The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

Black Feathers Alison Littlewood

Final Verse Chet Williamson

In the Absence of Murdock Terry Lamsley

You Become the Neighborhood Glen Hirshberg

In Paris, In the Mouth of Kronos John Langan

Little Pig Anna Taborska

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine Peter Straub

Honorable Mentions

About the Authors

SUMMATION 2011

Introduction

Ellen Datlow

The eighteen stories and novelettes chosen this year were published in anthologies, magazines, a webzine, single author collections, and a literary journal. The writers live in the United States, Australia, England, The Netherlands, and Canada. Six stories are by writers I’ve never published before, and coincidentally those writers are all female.

Some of the best short horror fiction I read during 2011 was between 9,500 and 16,000 words. Unfortunately, because of space considerations I was only able to take six lengthy stories. But I’d like to make special note of those that I couldn’t take and suggest that readers get hold of them: “The Men from Porlock” and “The Siphon” by Laird Barron, “Ghosts with Teeth” by Peter Crowther, “A Child’s Problem” by Reggie Oliver, and “Near Zennor” by Elizabeth Hand.

AWARDS

The Bram Stoker Awards for Achievement in Horror are given by the Horror Writers Association. The awards for material appearing during 2010 were presented at the organization’s annual banquet held Saturday evening, June 18, 2011 in Uniondale, New York.

2010 Winners for Superior Achievement:

Novel: A Dark Matter by Peter Straub (Doubleday/Orion Books); First Novel (Tie): Black and Orange by Benjamin Kane Ethridge (Bad Moon Books) and The Castle of Los Angeles by Lisa Morton (Gray Friar Press); Long Fiction: Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss (Cemetery Dance Publications); Short Fiction: “The Folding Man” by Joe R. Lansdale (from Haunted Legends); Anthology: Haunted Legends edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas (Tor); Fiction Collection: Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster); Non-Fiction: To Each Their Darkness by Gary A. Braunbeck (Apex Publications); Poetry Collection: Dark Matters by Bruce Boston (Bad Moon Books).

HWA also presented its annual Lifetime Achievement Awards and its Specialty Press Award. I was on hand to accept my Lifetime Achievement Award, which I shared this year with Al Feldstein. The Specialty Press Award went to Joe Morey of Dark Regions Press.

The Silver Hammer Award, for outstanding service to HWA, was voted by the organization’s board of trustees to Angel Leigh McCoy. The President’s Richard Laymon Service Award was given to Michael Colangelo.

The Shirley Jackson Award, recognizing the legacy of Jackson’s writing, and with permission of her estate, was established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. The awards were announced at Readercon 22, July 17, 2011 held in Burlington, Massachusetts.

The winners for the best work in 2010: Novel: Mr. Shivers, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit); Novella: “Mysterium Tremendum,” Laird Barron (Occultation, Night Shade Books); Novelette: “Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains,” Neil Gaiman (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow); Short Story: “The Things,” Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, Issue 40); Single-Author Collection: Occultation, Laird Barron (Night Shade Books); Edited Anthology: Stories: All New Tales, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio (William Morrow).

The World Fantasy Awards were announced October 30, 2011 at the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego, California. Lifetime Achievement recipients Peter S. Beagle and Angélica Gorodischer were previously announced.

Winners for the best work in 2010: Novel: Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death (DAW); Novella: Elizabeth Hand, “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” (Stories: All-New Tales); Short Story: Joyce Carol Oates, “Fossil-Figures” (Stories: All-New Tales); Anthology: Kate Bernheimer, ed., My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (Penguin); Collection: Karen Joy Fowler, What I Didn’t See and Other Stories (Small Beer Press); Artist: Kinuko Y. Craft; Special Award — Professional: Marc Gascoigne, for Angry Robot; Special Award — Non-professional: Alisa Krasnostein, for Twelfth Planet Press.

NOTABLE NOVELS OF 2011