The International Horror Guild (IHG)announced the winners of their thirteenth annual awards this evening, the first night of the World Fantasy Convention.
Award administrator Paula Guran introduced the festivities with a brief description of the IHG. She noted that the awards are overseen by a non-profit corporation, The Mirabundus Project, and that donations are accepted and welcomed.
Artist John Picacio, himself a nominee this year, served as master of ceremonies for a second time, having previously done such a good job that he felt the awards ceremony broke the land speed record. He felt his role was to best his record time so that all could adjourn to the bar, but several acceptors seemed (jokingly, but verbosely) opposed to the idea.
Picacio stepped back for the presentation of the first award, Art (which is given for a specific work or exhibition), since he was a nominee. Guran read the list of nominees, and announced that the winner was a tie: Aeron Alfrey for Exhibits from the Imaginary Museum and John Picacio for Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio, published by MonkeyBrain Books. Guran accepted on behalf of Alfrey, and Picacio accepted his own award, noting that he’d earlier been asked what he thought his chances of winning were. He said he seriously doubted he’d win, since he couldn’t imagine the IHG putting him in such a position. He was happily wrong.
The award for Illustrated Narrative went to Lewis Trondheim for A.L.I.E.E.N., published in France by Editions Breal and in the US by Firstsecond Books. Paul Stevens of Tor Books (a sister company of Firstsecond) accepted on his behalf.
The award for Nonfiction was given to S.T. Joshi for editing Icons of Horror and the Supernatural, published by Greenwood Press. He jokingly noted that his win was a shoe-in, since Guran and two of the judges had contributed to the book.
The award for Periodical went to Subterranean edited by William Schaefer.
The Anthology award was given to William Sheehan and Bill Schafer for editing Lords of the Razor, published by Subterranean Press. Ellen Datlow accepted on their behalf.
The Single Author Collection award was a tie, going to Terry Dowling for Basic Black (published by Cemetery Dance) and Glen Hirshberg for American Morons (published by Earthling). Datlow accepted for Dowling, reading a brief acceptance speech. Barbara Roden read a long, eloquent speech of thanks and acceptance on Hirshberg’s behalf.
The award for Short Fiction went to Stephen Gallagher for “The Box” (published in Retro-Pulp Tales). Datlow again accepted, reading Gallagher’s message which said, in part “being part of such company [the nominees] is reward enough, but winning is kind of nice, too.”
The Mid-Length Fiction Award went to Paul Finch for “The Old North Road” (published in Alone on the Darkside). Chris Roden accepted the award for him, and noted that Finch used to be a policeman in Manchester, England, “so you know where he gets his dark thoughts.”
The award for Long Fiction went to Norman Partridge for Dark Harvest (published by CD Publications). Jeremy Lassen of Night Shade Books accepted his award, reading Partridge’s speech in which he said “Dark Harvest is my love letter to Halloween, and it looks like the IHG wrote me one back.”
The Novel award went to Conrad Williams for The Unblemished (published by Earthling), and though Graham Joyce was scheduled to accept, he wasn’t present, so Lassen again accepted.
Following these awards, Jo Fletcher gave a heartfelt, admiring introduction to Living Legend recipient Ramsey Campbell. Campbell dressed up for the occasion in an H.P. Lovecraft t-shirt. He gave an obviously joyful and appreciative speech, noting that he had visited a local Borders bookstore earlier in the day, and did what many writers think of doing in such a store: he asked a clerk “Do you have any books by Ramsey Campbell?” She responded “Is he an author?”
Campbell then went on to talk about his career as built on the fact that he was in the right place at the right time. He remembered his first book, a collection of H.P. Lovecraft-type stories, published by Arkham House when he was 15, and how he received a detailed editorial letter pointing out many flaws in his early drafts; flaws which he says would be very obvious to anyone reading them today. One of his right place, right time moments came in the 1970s, when he had a horror novel ready to go just as the horror boom was starting.
He said he was lucky to have started reading in the 1950s, when very few horror books were being published, “so I could read nearly everything, and what was available were the classics.” He also remembered reading “The Tell Tale Heart” when he was 6, and Herman Melville’s “Bartleby” (which was one-sixth of an anthology he’d purchased) when he was only 11. He remembers realizing, even then, that the subdued psychological thriller was important. Finally, he said “I hope I’ve entertained you. I’d like to go on entertaining people,” and then riffed on the word entertaining, turning it into something ultimately rather creepy. It was a wonderful performance.
We published the full nominees list in this article.