The finalists for the second annual Shirley Jackson Awards—for writers of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic—have been announced. The winners will be announced on Sunday 12 July at Readercon 20 in Burlington, Massachusetts, in a ceremony hosted by Readercon Guest of Honor (and last year’s Shirley Jackson Award Novel winner) Elizabeth Hand.
This year’s nominees are:
Novel:
Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst (published by Riverhead)
The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow)
Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
The Resurrectionist by Jack O’Connell (Algonquin)
The Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem (Wizards of the Coast Discoveries)
Novella:
The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti by Stephen Graham Jones (Chiasmus Press)
“N” by Stephen King (published in Just After Sunset, Scribner)
Disquiet by Julia Leigh (Penguin/Hamish Hamilton)
“Dormitory” by Yoko Ogawa (The Diving Pool, Picador)
Living With the Dead by Darrell Schweitzer (PS Publishing)
Novelette:
“The Lagerstatte” by Laird Barron (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Del Rey)
“Pride and Prometheus” by John Kessel (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 2008)
“Hunger Moon” by Deborah Noyes (The Ghosts of Kerfol, Candlewick Press)
“Penguins of the Apocalypse” by William Browning Spencer (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, Subterranean Press)
The Situation by Jeff Vandermeer (PS Publishing)
Short Story:
“The Pile” by Michael Bishop (Subterranean Online, Winter 2008)
“Intertropical Convergence Zone” by Nadia Bulkin (ChiZine #37)
“The Dinner Party” by Joshua Ferris (The New Yorker, 11 August 2008)
“The Inner City” by Karen Heuler (Cemetery Dance #58)
“Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter’s Personal Account” by M. Rickert (F&SF, October/November 2008)
“68° 07′ 15″ N, 31° 36′ 44″ W” by Conrad Williams (Fast Ships, Black Sails, Night Shade Books)
Collection:
A Better Angel by Chris Adrian (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
The Girl on the Fridge by Etgar Keret (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
Just After Sunset by Stephen King (Scribner)
Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser (Knopf)
Wild Nights! by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco)
The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa (Picador)
Anthology:
Bound for Evil edited by Tom English (Dead Letter Press)
The New Uncanny edited by Sarah Eyre and Ra Page (Comma Press)
Exotic Gothic 2: New Tales of Taboo edited by Danel Olson (Ash-Tree Press)
Shades of Darkness edited by Barbara and Christopher Roden (Ash-Tree Press)
Fast Ships, Black Sails edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Night Shade Books)