17th Annual Bram Stoker Award Winners Announced

Posted on June 11, 2004

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) honored excellence in horror, suspense and dark fantasy by presenting this year's Bram Stoker Awards at its annual banquet ceremony in New York. Bestselling author Peter Straub was on hand to receive the night's top honor in the Novel category with last year's lost boy lost girl.

"The active members of the HWA consider hundreds of works annually, and the new talent emerging year by year is just overwhelming," said Joe Nassise, President of the Horror Writers Association. "For those writers who take home the Stoker, it is an acknowledgement by their peers that they have created a work that is truly outstanding."

Others honored at the banquet included Brian Keene for his first novel, The Rising; Jack Ketchum took home awards for his story "Closing Time" and his fiction collection Peaceable Kingdom; Gary A. Braunbeck was awarded for his story "Duty;" Tom and Elizabeth Monteleone received the Bram Stoker Award for the anthology Borderlands 5, and Mr. Monteleone won a second award for his non-fiction collection The Mothers and Fathers Italian Association; Neil Gaiman received the Illustrated Narrative award for The Sandman: Endless Nights; J. K. Rowling won for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; indie filmmaker Don Coscarelli took home an award for his Bubba-Ho Tep screenplay; Bruce Boston received the award in poetry; and Michael Arnzen was honored in Alternate Forms for his work "The Goreletter."

In conjunction with this year's awards, the Horror Writers Association held a benefit auction for legendary author and editor Charles L. Grant, who has been hospitalized indefinitely with severe cardiopulmonary disease and emphysema. Contributors included Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Peter Straub and Leisure Books. The event raised over $10,000 for Mr. Grant.

This year, the Horror Writers Association presented Lifetime Achievement awards to both bestselling author Anne Rice and to award-winning editor Martin H. Greenberg. Anne Rice is the author of more than 26 novels, including the bestselling Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches series. Martin H. Greenberg has published over 900 works in virtually every genre.

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a worldwide organization of writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it. HWA was formed in the late 1980's with the help of many of the field's greats, including Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, and Joe R. Lansdale.