The 2010 Shirley Jackson Awards were presented on Sunday, July 17th 2011, at Readercon 22, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts.
The Shirley Jackson Awards website describes the award this way:
In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
Best Novel
Remember, click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.
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Mr. ShiversAuthor: Bennett, Robert Jackson |
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Winner of the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel It is the time of the Great Depression. Thousands have left their homes looking for a better life, a new life. But Marcus Connelly is not one of them. He searches for one thing, and one thing only: Revenge. Because out there, riding the rails, stalking the camps, is the scarred vagrant who murdered Connelly’s daughter. One man must face a dark truth and answer the question — how much is he willing to sacrifice for his satisfaction? |
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Best Novella
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“Mysterium Tremendum”Author: Barron, Laird |
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Winner of the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novella Laird Barron has emerged as one of the strongest voices in modern horror and dark fantasy fiction, building on the eldritch tradition pioneered by writers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Thomas Ligotti. His stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards. His debut collection, The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, was the inaugural winner of the shirley Jackson award. Laird Barron returns with his second collection, Occultation and Other Stories. pitting ordinary men and women against a carnivorous, chaotic cosmos, Occultation‘s nine tales of terror (three never before published) include the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson award-nominated story “The Forest” and Shirley Jackson award nominee “The Lagerstatte.” Featuring an introduction by Michael Shea, Occultation brings more of the spine-chillingly sublime cosmic horror Laird Barron’s fans have come to expect. Table of Contents:
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Best Novelette
Remember, click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.
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“Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains”Author: Gaiman, Neil |
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Winner of the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novelette This astonishing collection of all-new tales by some of the most acclaimed writers at work today is called, simply, Stories. Edited by Neil Gaiman (Sandman, The Graveyard Book, Anansi Boys, Coraline) and Al Sarrantonio (award-winning author of forty books and editor of numerous collections), Stories presents never before published short works from a veritable Who’s Who of contemporary literature—breathtaking inventions from the likes of Lawrence Block, Roddy Doyle, Joanne Harris, Joe Hill, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, Stewart O’Nan, Chuck Palahniuk, Carolyn Parkhurst, Jodi Picoult, Peter Straub . . . and, of course, the inimitable Neil Gaiman himself. Another Summary: From the Jacket Flaps The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more — to find the answer to the question: “And then what happened?” The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal. Stories is a groundbreaking anthology that reinvigorates, expands, and redefines the limits of imaginative fiction and affords some of the best writers in the world — from Peter Straub and Chuck Palahniuk to Roddy Doyle and Diana Wynne Jones, Stewart O’Nan and Joyce Carol Oates to Walter Mosley and Jodi Picoult — the opportunity to work together, defend their craft, and realign misconceptions. Gaiman, a literary magician whose acclaimed work defies easy categorization and transcends all boundaries, and “master anthologist” (Booklist) Sarrantonio personally invited, read, and selected all the stories in this collection, and their standard for this “new literature of the imagination” is high. “We wanted to read stories that used a lightning-flash of magic as a way of showing us something we have already seen a thousand times as if we have never seen it at all.” Joe Hill boldly aligns theme and form in his disturbing tale of a man’s descent into evil in “Devil on the Staircase.” In “Catch and Release,” Lawrence Block tells of a seasoned fisherman with a talent for catching a bite of another sort. Carolyn Parkhurst adds a dark twist to sibling rivalry in “Unwell.” Joanne Harris weaves a tale of ancient gods in modern New York in “Wildfire in Manhattan.” Vengeance is the heart of Richard Adams’s “The Knife.” Jeffery Deaver introduces a dedicated psychologist whose mission in life is to save people in “The Therapist.” A chilling punishment befitting an unspeakable crime is at the dark heart of Neil Gaiman’s novelette “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains.” As it transforms your view of the world, this brilliant and visionary volume — sure to become a classic — will ignite a new appreciation for the limitless realm of exceptional fiction. Table of Contents:
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Best Short Story
Remember, click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.
