novel, 1994
Nominations:
“Screamin’ in the Rain: The Orchestration of Catharsis in William Castle’s The Tingler“ (What Sleeps Beneath), Short Non-fiction, 2024
100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories, Fiction Collection, 2004
The Goreletter, Alternative Forms, 2004
Gorelets: Unpleasant Poems, Poetry Collection, 2003
Paratabloids, Poetry Collection, 2000
Arnzen has been an active HWA member since the late 1980s and continues explore the weirdness through his writing. Follow him on twitter at @MikeArnzen to stay updated and to get strange poems when you least expect them. Extended biographical information and his award-winning newsletter, The Goreletter, is also available at: http://gorelets.com/about-michael-a-arnzen/
BIO: Amityville-born horror writer Michael Arnzen currently holds four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his often funny, always disturbing fiction and poetry. Aside from his novels, Grave Markings and Play Dead, the short-story collections Proverbs for Monsters and 100 Jolts: Shockingly Short Stories collect the best of the minimalist horror and speculative flash fiction that he is especially known for. Always experimenting, Arnzen’s work in the genre has appeared in everything from poetry magnets (Fridge of the Damned) and Palm Pilots (Gorelets) to playing cards (Play Dead) and moving pictures (Exquisite Corpse). He has also run a small press outfit called called Mastication Publications since 1991.
Arnzen holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Oregon and since 1999 has taught fulltime at Seton Hill University, near Pittsburgh, in their MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction. He has mentored writers in the HWA and has taught sessions at many genre writing retreats, from Odyssey to Alpha. He also has written helpful books for writers, including, Instigation: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side and, as co-editor, Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction.
