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 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.
Additionally, Richard Matheson has honored us with his presence. He is a legend in the horror field. His groundbreaking work includes the classic novels I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man, What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return, Hell House, and many others. He’s also written countless short stories - his collections include Mediums Rare - and he is the author of such renowned films as Roger Corman’s House of Usher, Hammer’s The Devil Rides Out and Stephen Spielberg’s Duel. He also wrote numerous episodes of the original series The Twilight Zone, including the famous “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” Matheson is a past winner of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Guest Richard Christian Matheson has carried on his father’s tradition of writing exceptional horror stories and writing successful screenplays. He has published the collections Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks and Dystopia, as well as the novel Created By, and 75 short stories. He has written screenplays for Masters of Horror, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, the feature films Three O'Clock High and Paradise, and the miniseries Sole Survivor. In his capacity as a tv series Executive Producer, he has written and/or produced literally hundreds of episodes.
Artist Guest of Honor Harry O. Morris has been a renowned and critically acclaimed artist in the horror genre since the late eighties. His work has graced the covers of numerous magazines and books, including titles from Scream/Press, Gauntlet, and the Dell Abyss line. He is a World Fantasy Award nominee for best artist and winner of the Small Press Writers of America best artist of the year in 1993. He was the artist Guest of Honor at the first World Horror Convention in Nashville, and we're proud to include him as the Stoker Weekend's first Artist Guest of Honor. You can see more of Harry's work (and purchase prints)
here.
David Hartwell is a senior editor at Tor books. He is one of the most respected editors in the fields of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Since 1996 he has edited the annual Year’s Best SF (with Kathryn Cramer since 2002) and, with Cramer, the annual Year’s Best Fantasy since 2001. He has edited various horror anthologies, including the seminal work The Dark Descent. He is a past winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Hugo award for his editing.
Gary A. Braunbeck is the author of 19 books and over 200 short stories. He is a five-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award (twice for Short Fiction, once for Long Fiction, once for Collection and once for Anthology) and he is a recipient of the International Horror Guild award (for his novella "Kiss of the Mudman"); most recently he was nominated (with co-editor Hank Schwaeble) for the World Fantasy Award in the Anthology category. He is in an adjunct professor at Seton Hill University, and served as President of the Horror Writers Association. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, with renowned science fiction writer and essayist Lucy Snyder. Find him online at www.garybraunbeck.com.
Barry Hoffman is the head of Gauntlet Press, which also includes Edge Books, a line of mass market paperbacks and mass market hardcovers, and Gauntlet Magazine, which is devoted to discussing censorship and the limits of free expression. Gauntlet is one of the leading publishers of fine signed and limited hardcover editions; a past winner of HWA's Specialty Press Award, authors they've published have included Richard Matheson, Richard Christian Matheson, Mick Garris, F. Paul Wilson, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Jack Ketchum, Poppy Z. Brite, and William Peter Blatty. Barry is also the acclaimed author of five novels, including the Stoker- and International Horror Guild-nominated Hungry Eyes, and he's just published his first Young Adult novel, Curse of the Shamra.
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.
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 13th,
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 including scheduling, events and other details, please see the Stoker Awards Weekend page or 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!