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“The Things”Author: Watts, Peter |
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Winner of the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Short Story Click on the magazine cover above to read the story directly from the Internet. Clarkesworld Magazine is a Hugo Award-winning and World Fantasy Award-nominated science fiction and fantasy magazine. This issue features fiction by Peter Watts (“The Things”) and Megan Arkenberg, an interview with Lucius Shepard, and an article on video game science fiction by Brian Trent. Table of Contents:
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Best Single-Author Collection
Remember, click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.
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Occultation and Other StoriesAuthor: Barron, Laird |
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Winner of the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Single-Author Collection Laird Barron has emerged as one of the strongest voices in modern horror and dark fantasy fiction, building on the eldritch tradition pioneered by writers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Thomas Ligotti. His stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards. His debut collection, The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, was the inaugural winner of the shirley Jackson award. Laird Barron returns with his second collection, Occultation and Other Stories. pitting ordinary men and women against a carnivorous, chaotic cosmos, Occultation‘s nine tales of terror (three never before published) include the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson award-nominated story “The Forest” and Shirley Jackson award nominee “The Lagerstatte.” Featuring an introduction by Michael Shea, Occultation brings more of the spine-chillingly sublime cosmic horror Laird Barron’s fans have come to expect. Table of Contents:
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Edited Anthology
Remember, click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.
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Stories: All-New TalesEditors: Gaiman, Neil and Al Sarrantonio |
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Winner of the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Edited Anthology This astonishing collection of all-new tales by some of the most acclaimed writers at work today is called, simply, Stories. Edited by Neil Gaiman (Sandman, The Graveyard Book, Anansi Boys, Coraline) and Al Sarrantonio (award-winning author of forty books and editor of numerous collections), Stories presents never before published short works from a veritable Who’s Who of contemporary literature—breathtaking inventions from the likes of Lawrence Block, Roddy Doyle, Joanne Harris, Joe Hill, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, Stewart O’Nan, Chuck Palahniuk, Carolyn Parkhurst, Jodi Picoult, Peter Straub . . . and, of course, the inimitable Neil Gaiman himself. Another Summary: From the Jacket Flaps The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more — to find the answer to the question: “And then what happened?” The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal. Stories is a groundbreaking anthology that reinvigorates, expands, and redefines the limits of imaginative fiction and affords some of the best writers in the world — from Peter Straub and Chuck Palahniuk to Roddy Doyle and Diana Wynne Jones, Stewart O’Nan and Joyce Carol Oates to Walter Mosley and Jodi Picoult — the opportunity to work together, defend their craft, and realign misconceptions. Gaiman, a literary magician whose acclaimed work defies easy categorization and transcends all boundaries, and “master anthologist” (Booklist) Sarrantonio personally invited, read, and selected all the stories in this collection, and their standard for this “new literature of the imagination” is high. “We wanted to read stories that used a lightning-flash of magic as a way of showing us something we have already seen a thousand times as if we have never seen it at all.” Joe Hill boldly aligns theme and form in his disturbing tale of a man’s descent into evil in “Devil on the Staircase.” In “Catch and Release,” Lawrence Block tells of a seasoned fisherman with a talent for catching a bite of another sort. Carolyn Parkhurst adds a dark twist to sibling rivalry in “Unwell.” Joanne Harris weaves a tale of ancient gods in modern New York in “Wildfire in Manhattan.” Vengeance is the heart of Richard Adams’s “The Knife.” Jeffery Deaver introduces a dedicated psychologist whose mission in life is to save people in “The Therapist.” A chilling punishment befitting an unspeakable crime is at the dark heart of Neil Gaiman’s novelette “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains.” As it transforms your view of the world, this brilliant and visionary volume — sure to become a classic — will ignite a new appreciation for the limitless realm of exceptional fiction. Table of Contents:
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So, what do you think? Love them? Hate them? Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments below.
This post was originally published in a slightly altered form at Horror Books with the Undead Rat.
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