The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced three of their non-voted awards. The awards ceremony will take place during the Bram Stoker Awards Weekend (16-19 June on Long Island, New York).
The winner of the 2010 Specialty Press Award is Dark Regions Press. This award “recognizes a publisher outside the mainstream New York City publishing community that specializes in dark-themed fiction. Winners are typically small presses specializing in limited editions, small print runs, or the work of new and relatively unknown authors. The winner of the award is determined by a majority vote of the HWA Board of Trustees.”
HWA’s Lisa Morton writes “Joe Morey’s Dark Regions Press emphasizes horror, publishing novels, novellas, single-author collections, and poetry. They publish both finely-bound limited editions and trade editions, and their authors have included Michael A. Arnzen, Bruce Boston, Angeline Hawkes, Charlee Jacob, Scott Nicholson, Stephen Mark Rainey, Tony Richards, Gord Rollo, Steven Savile, Harry Shannon, David B. Silva, Marge Simon, Jeff Strand, and David Niall Wilson, among many others.
“Dark Regions was started by Morey in 1985, and their books have since won numerous awards. They’ve also published several periodicals, including Dark Regions magazine.”
The 2010 Silver Hammer Award is being awarded to Angel Leigh McCoy. The Hammer Award is given periodically to an HWA volunteer who has “done a truly massive amount of work for the organization, often unsung and behind the scenes. It was instituted in 1996, and is decided by a vote of HWA’s Board of Trustees.”
“Angel McCoy currently oversees HWA’s Dark Whispers blog, which promotes members’ books to hundreds of librarians, booksellers, and readers; under Angel’s management, the blog has been redesigned to include a Twitter feed, making it even more popular and timely. Angel also built and oversees HWA’s Wiki, on which members can promote their accomplishments and their books, and she works behind the scenes with HWA’s web team to ensure that the organization’s massive website is as up-to-date and streamlined as possible.”
The Richard Laymon President’s Award for Service was instituted in 2000 and is named in honor of Richard Laymon, who died in 2000 while serving as HWA’s President. As its name implies, it is given by HWA’s sitting President. The award is presented to a volunteer who has served HWA in an especially exemplary manner and has shown extraordinary dedication to the organization.
HWA’s current President, Rocky Wood, has chosen Michael Colangelo to receive the 2010 Richard Laymon Award. Michael serves as HWA’s Membership Chairman, overseeing applications of both new members and of upgrades for current members. “Michael Colangelo soldiers away every week working almost invisibly to keep the turnstiles to the park that is HWA open,” Wood said. “Dealing with new member applications and verifying membership levels for those new members is far from glamorous but also absolutely vital and Michael completes the task with a suitably diplomatic hand. For that I as President and our entire membership show our respect by bestowing the Richard Laymon Award.”
Related articles previously published on SFScope:
HWA names Ellen Datlow and Al Feldstein 2011 LIfetime Achievement Award winners (22 March 2011)