Shirley Jackson finalists!

[psocoptera]

The Shirley Jackson Awards, an award I follow despite not being that into horror because they present them at Readercon, a con I go to despite not being that into cons? Online this year, and I suppose I'll pay my $25 to "attend" and then probably not actually attend anything. But, anyways! Finalists here (I can't find a specific link to the list other than the front page), or behind the cut.

NOVEL

Sisters by Daisy Johnson (Jonathan Cape)
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press)
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey / Penguin Random House)
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth (William Morrow)
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press, Gallery Books)
True Story by Kate Reed Petty (Viking)

I've read Mexican Gothic and am rooting for it!

NOVELLA

The Best of Both Worlds by S. P. Miskowski (Trepidatio Publishing)
History of an Executioner by Clancy McGilligan (Miami University Press)
Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones (Tordotcom Publishing)
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom Publishing)
Agatha’s Barn: A Carpenter’s Farm Story by Michael Bailey (Written Backwards)
Her Mad Song by C J Halbard (Man on Fire Press)

I've read Ring Shout and am very much rooting for it!

NOVELETTE

“I Will Find You, Even in the Dark” by Jessica Landry (Dim Shores Presents Vol. 1)
Many Restless Concerns: The Victims of Countess Bathory Speak in Chorus (A Testimony) by Gayle Brandeis (Black Lawrence Press)
The Attic Tragedy by J. Ashley-Smith Meerkat Press)
Faith by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Granta)
“Heritage Hill” by Matthew R. Davis (Outback Horrors Down Under: An Anthology of Antipodean Terrors)
“Pale Toes” by Marko Hautala, translated by Sanna Terho (The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories)
“Señor Ligotti” by Bernardo Esquinca, translated by James D. Jenkins (The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories)

I haven't read any of these!

SHORT FICTION

“Holes” by R.A. Busby (Graveyard Smash: Women of Horror Anthology Vol.2 collection)
Graceful Burdens by Roxane Gay (Amazon Original Stories)
“Isn’t Your Daughter Such a Doll” by Tobi Ogundiran (Shoreline of Infinity 18)
“Not the Man I Married” by R. A. Busby (Black Petals Issue #93 Autumn, 2020)
“Room and Board Included, Demonology Extra” by Eden Royce (Broken Eye Books)
“The Memory Game” by Franki Haber (The Gravity of the Thing)

I haven't read any of these either!

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

Settling the World: Selected Stories by M. John Harrison (Comma Press)
Mannequin and Wife by Jen Fawkes (LSU Press)
Thin Places by Kay Chronister (Undertow Publications)
Velocities: Stories by Kathe Koja (Meerkat Press)
Moonflower, Nightshade, All the Hours of the Day by JD Scott (Lake Forest College Press)
Aftermath of an Industrial Accident: Stories by Mike Allen (Mythic Delirium Books)

These neither! Normally I would root for an author who is present at the ceremony - it's always exciting when someone actually gets to win in person - but heck knows what that means in the era of online. I feel like all the nominees should be invited to watch (it's going to be prerecorded) even if they're not attending the con.

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

After Sundown, edited by Mark Morris (Flame Tree Press)
Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, edited by Lee Murray & Geneve Flynn (Omnium Gatherum)
Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors, edited by Doug Murano & Michael Bailey (Written Backwards)
The Night Bazaar Venice: Thirteen Tales of Forbidden Wishes and Dangerous Desires, edited by Lenore Hart (Northampton House Press)
Lullabies for Suffering: Tales of Addiction Horror, edited by Mark Matthews (Wicked Run Press)
Shadows & Tall Trees, Vol. 8, edited by Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications)
Tiny Nightmares, edited by Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto (Catapult)

I don't actually want to read a horror anthology but "Unquiet Women" and "Dangerous Desires" are good themes.

Comments

[vardibidian]

I read Plain Bad Heroines and it was... good? Interesting? I read it all the way through, anyway, and there were plenty of things I liked about it, if the horror was a little too horror-y for me. Very meta, very queer, very funny in places, very creepy in different places.

The only other thing on the list that I've looked at, I think, was Ring Shout, which I didn't finish, mostly because it got too horror-y for me, to the point where my pleasure in the good writing and some of the ideas was overcome by my reluctance to re-open the book and experience dread. Which is too bad, in a way, since it was clearly (a) an impressive story, and (2) going to be talked about a lot and be up for a bunch of awards. Ah, well.

Thanks,
-V.

[psocoptera]

As a person who mostly doesn't read horror, I am very sympathetic to the non-reading of it! I think authorial trust does a lot of work for me, that I feel like I have some sense of the kind of story that Clark (or Ursula Vernon, someone else whose horror I'm willing to read) likes to tell, or the sort of feeling that he is or isn't willing to leave the reader with.