HWA Stoker Awards Banquet 2009
The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Stoker Award
Weekend, June 12-14, 2009 at the Burbank
Marriott Hotel, near Los Angeles. The weekend will include workshops,
seminars and pitch sessions, and, of course, the 22nd Annual Presentation
of the Bram Stoker Awards for excellence in dark fiction.
HWA is honored to announce that the first special Guest of Honor for the
2009 Stoker Awards Event will be John Farris, author of many horror
classics including The Fury and almost 40 other books, and prior recipient
of HWA's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Returning as Master of Ceremonies will be the funniest man in horror, Jeff
Strand. Jeff was MC for the 2007 Stoker Awards presentation and is also
author of the Stoker-nominated book Pressure, as well as many others.
Other guests will be announced soon, and registration will begin in early fall.
Early in the year, nominees for the 2009 Awards will be voted on by HWA members
and then announced in late March or early April. On the evening of June 14th,
the awards will be presented. The HWA also also bestows a yearly Lifetime
Achievement Award in acknowledgment of superior achievement over a career.
Previous winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Stephen King and
Anne Rice.
The Bram Stoker Awards presentation has not been a stand-alone event since
2006. Tickets for the event and banquet will be sold on a first-come, first-served
basis, and will be available to anyone who wants to attend the banquet. However, please note that anybody who only wants to attend the banquet will be able to purchase a banquet-only ticket.
For further information, please contact John
Little.
President's Message
While attending WHC 2008, we had the opportunity to meet with
the World Horror Society group and express our concerns about the chosen
location (Winnipeg) for WHC 2009. Some of the concerns noted were the
remoteness of the location and expense to travel there—the inherent problems
with customs for dealers and/or authors wanting to bring books over the
border—and the fact that the date scheduled for WHC 2009 fell on the same
weekend as the Edgar Awards Banquet. Although the Edgar banquet has nothing
to do with HWA, quite a few of our members are also active members of
MWA, and the Edgar awards is something they won’t miss. Along with these
issues came an even bigger concern—I didn’t want to commit our Stoker
event in ’09 to WHS nor to the folks coordinating that year’s World Horror
Convention, then have very few of our members show up. Without question,
that would spell financial disaster for our organization and theirs.
To get past all these challenges, HWA’s board has decided to do a stand-alone event in Los Angeles in 2009. John Little, HWA’s Stoker Coordinator, has offered to spearhead this project, along with Lisa Morton. They’re currently in negotiations with the Burbank Airport Marriott (formerly the Hilton) and are considering a date in either May or June of 2009. This will be a weekend event, which will include workshops, panels, signings, and, of course, the Stoker Banquet.
Although HWA will not be tied to a World Horror Convention in 2009, that doesn’t mean we aren’t committed to making an alliance between the organizations work whenever possible. We have our fingers crossed that WHC 2010 will be in a location mutually beneficial to both orgs.
I’d like to thank John and Lisa for their willingness to help in this venture, and I hope all of you will come out to L.A. next year and show your support!
