2018 Silver Hammer Award Winner – Jess Landry

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce that Jess Landry has been chosen for the 2018 Silver Hammer Award. The HWA presents the Silver Hammer Award in recognition of extraordinary volunteerism by a member who dedicates valuable time and effort to the organization. The award is determined by HWA’s Board of Trustees.

Working as Head Compiler, Jess is a key member of HWA’s Bram Stoker Awards® Committee. The Head Compiler is responsible for checking every work that is recommended by a member. She adds links to works for authors/publishers/editors that are on the HWA’s Recommended Reading List, often answering hundreds of emails throughout the year regarding works. As a part of the Awards Committee, the Head Compiler is expected to write the Co-Chairs should an issue arise and give input regarding the matter, as well as giving input throughout the year as we continuously strive to improve the system. The Recommendations branch of the binary awards system wouldn’t work without her hard work and dedication. 

She also works in Membership Outreach, contacting dozens of new authors every year to invite them to join the organization.

Upon being informed of the award, Jess commented, “When I first joined the HWA in 2014, I had no idea what I was getting into or what kind of people I would encounter, but when the opportunity to volunteer arose shortly after I became a member, I jumped at the chance. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to lurk behind the scenes with some fantastic folks and have come to appreciate all the hard work that goes into maintaining our close-knit community. It takes everyone working together to make the HWA run as smoothly as it does, so I’m truly honoured to have been selected for the 2018 Silver Hammer Award. And it’s a good thing all I have to do is type this, because I’m honest-to-Jeebus speechless. Thank you!”

From the day she was born, Jess Landry has always been attracted to the darker things in life. Her fondest childhood memories included getting nightmares from the Goosebumps books, watching The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, and reiterating to her parents that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her mental state. Since then, Jess’s fiction has appeared in many anthologies, including Twice-Told: A Collection of Doubles, Monsters of Any Kind, Where Nightmares Come From, Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road, and Fantastic Tales of Terror (which features her Bram Stoker Award® -nominated short story, “Mutter”), among others. You can visit her on the interwebs at jesslandry.com, though your best bet at finding her is on Facebook (facebook.com/jesslandry28), where she often posts cat gifs and references Jurassic Park way too much.